ProtoFinnic

Proto-Finnic is the reconstructed language that is believed to be the common ancestor of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. It is not directly attested in any written records. Knowledge about Proto-Finnic comes from the comparative method, analyzing systematic sound correspondences and shared vocabulary among Finnic languages, including Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, Veps, Livonian, and Ingrian, as well as extinct varieties.

Scholars generally date its use to the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age in the Baltic region, with the Finnic languages subsequently diversifying during the first millennia BCE and CE as populations migrated and settled in their present areas.

Proto-Finnic is reconstructed as an inflected language with an emphasis on nominal case inflection and verbal conjugation. Its phonology is inferred to have included a set of vowels with length contrasts and features such as vowel harmony, along with a consonant system that allowed the sound correspondences seen across Finnic languages. Like its descendants, it is thought to have had no grammatical gender.

Studying Proto-Finnic helps linguists explain regular sound changes and lexical correspondences among Finnic languages and sheds light on historical contact with Baltic, Slavic, and Germanic speakers. Modern Finnic languages retain many of its inherited patterns while innovating in various directions.