Proto-Language (Pre-Writing) a hypothetical ancestor language of other languages
Proto-Language is a term in Historical Linguistics that commonly means "a hypothetical ancestor language of other languages." This term belongs mainly to the broader category called Pre-Writing.
Definition of Proto-Language
Source: A Glossary of Historical Linguistics
"proto-language"
(also sometimes proto language, proto-language) The once-spoken ancestral language from which daughter languages descend, and, in another sense, the language reconstructed by the comparative method that represents the ancestral language from which the compared languages descend. To the extent that the reconstruction by the comparative method is accurate, the once actually spoken proto-language and the proto-language as reconstructed by the comparative linguist should coincide. Also sometimes called common, primitive. See, for example, Proto-Indo-European.
Lyle, GHL, 158–159. [View as image] [Read on OMNIKA]
Page Image(s)
Citation
PsychLing Contributors. "Proto-Language." PsychLing, OMNIKA Foundation, 2 Sep. 2023, psylng.org/glossary/term/proto-language. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.
PsychLing (2023, September 2). Proto-Language. Retrieved from https://psylng.org/glossary/term/proto-language
Bibliography
APA Contributors. "APA Dictionary of Psychology." Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Accessed September 14, 2023. https://dictionary.apa.org. [Visit]
Campbell, Lyle R., and Mauricio J. Mixco, eds. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.