noun
- Plural of protolanguage; hypothetical ancestral languages from which modern languages are believed to have descended through linguistic evolution.
Usage: linguistics; academic
Examples
- Linguists reconstruct protolanguages by comparing cognate words across related modern languages.
- Proto-Indo-European is one of the most studied protolanguages in historical linguistics.
- The protolanguages of the Bantu family show remarkable similarities in their sound systems.
- Scholars debate whether all human protolanguages share a common origin.
- By analyzing phonetic patterns, researchers can infer features of ancient protolanguages.