toProtoSlavic

toProtoSlavic is a conceptual framework and proposed software toolkit for inferring Proto-Slavic forms from attested Slavic languages. It combines traditional comparative-historical methods with computational techniques to produce reconstructions of Proto-Slavic phonology, lexicon, and morphology.

The approach draws on data from East, West, and South Slavic languages, identifying cognates and the reflexes of proposed Proto-Slavic phonemes. It encodes regular sound changes, distinguishes inherited material from borrowings, and employs internal reconstruction to propose unattested morphemes.

Output typically includes a proto-lexicon of reconstructed lemmas, a Proto-Slavic phoneme inventory, and proposed etymologies and sound-change rules. Confidence scores may accompany reconstructions, reflecting data density and model assumptions, and outputs are designed to integrate with typological databases and reconstruction frameworks.

Methods often combine traditional manual inspection with automated alignment, Bayesian or likelihood-based inference, and cross-validation against established Proto-Slavic reconstructions.

Applications include linguistic research, teaching, and computational historical linguistics. It also serves as a testbed for hypotheses about Slavic phonology, morphology, and contact-induced change. Users should treat results as probabilistic reconstructions rather than definitive attestations due to data limitations and borrowings.

See also Proto-Slavic, comparative method, historical linguistics.