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{{short description|Common ancestor of a language family}} | |||
{{other uses}} | |||
[[File:ABB.svg|thumb|300px|[[Tree model]] of historical linguistics. The proto-languages stand at the branch points, or nodes: 15, 6, 20 and 7. The leaf languages, or end points, are 2, 5, 9 and 31. The root language is 15. By convention, the proto-languages are named Proto-5-9, Proto-2-5-9 and Proto-31, or Common 5-9, etc. The overall Ursprache has a proto name reflecting the ordinary name of the entire family, such as Germanic, Italic, etc. The links between nodes indicate descent or genetic descent. All the languages in the tree are related. Nodes 6 and 20 are the daughters of 15, their parent. Nodes 6 and 20 are cognates or sister languages, etc. The leaf languages must be attested by some sort of documentation, even a lexical list of a few words. All the proto-languages are hypothetical, or reconstructed languages; however, sometimes documentation is found that supports their former existence.]] | |||
In the [[tree model]] of [[historical linguistics]], a '''proto-language''' is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of [[Attested language|attested languages]] are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a [[language family]]. '''Proto-languages are usually unattested, or in some cases only partially attested'''. They are reconstructed by way of the [[comparative method]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|title=Glossary of Historical Linguistics|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7486-3019-6|pages=158–159}}</ref> | |||
In the family tree metaphor, a proto-language can be called a mother language. Occasionally, the [[German language|German]] term ''Ursprache'' (from ''Ur-'' "primordial, original", and ''Sprache'' "language", {{IPA-de|ˈuːɐ̯ʃpʁaːxə|pron}}) is used instead. It is also sometimes called the ''common'' or ''primitive'' form of a language (e.g. [[Common Germanic]], [[Primitive Norse]]).<ref name=":0" /> | |||
In the strict sense, a proto-language is the most recent common ancestor of a language family, immediately before the family started to diverge into the attested [[Variety (linguistics)|''daughter languages'']]. It is therefore equivalent with the ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'' of a language family.<ref>{{cite book|authors=Bruce M. Rowe, Diane P. Levine|title=A Concise Introduction to Linguistics|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317349280|pages=340–341|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=ePQ5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340#v=onepage&q&f=false|access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> | |||
Moreover, a group of languages (such as a [[Dialect continuum|dialect cluster]]) which are not considered separate languages (for whichever reasons) may also be described as descending from a unitary proto-language. | |||
==Definition and verification== | |||
Typically, the proto-language is not known directly. It is by definition a [[linguistic reconstruction]] formulated by applying the [[comparative method]] to a group of languages featuring similar characteristics.<ref>{{Citation| title=Linguistic historiography: projects & prospects | first=E F K | last=Koerner | location=Amsterdam [u.a.] | publisher=J. Benjamins | year=1999 | series=Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science; Ser. 3, Studies in the history of the language sciences | page=109 | quote=First, the historical linguist does not reconstruct a language (or part of the language) but a model which represents or is intended to represent the underlying system or systems of such a language.}}</ref> The tree is a statement of similarity and a hypothesis that the similarity results from descent from a common language. | |||
The comparative method, a process of [[deductive reasoning|deduction]], begins from a set of characteristics, or characters, found in the attested languages. If the entire set can be accounted for by descent from the proto-language, which must contain the proto-forms of them all, the tree, or phylogeny, is regarded as a complete explanation and by [[Occam's razor]], is given credibility. More recently, such a tree has been termed "perfect" and the characters labelled "compatible". | |||
No trees but the smallest branches are ever found to be perfect, in part because languages also evolve through horizontal transfer with their neighbours. Typically, credibility is given to the hypotheses of highest compatibility. The differences in compatibility must be explained by various applications of the [[wave model]]. The level of completeness of the reconstruction achieved varies, depending on how complete the evidence is from the descendant languages and on the formulation of the characters by the linguists working on it. Not all characters are suitable for the comparative method. For example, lexical items that are loans from a different language do not reflect the phylogeny to be tested, and, if used, will detract from the compatibility. Getting the right dataset for the comparative method is a major task in historical linguistics. | |||
