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| Proto-Germanic | |
|---|---|
| PGmc, Common Germanic | |
| Reconstruction of | Germanic languages |
| Region | North-western Europe |
| Era | c. 500 BC–200 AD |
Reconstructed ancestor | |
| Lower-order reconstructions |
|
.PNG)
| Part of a series on |
| Indo-European topics |
|---|
 |
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branches during the fifth century BC to fifth century AD: West Germanic, East Germanic and North Germanic.[1] The latter of these remained in contact with the others over a considerable time, especially with the Ingvaeonic languages (including English), which arose from West Germanic dialects, and had remained in contact with the Norse.[2]
A defining feature of Proto-Germanic is the completion of the process described by Grimm's law, a set of sound changes that occurred between its status as a dialect of Proto-Indo-European and its gradual divergence into a separate language. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the Migration Period in the fourth century AD.
The alternative term "Germanic parent language" may be used to include a larger scope of linguistic developments, spanning the Nordic Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe (second to first millennia BC) to include "Pre-Germanic" (PreGmc), "Early Proto-Germanic" (EPGmc) and "Late Proto-Germanic" (LPGmc).[3] While Proto-Germanic refers only to the reconstruction of the most recent common ancestor of Germanic languages, the Germanic parent language refers to the entire journey that the dialect of Proto-Indo-European that would become Proto-Germanic underwent through the millennia.
The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any complete surviving texts; it has been reconstructed using the comparative method. However, there is fragmentary direct attestation of (late) Proto-Germanic in early runic inscriptions (specifically the Vimose inscriptions, dated to the 2nd century CE, as well as the non-runic Negau helmet inscription, dated to the 2nd century BCE),[4] and in Roman Empire-era transcriptions of individual words (notably in Tacitus' Germania, c. AD 90[note 1]).
- ^ Hawkins, John A. (1987). "Germanic languages". In Bernard Comrie (ed.). The World's Major Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 68–76. ISBN 0-19-520521-9.
- ^ Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 32. ISBN 9780521401791.
- ^ See e.g. Bloomfield, Leonard (1984). Language. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 298–299. ISBN 0-226-06067-5.
- ^ Comrie, Bernard, ed. (1987). The World's Major Languages. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-19-506511-5.
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