Proto-language

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A proto-language is a language which was the common ancestor of related languages that form a language family. The German term Ursprache (derived from the prefix Ur- "primordial" and Sprache "language") is occasionally used as well.

In most cases, the ancestral protolanguage is not known directly and it has to be reconstructed by comparing different members of the language family via a technique called the comparative method. Through this process only a part of the proto-language's structure and vocabulary can be reconstructed; the reconstruction remains the more fragmentary the more ancient the proto-language in question relative to the number of its descendants. Examples of unattested but (partially) reconstructed proto-languages include Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Uralic, Proto-Bantu and Proto-Paman. Sometimes, however, the proto-language is a language which is known from inscriptions, an example being the Proto-Norse language attested in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions, or very well-known, such as Latin (ancestor of the Romance Languages).

See also

• Historical linguistics
• Comparative method
• Proto-Indo-European language
• Proto-Pama-Nyungan language
• Proto-World language
• Origin of Language

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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 15:53:15 PDT (GMT -0700)
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