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Glite Dictionary
Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European

1 9.9
An ancestor language of many European and Asian languages that people think was spoken long before writing began
  • noun
  • /ˌproʊtoʊˌɪndoʊˈjʊrəpiən/
  • Specialized
: protoindoeuropeo
  • Understanding other Indo-European languages gives us an idea of what Proto-Indo-European looked like.

Examples

  • The vocabulary of Proto-Indo-European includes roots for words that still exist in languages like Spanish and Hindi.

  • The final splitting up of the Proto-Indo-European complex can be dated to a period between 3000 and 2700 B.C.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Linguists study Proto-Indo-European to understand the origins of many modern languages.

  • Scholars believe that Proto-Indo-European was spoken by ancient communities thousands of years ago.

Synonyms

Proto-Indo-European language
vsProto-Indo-European
  • Specialized
1 9.9

An ancient language that experts think was the common ancestor of many European and Asian languages

is the same reconstructed tongue named more compactly
PIE
vsProto-Indo-European
  • Specialized
1 9.9

An ancient language that experts think is the ancestor of languages like English and Hindi

is the identical reconstructed tongue written in full rather than abbreviated

Surface Forms

Proto-Indo-European singular
Proto-Indo-Europeans plural

Morphology

Proto-Indo-European = Indo-European (semi-transparent) = proto + Indo + European

The word is formed transparently with proto- meaning 'earliest' or 'reconstructed', but the term is technical and depends on knowledge of the language-family label Indo-European.

Etymology

Proto-Indo-European has three parts: proto- meaning 'first', Indo- meaning 'India', and European meaning 'Europe'. So, Proto-Indo-European is the name for an early language that many modern European and some Asian languages came from.