Proto-Germanic language

Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the <a href="/facts/Linguistic_reconstruction/pj96pL59">reconstructed</a> <a href="/facts/Proto-language/BkXHmE3J">proto-language</a> of the <a href="/facts/Germanic_languages/BxAJX3Kf">Germanic branch</a> of the <a href="/facts/Indo-European_languages/L34TfgSr">Indo-European languages</a>.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from <a href="/facts/Germanic_parent_language/NY6yMc6B">pre-Proto-Germanic</a> into three Germanic branches during the fifth century BC to fifth century AD: <a href="/facts/West_Germanic_languages/PbeIH9Jz">West Germanic</a>, <a href="/facts/East_Germanic_languages/b2XRVS0b">East Germanic</a> and <a href="/facts/North_Germanic_languages/zocYfWp8">North Germanic</a>. North Germanic remained in <a href="/facts/Language_contact/xU290Qnk">contact</a> with the other branches over a considerable time, especially with the <a href="/facts/Ingvaeonic_languages/KFgblw9K">Ingvaeonic languages</a> (including <a href="/facts/History_of_English/v2UzoH20">English</a>), which arose from West Germanic dialects, and had remained in contact with the <a href="/facts/Proto-Norse_language/d3I2VWdA">Norse</a>.
A defining feature of Proto-Germanic is the completion of the process described by <a href="/facts/Grimm%27s_law/gnVnHs7J">Grimm's law</a>, a set of sound changes that occurred between its status as a dialect of <a href="/facts/Proto-Indo-European_language/cVLNoM3p">Proto-Indo-European</a> and its gradual divergence into a separate language. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the <a href="/facts/Migration_Period/wfQ7PU21">Migration Period</a> in the fourth century AD.
The alternative term "<a href="/facts/Germanic_parent_language/NY6yMc6B">Germanic parent language</a>" may be used to include a larger scope of linguistic developments, spanning the <a href="/facts/Nordic_Bronze_Age/x3e8bnrB">Nordic Bronze Age</a> and <a href="/facts/Pre-Roman_Iron_Age_in_Northern_Europe/8aCF7dDs">Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe</a> (second to first millennia BC) to include "Pre-Germanic" (PreGmc), "Early Proto-Germanic" (EPGmc) and "Late Proto-Germanic" (LPGmc). While Proto-Germanic refers only to the reconstruction of the most recent common ancestor of Germanic languages, the Germanic parent language refers to the entire journey that the dialect of <a href="/facts/Proto-Indo-European/cVLNoM3p">Proto-Indo-European</a> that would become Proto-Germanic underwent through the millennia.
The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any complete surviving texts; it has been <a href="/facts/Linguistic_reconstruction/pj96pL59">reconstructed</a> using the <a href="/facts/Comparative_method_(linguistics)/VKJAa3zy">comparative method</a>. However, there is fragmentary direct attestation of (late) Proto-Germanic in early <a href="/facts/Runic_inscription/kcfrBjbW">runic inscriptions</a> (specifically the <a href="/facts/Vimose_inscriptions/88ejBW1N">Vimose inscriptions</a>, dated to the 2nd century CE, as well as the non-runic <a href="/facts/Negau_helmets/E8T8EAAC">Negau helmet</a> inscription, dated to the 2nd century BCE), and in <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman Empire</a>-era transcriptions of individual words (notably in <a href="/facts/Tacitus/u6m0E441">Tacitus</a>' <a href="/facts/Germania_(book)/DQ8SQqx7">Germania</a>, c. AD 90).

Proto-Germanic language open-in-new

Proto-Germanic language