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 proto-language 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).
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