proto-language

Also known as protolanguage, ancestor language, mother language

In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattested, or partially attested at best. They are reconstructed by way of the comparative method.

AI overview

A proto-language is a hypothetical ancestral language that linguists believe gave rise to multiple related languages we know today, similar to how a family tree branches out from a common ancestor. Since these proto-languages existed before written records, scholars reconstruct them by systematically comparing the languages that descended from them, looking for patterns that reveal what the original language likely sounded and worked like.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~8 min read

Article

6 sections

Contents

Definition and verification
Proto-X vs. Pre-X
Accuracy
See also
Notes
References

In the family tree metaphor, a proto-language can be called a mother language. Occasionally, the German term '''' (; from 'primordial, original' + 'language') is used instead. It is also sometimes called the common or primitive form of a language (e.g. Common Germanic, Primitive Norse).