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.. For more examples of proto-languages, see the category "proto-languages" (below).
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 Wednesday June 18, 2008 at 09:43:24 PDT (GMT -0700)
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