protogermán

Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed ancestral language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Because it is not directly recorded, linguists reconstruct its features by the comparative method, using the attested Germanic languages such as Gothic, Old English, Old High German, and Old Norse. Most scholars place Proto-Germanic in Northern Europe, with a development dating roughly from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, around 500 BCE to 1 CE, and it gives rise to the West Germanic, North Germanic, and East Germanic groups.

Phonology and writing systems are central to the reconstruction. Proto-Germanic is known for a characteristic set of sound changes that produced the so-called Germanic consonant shift, or Grimm’s Law, where PIE voiceless stops p, t, k become f, θ (th), h in Germanic, while PIE voiced stops b, d, g become p, t, k in Germanic contexts, with further developments by Verner’s Law explaining many irregularities. Vowel systems included an ablaut pattern used in the strong verb classes, along with vowel changes influencing the development of later Germanic languages. Proto-Germanic featured inflectional morphology with cases for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, and a system of strong and weak verbs.

Its lexicon and grammar provided the basis for the later Germanic languages, including patterns of noun declension, pronoun usage, and verb conjugation. From Proto-Germanic, the West Germanic and North Germanic branches diverged, ultimately yielding English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and others. The Gothic language remains the earliest well-attested Germanic language and offers key data for reconstruction.