Proto-Germanic

Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Germanic languages, spoken before their historical diversification. Its features are inferred chiefly by comparing its descendant languages.

Comparative method: A method for reconstructing ancestral languages by comparing systematic similarities among related languages. It supplies the central procedure for inferring Proto-Germanic forms from its descendants.
Grimm's law: A set of regular consonant shifts separating Proto-Germanic stops from their Indo-European counterparts. It is the best-known sound change distinguishing Proto-Germanic from other Indo-European branches.
Germanic sound shift: A major series of consonant changes that differentiated Germanic languages from other Indo-European branches. Its changes mark the emergence of Proto-Germanic as a distinct branch.
Proto-Germanic lexicon: The reconstructed vocabulary of Proto-Germanic, inferred from words shared by its descendants. Shared inherited words reveal what speakers named and which forms can be reconstructed.
Historical linguistics: The study of how languages change and diversify over time. Proto-Germanic is reconstructed within this broader study of language change.
Verner's law: A sound law explaining voiced fricatives in Proto-Germanic where Grimm's law predicts voiceless ones. It accounts for apparent exceptions to Grimm's law through the position of earlier stress.
Proto-Germanic homeland: The proposed region where Proto-Germanic was spoken before its speakers dispersed. Archaeological and linguistic evidence is used to locate the language's early community.
Germanic substrate hypothesis: The hypothesis that some features of Germanic arose through contact with an unidentified earlier language. Unexplained vocabulary and structural features have prompted proposals about pre-Germanic contact.
Indo-European languages: A language family spanning Europe and parts of Asia, descended from Proto-Indo-European. Proto-Germanic is one branch of this larger family.
Germanic strong verb: A Germanic verb class that marks tense or aspect through vowel alternation rather than a dental suffix. Ablaut patterns in strong verbs preserve clues to Proto-Germanic inflection.

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