1. a hypothetical common ancestor of a family of languages, reconstructed through comparative analysis
Usage: linguistics
2. an early stage in the development of human language or communication systems
Usage: linguistics; anthropology

Examples

• Proto-Indo-European is the protolanguage from which many European and Asian languages descended.
• Linguists reconstruct protolanguages by comparing similarities across related languages.
• The protolanguage of the Romance family is Latin.
• Researchers study protolanguage to understand how human communication evolved.
• Evidence for the Germanic protolanguage comes from shared vocabulary patterns.
• The protolanguage hypothesis helps explain why certain languages share common features.