Dear Gordon,

"Gothic, the earliest recorded Germanic language, is the only known East
Germanic language."

I agree with everything you have said. Maybe the referenct to "Northern
Gothic Branch" is simply a question of antiquated terminology. In the
18th and 19th centuries <Gothic> was sometimes used generally for what
we call Germanic today.

This is just a theory of mine, and a little off-topic, but maybe this is
why Crimean Gothic was called Gothic, as the meagre remains (recorded in
the 17th century) actually point towards a West Germanic dialect which
broke away from the rest of the West Germanic dialects fairly early. At
least it is not derived from Wulfila-Gothic.

Dan