Getae and Dacians? Are they the same? Or is this unknowable?

[Alanus]

This tread appears to almost reach a consensus, perhaps with a few minor details hanging within individual interpretation.

My point is simple. Are Getae and Dacians the same? No, because "Getae" is a "larger" term used by ancient writers is such a fashion that even Jordanes had trouble fathoming it. As for the Goths? The core group, the "power group," was Germanic, perhaps "proto-Gothic" but hailing from geography well above Dacia.

That is why their language was Eastern Germanic. Many Gothic words are incredibly close to Old English or what must have been "Anglo-Saxon." Today in certain sections of Friesia there are speakers of a dialect that still carries Old English words; and Friesia is directly across the short sail to Scandinavia. The proto western Goths-- the Tyrfingi-- named themselves after the "sword of Tyr." It can be no coincedence that Tyr is a very old Scandinavian god, one of the first. Why would a group from a culture far south of Scandia name themselves after a Scandian god if they were not Scandians themselves?

How old was this ruling culture that impinged their language upon client tribes (Dacians, Sarmatians, etc.)? The recurring phrases in their own tongue-- Got, Gut, Guth-- reflect their heritage, as do the ruling classes of Amal and Balth. These endemic phrases can be traced back beyond Tacitus and Pliny to the much earlier Greek writers, back to the 4th century BC and Pytheus. And the same phrases and root words show up in the AD 4th century Bible of Ulfilas. That language did not change appreciably in 800 years. Diegis could be right in stating that some Dacian loan words may have crept into Gothic. They are not discernable, yet we do see the influence of Celtic.

It would be extremely difficult, if properly thought through, for any modern socialologist, historian, or archaeologist to dismiss the long connective heritage of a ruling class that began as Germanic. And they ended as a Germanic elite over what may have been up to a dozen different ethnic groups (including Greeks and Romans) under their charge.