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Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian, Proto-North Germanic and North Proto-Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia and a reconstructed proto-language of Old Norse that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a characteristically North Germanic language, and the language attested in the oldest Scandinavian Elder Futhark inscriptions, spoken from around the 2nd to the 8th centuries CE (corresponding to the late Roman Iron Age and the Germanic Iron Age). It evolved into the dialects of Old Norse at the beginning of the Viking Age around 800 CE, which later themselves evolved into the modern North Germanic languages (Faroese, Icelandic, the three Continental Scandinavian languages, and their dialects).

686
17 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Min Language

Proto-Min is a comparative reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. Min varieties developed in the relative isolation of the Chinese province of Fujian and eastern Guangdong, and have since spread to Taiwan, southeast Asia and other parts of the world. They contain reflexes of distinctions not found in Middle Chinese or most other modern varieties, and thus provide additional data for the reconstruction of Old Chinese. Jerry Norman reconstructed the sound system of proto-Min from popular vocabulary in a range of Min varieties, including new data on varieties from inland Fujian. The system has a six-way manner contrast in stops and affricates, compared with the three-way contrast in Middle Chinese and modern Wu varieties and the two-way contrast in most modern Chinese varieties. A two-way contrast in sonorants is also reconstructed, compared with the single series of Middle Chinese and all modern varieties. Evidence from early loans into other languages suggests that the additional contrasts may reflect consonant clusters or minor syllables.

657
10 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Kra is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kra languages. It was reconstructed in 2000 by Weera Ostapirat in his Ph.D. dissertation.

374
13 Oct 2022

Topic Review

The Proto-Karen or Proto-Karenic language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Karenic languages.

291
24 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Kam–Sui

Proto-Kam–Sui is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kam–Sui languages.

357
25 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Iroquoian

Proto-Iroquoian is the name given to the hypothetical proto-language of the Iroquoian languages. Lounsbury (1961) estimated from glottochronology a time depth of 3,500 to 3,800 years for the split of South and North Iroquoian. At the time of first European contact, speakers of Iroquoian languages ranged from the Cherokee in the Great Smoky Mountains, to the Tuscarora and Nottoway near the modern Virginia/North Carolina border, then further north the Five Nations in Upstate New York and the Huron and Neutral in modern-day Ontario.

396
27 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Hmong–Mien

Proto-Hmong–Mien (Chinese: 原始苗瑶语) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Hmong–Mien languages. The date of proto-Hmong-Mien has been estimated to be about 2500 BP by Sagart, Blench, and Sanchez-Mazas. It has been estimated to about 4243 BP by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP), however, ASJP is not widely accepted among historical linguists as an adequate method to establish or evaluate relationships between language families. Lower-level reconstructions include Proto-Hmongic and Proto-Mienic.

759
10 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Hlai is the reconstructed ancestor of the Hlai languages. Proto-Hlai reconstructions include those of Matisoff (1988), Thurgood (1991), Wu (2000), Ostapirat (2004), and Norquest (2007).

392
29 Sep 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Finnic or Proto-Baltic-Finnic is the common ancestor of the Finnic languages, which include the national languages Finnish and Estonian. Proto-Finnic is not attested in any texts, but has been reconstructed by linguists. Proto-Finnic is itself descended ultimately from Proto-Uralic.

397
28 Sep 2022

Topic Review

Proto-Circassian

Proto-Circassian (or Proto-Adyghe–Kabardian) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Adyghean and Kabardian languages.

386
04 Nov 2022

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