ProtoIndoeuroopa

Proto-Indo-European, or ProtoIndoeuroopa, is the hypothesized reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European language family. It is not attested in any surviving texts; knowledge about it comes from the comparative method, which identifies regular correspondences among descendant languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Persian, the Slavic languages, Baltic languages, the Germanic tongues, and extinct branches like Hittite.

Scholars typically place PIE in the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age, roughly 4500–2500 BCE, though dates vary. The homeland is debated; the leading theories include the Kurgan hypothesis, which locates PIE in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, and the Anatolian hypothesis, which situates PIE in central Anatolia. Ongoing research continues to refine dating, homeland, and migration scenarios.

Phonology and grammar: PIE is reconstructed as a highly inflected language with extensive nominal and verbal morphology. Nouns and adjectives show gender, number, and a complex case system (including nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and others). Pronouns and verbs mark person and number, and the verb system encodes tense, mood, aspect, and voice, with both finite and non-finite forms. The consonant inventory includes stops p, t, k and their voiced and aspirated counterparts, labiovelars, semivowels, and three laryngeal consonants (often labeled H1, H2, H3) whose reflexes appear in daughter languages. Vowels are reconstructed with at least *e and *o, and ablaut patterns play a central role in word formation.

A core PIE lexicon yields terms for kinship, body parts, natural elements, and basic actions, providing the foundation from which the diverse Indo-European languages emerged.