fromProtoGermanic

FromProtoGermanic is a scholarly label used in historical linguistics and etymology to indicate that a linguistic form is inherited from Proto-Germanic, the reconstructed ancestor of the Germanic language family. The designation is typically applied to words, affixes, or grammatical features that can be shown, by regular correspondences across Germanic languages, to originate in Proto-Germanic rather than being borrowed from elsewhere.

Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed ancestor of the West, North, and East Germanic languages. It is not directly recorded but inferred through the comparative method, with estimates placing its use in the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age in parts of northern Europe. From it descend languages such as English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and Gothic. The process of tracing a form to Proto-Germanic involves comparing cognates and reconstructing the proto-form, then demonstrating systematic sound correspondences that link the form to Proto-Germanic.

Linguists attribute many regular historical sound changes to Proto-Germanic, including the consonant shifts later widely known as Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, and later developments such as the High German consonant shift in West Germanic. These changes help identify forms as fromProtoGermanic and explain their appearance in daughter languages. The label is common in etymological dictionaries and linguistic descriptions, but it is used with caution: not all similarities imply direct descent, and later borrowings or semantic shifts can obscure original origins.

An example is the English word good, and the German gut, both traced to Proto-Germanic gōdaz.