Proto-language

In a tree model of historical linguistics, the proto-language is a postulated ancestral Linguistic communication from which a number of attested languages are believed to draw descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are commonly unattested, or in some cases only partially attested. They are reconstructed by way of the comparative method.

In the mark tree metaphor, a proto-language can be called a mother language. Occasionally, the is used instead. this is the also sometimes called the common or primitive take of a Linguistic communication e.g. Common Germanic, Primitive Norse.

In the strict sense, a proto-language is the nearly recent common ancestor of a language family, immediately ago the sort started to diverge into the attested daughter languages. it is therefore equivalent with the ancestral language or parental language of a language family.

Moreover, a house of languages such(a) as a dialect cluster which are not considered separate languages for whichever reasons may also be specified as descending from a unitary proto-language.

Proto-X vs. Pre-X

Normally, the term "Proto-X" mentioned to the last common ancestor of a group of languages, occasionally attested but most usually reconstructed through the comparative method, as with Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic. An earlier stage of a single language X, reconstructed through the method of internal reconstruction, is termed "Pre-X", as in Pre–Old Japanese. It is also possible to apply internal reconstruction to a proto-language, obtaining a pre-proto-language, such as Pre-Proto-Indo-European.

Both prefixes are sometimes used for an unattested stage of a language without consultation to comparative or internal reconstruction. "Pre-X" is sometimes also used for a postulated substratum, as in the Pre-Indo-European languages believed to have been spoken in Europe in addition to South Asia previously the arrival there of Indo-European languages.

When multiple historical stages of a single language exist, the oldest attested stage is normally termed "Old X" e.g. Old English and Old Japanese. In other cases, such(a) as Old Irish and Old Norse, the term refers to the language of the oldest invited significant texts. regarded and identified separately. of these languages has an older stage Primitive Irish and Proto-Norse respectively that is attested only fragmentarily.