Gothic modifiers in -ata

What is it about?

Pronominal inflections in the system of modifiers is one of the unique features of older Germanic. Based on a peculiar instance of variation (between the non-pronominal bare stem and pronominal -ata) in Gothic I have shown, for the first time, that this variation is a meaningful relic of older morphological developments in Germanic prior to attestation.

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Why is it important?

The variation between the bare stem and -ata in Gothic is an important clue that addresses a persistent problem in historical Germanic linguistics (i.e. the development of Germanic "adjective" inflection) and helps dispel some recent misconceptions on the subject.