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5/17/98

The Proto-Language⁽¹⁾

The Proto-Language is a hypothetically reconstructed language based on the
comparison of attested speech.
Press here to view essays on the Proto-Language.

The Proto-Religion is a hypothetically reconstructed religion based on the comparison of attested beliefs.
Press here to view essays on the Proto-Religion.

The Proto-Language was spoken by human beings at a time (100K BPE) before humanity dispersed from some central point over the earth (presumably Eastern Africa); and ethnic diversification began.

The Indo-European entries in some of the essays have been given without English glosses to encourage readers to fully explore the semantic ranges contained under entries for the roots in dictionaries like

Pokorny, Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch

For casually interested readers, an excellent and inexpensive source of valuable information is:

Morris, William (ed.). 1992. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans by Calvert Watkins (pp. 1496-1502); Indo-European Roots (pp. 1505-1550). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, which can be easily purchased (for $31.50 + shipping) from Amazon.com by simply pressing on the icon to the left.

Because of observed rates of vocabulary loss in historical languages (lexico-statistics), present-day languages 'should have been unable to retain' earlier vocabulary items because of the involved long periods of time (during which, presumably, vocabulary loss occurred at a rate similar to that observed historically), an inference from glottochronology. R. L. Trask has addressed related misuses of glotto-chronology and lexico-statistics.

A concept which is useful here is punctuated equilibrium, which suggests that long periods of "no change", punctuated by short periods of "radical change".

Some linguists have made invalid inferences from "modern" circumstances that exclude a priori the possibility of ancient language reconstruction. A. Vovin has discussed related issues. In my opinion, ethnic and linguistic stability in pre-agricultural societies did not permit the dramatic rate of vocabulary replacement observed more recently.

The proof is in the Comparison Studies presented below. If these studies are able to show cognates among languages now considered to be unrelated --- displaying regular sound and semantic correspondences, theoretical objections must retreat before plainly demonstrated facts.

The reader will be the judge of whether the Comparison Studies have, indeed, accomplished those objectives.

AFRASIAN COMPARISON Table(.HTM)

ALTAIC COMPARISON(.HTM)

BASQUE COMPARISON(.HTM)

BENG (Southern Mandé) COMPARISON(.HTM)

BLACKFOOT (Algonquian) COMPARISON(.HTM)

JAPANESE COMPARISON(.HTM)

draft MON/HMONG COMPARISON(.HTM)

PAMA-NYUNGAN COMPARISON(.HTM) (based on available materials)

(SINO-)TIBETAN COMPARISON(.HTM)

SUMERIAN COMPARISON Table(.HTM)

URALIC COMPARISON(.HTM)

THE PROTO-LANGUAGE(.HTM) [5 essays]

PROTO-LANGUAGE MONOSYLLABLES(.HTM)

PROTO-LANGUAGE PRIMER(.HTM)

TIMETABLE OF PROTO-LANGUAGE EVOLUTION(.HTM)

IE CORRESPONDENCE TABLE {with the principal IE-derived language families}(.HTM)

For examples of these comparative principles applied to
current linguistic problems, you might like to . . .


view (or download)

A Slightly Different View of sDm.f(essay-sDm.f.HTM)

Coptic Vocalism([One/Two/Three].HTM)

Earlier Essays

Pre-Nostratic Pronouns - Early Noun Substitutions (Mother Tongue 11, September 1990)(PERSPRO1.HTM)

Proto-Language "He" and "It" - IE -l/-n Nouns (Dhumbadji! Vol. 1, No. 4; Winter 1994)(PERSPRO3A/B.HTM)

Review of Alexis Manaster-Ramer's Some Borrowed Numerals in Proto-Kartvelian (Dhumbadji! Vol. 2, No. 3, December 1995) Review: Dhumbadji! Vol. 3, No. 1, Summer 1996 (critique-PKNumerals.HTM)

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please let me know if these essays on the Proto-Language
and the derived languages are of interest


May I have your comments?







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Patrick C. Ryan * 9115 West 34th Street - Little Rock, AR 72204-4441* (501)227-9947
PROTO-LANGUAGE@email.msn.com

1. "The hypothesis of the monogenesis of language is one that most linguists believe to be plausible. Indeed, the appearance of language may define modern Homo sapiens." Philip E. Ross (Staff writer) in "Hard Words", pp. 138-147, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, April 1991.