Has anyone ever recreated a 'protoromance' language using input from different romance languages and compared it with Latin to test the accuracy of proto-languages like Proto Indo-European?

Answer 1

Hi there,

Yes, linguists have made attempts to recreate a 'Protoromance' language, which is a hypothetical ancestor of the Romance languages, derived from Vulgar Latin. These reconstructions aim to approximate what the common ancestor of Romance languages might have sounded like before they diverged into distinct languages such as Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and others.

To test the accuracy of these reconstructions, linguists compare the Protoromance language with Classical Latin as well as the early forms of Romance languages documented in texts from the medieval period. This process involves examining common features and systematic changes across Romance languages, such as sound shifts, grammatical structures, and vocabulary.

While no reconstruction can be perfectly accurate, these efforts provide valuable insights into the development of Romance languages and the linguistic processes involved. Similarly, the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is based on systematic comparisons of Indo-European languages and follows similar methodologies.

If you're interested in learning more about historical linguistics or exploring the Portuguese language and its roots, feel free to reach out. I'm here to help!

Best regards,

Rubens