Noun
(linguistics) A language which is reconstructed by examining similarities in existing languages to try to deduce what a common ancestor language, no longer known, would have been like.
(linguistics) The early utterances produced by an infant before it acquires true language.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgA false proto-language over the area may be reconstructed for them or may be taken to be a third language serving as a source of diffused features. Source: Internet
Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Source: Internet
In a similar vein, there are many similar unique innovations in Germanic, Baltic and Slavic that are far more likely to be areal features than traceable to a common proto-language. Source: Internet
Gamkrelidze, Ivanov: Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A reconstruction and historical analysis of a proto-language and a proto-culture (vols. Source: Internet
This idea is fundamental to the modern comparative method, since the method necessarily assumes regular correspondences between sounds in related languages, and consequently regular sound changes from the proto-language. Source: Internet
Genealogically related languages present shared retentions, that is, features of the proto-language (or reflexes of such features) that cannot be explained by chance or borrowing ( convergence ). Source: Internet