Some universally accepted proto-languages are [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], [[Proto-Uralic language|Proto-Uralic]], and [[Proto-Dravidian language|Proto-Dravidian]]. | |||
In a few fortuitous instances, which have been used to verify the method and the model (and probably ultimately inspired it{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}), a literary history exists from as early as a few millennia ago, allowing the descent to be traced in detail. The early daughter languages, and even the proto-language itself, may be [[attested language|attested]] in surviving texts. For example, [[Latin]] is the proto-language of the [[Romance languages|Romance]] language family, which includes such modern languages as French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan and Spanish. Likewise, [[Proto-Norse]], the ancestor of the modern [[North Germanic languages|Scandinavian languages]], is attested, albeit in fragmentary form, in the [[Elder Futhark]]. Although there are no very early [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] inscriptions, the Indo-Aryan languages of modern India all go back to [[Vedic Sanskrit]] (or dialects very closely related to it), which has been preserved in texts accurately handed down by parallel oral and written traditions for many centuries. | |||
The first person to offer systematic reconstructions of an unattested proto-language was [[August Schleicher]]; he did so for [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] in 1861.<ref>{{harvnb|Lehmann|1993|p=26}}.</ref> | |||
==Proto-X vs. Pre-X== | |||
Normally, the term "Proto-X" refers to the last common ancestor of a group of languages, occasionally attested but most commonly reconstructed through the [[comparative method]], as with [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] and [[Proto-Germanic language|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.<ref>{{cite book |given=Lyle |surname=Campbell |author-link=Lyle Campbell |title=Historical Linguistics: An Introduction |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |edition=3rd |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-7486-4601-2 |page=199}}</ref> It is also possible to apply internal reconstruction to a proto-language, obtaining a pre-proto-language, such as Pre-Proto-Indo-European.<ref>Campbell (2013), p. 211.</ref> | |||
Both prefixes are sometimes used for an unattested stage of a language without reference to comparative or internal reconstruction. "Pre-X" is sometimes also used for a postulated [[substratum (linguistics)|substratum]], as in the [[Pre-Indo-European languages]] believed to have been spoken in Europe and South Asia before 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 as [[Old Irish]] and [[Old Norse]], the term refers to the language of the oldest known significant texts. Each of these languages has an older stage ([[Primitive Irish]] and [[Proto-Norse]] respectively) that is attested only fragmentarily. | |||
==Accuracy== | |||
There are no objective criteria for the evaluation of different reconstruction systems yielding different proto-languages. Many researchers concerned with linguistic reconstruction agree that the traditional [[comparative method]] is an "intuitive undertaking."<ref>Schwink, Frederick W.: Linguistic Typology, Universality and the Realism of Reconstruction, Washington 1994. "Part of the process of 'becoming' a competent Indo-Europeanist has always been recognized as coming to grasp 'intuitively' concepts and types of changes in language so as to be able to pick and choose between alternative explanations for the history and development of specific features of the reconstructed language and its offspring."</ref> | |||
The bias of the researchers regarding the accumulated implicit knowledge can also lead to erroneous assumptions and excessive generalization. {{harvcoltxt|Kortlandt|1993}} offers several examples in where such general assumptions concerning "the nature of language" hindered research in historical linguistics. Linguists make personal judgements on how they consider "natural" for a language to change, and <blockquote>"[as] a result, our reconstructions tend to have a strong bias toward the average language type known to the investigator." </blockquote> | |||
Such an investigator finds themselves blinkered by their own [[linguistic frame of reference]]. | |||
The advent of the [[wave model]] raised new issues in the domain of linguistic reconstruction, causing the reevaluation of old reconstruction systems and depriving the proto-language of its "uniform character." This is evident in [[Karl Brugmann]]'s skepticism that the reconstruction systems could ever reflect a linguistic reality.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Brugmann|Delbrück|1904|pp=25}}</ref> [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] would even express a more certain opinion, completely rejecting a positive specification of the sound values of reconstruction systems.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Saussure|1969|pp=303}}</ref> | |||
