proto-Indo-Europeann.adj.
/ˌprəʊtə(ʊ)ɪndəʊˌjʊərəˈpiːən/, /ˌprəʊtə(ʊ)ɪndəʊˌjɔːrəˈpiːən/, U.S. /ˈˌproʊdoʊˌɪndoʊˌjʊrəˈpiən/ Linguistics.
A. n.
The unrecorded, hypothetically reconstructed language from which Indo-European languages are believed to have derived. Abbreviated PIE (see PIE n. at P n. Initialisms).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [noun] > Indo-European > proto-Indo-European
Aryan1851
Indo-European1871
proto-Indo-European1916
1916 Trans. & Proc. Amer. Philol. Assoc. 47 74 There are..a few who have a predilection for these and certain other remoter problems, and deal intimately with what we may term Proto-Indo-European.
1947 Word 3 15 Linguists have reconstructed large parts of the vocabulary of Proto-Indo-European.
1977 R. Williams Marxism & Lit. i. ii. 25 In one area this movement was ‘evolutionary’ in a particular sense: in its postulate of a proto-language (proto-Indo-European) from which the major ‘family’ had developed.
2001 Archaeology Mar.–Apr. 76/2 These three languages..had developed from a single ultimate parent langue, now called Proto-Indo-European (PIE).
B. adj.
Designating or relating to this language.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [adjective] > Indo-European > proto-Indo-European
proto-Aryan1879
proto-Indo-European1937
1937 J. Whatmough Foundations Rom. Italy iv. 103 The nature and affiliations of a proto-Indo-European stratum of language which the newly discovered Hittite documents..seem to demand as the source of Indo-European itself.
1952 W. P. Lehmann (title) Proto-Indo-European phonology.
1979 Amer. Speech 1978 53 266 We have virtually no evidence for the earlier history of Proto-Indo-European forms.
1994 S. Pinker Lang. Instinct viii. 256 The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word for mulberry, mor, is similar to Proto-Altaic müř ‘berry’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.adj.1916