In general, the issue of the nature of proto-language remains unresolved, with linguists generally taking either the ''realist'' or ''abstractionist'' position. Even the widely studied proto-languages, such as [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], have drawn criticism for being outliers typologically with respect to the reconstructed [[Phoneme|phonemic inventory]]. The alternatives such as [[glottalic theory]], despite representing a typologically less rare system, have not gained wider acceptance, with some researchers even suggesting the use of indexes to represent the disputed series of plosives. On the other end of the spectrum, {{harvcoltxt|Pulgram|1959|pp=424}} suggests that Proto-Indo-European reconstructions are just "a set of reconstructed formulae" and "not representative of any reality". In the same vein, [[Julius Pokorny]] in his study on [[Indo-European studies|Indo-European]], claims that the linguistic term ''IE parent language'' is merely an abstraction that does not exist in reality, and it should be understood as consisting of dialects possibly dating back to the [[paleolithic|paleolithic era]], in which these very dialects formed the linguistic structure of the IE language group.<ref name="Pokorny_1953">{{harvcoltxt|Pokorny|1953|pp=79–80}}</ref> In his view, Indo-European is solely a system of [[isogloss]]es which bound together dialects which were operationalized by [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|various tribes]], from which the historically attested Indo-European languages emerged.<ref name="Pokorny_1953"/> | |||
That Proto-languages remain unattested is evident. As [[Nicholas Kazanas]] puts it: | |||
:"The first fallacy is that the comparative method is “scientific” and can offer predictions." | |||
:[...]<br> | |||
:"Another fallacy is very subtle: it is the tacit assumption that the reconstructed forms are actual and experts in this imaginary field discuss and argue among themselves as if they are realities."<ref>Kazanas N. 2009 ''Indo-Aryan Origins''… N. Delhi, Aditya Prakashan. 2015 ''Vedic & Indo-European Studies'' N. Delhi, Aditya Prakashan.</ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* [[Historical linguistics]] | {{col div|colwidth=40em}} | ||
* [[Proto- | *[[List of proto-languages]] | ||
* [[ | *[[Comparative method]] | ||
*[[Internal reconstruction]] | |||
*[[Japhetic theory]] | |||
*[[Historical linguistics]] | |||
*[[Origin of language]] | |||
*[[Proto-Human language]] | |||
*[[Universal language]] | |||
{{colend}} | |||
== Notes == | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
{{-}} | ==References== | ||
{{ | * {{Citation|last=Lehmann|first=Winfred P. |year=1993|title=Theoretical Bases of Indo-European Linguistics|location=London, New York|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group (Routledge)}} | ||
* {{Citation|last=Schleicher|first=August |year=1861–1862|title=Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen: 2 volumes|location=Weimar|publisher=H. Boehlau (Reprint: Minerva GmbH, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag)|isbn=3-8102-1071-4|ref=CITEREFSchleicher1861}} | |||
* {{citation |last=Kortlandt |first=Frederik |author-link=Frederik Kortlandt |title=General Linguistics and Indo-European Reconstruction |year=1993 |url=http://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art130e.pdf}} (revised text of a paper read at the Institute of general and applied linguistics, University of Copenhagen, on December 2, 1993) | |||
* {{citation |first1 = Karl |last1=Brugmann |author-link=Karl Brugmann |first2=Berthold |last2=Delbrück |title=Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen |year=1904 |location=Strassburg |url=https://archive.org/details/kurzevergleichen00brug |language=de}} | |||
* {{citation |first = Ferdinand de |last=Saussure |author-link=Ferdinand de Saussure |title= Cours de linguistique générale |trans-title=[[Course in General Linguistics]] |year=1969 |location=Paris |language=fr}} | |||
* {{citation |first = Ernst |last=Pulgram|title= Proto-Indo-European Reality and Reconstruction |year=1959 |pages=421–426 |journal=Language |volume=35 |issue=Jul.–Sept |doi=10.2307/411229|jstor=411229}} | |||
* {{citation|last=Pokorny |first=Julius |author-link=Julius Pokorny |title=Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft – Indogermanistik |trans-title=General and Comparative Linguistics - Indo-European Studies |volume=2 |publisher=A. Francke AG Verlag |location=Bern |year=1953 |pages=79–80}} | |||
{{Long-range comparative linguistics}} | |||
{{Historical linguistics}} | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
[[Category: | [[Category:Historical linguistics]] | ||
[[Category:Proto-languages| ]] | |||