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| Proto-Baltic | |
|---|---|
| PB, PBl, Common Baltic | |
| Reconstruction of | Baltic languages |
| Region | Central, Eastern and Northern Europe |
| Era | 3rd m. BC – c. 5th century BC |
Reconstructed ancestors | |
| Part of a series on |
| Indo-European topics |
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Proto-Baltic (PB, PBl, Common Baltic) is the unattested, reconstructed ancestral proto-language of all Baltic languages. It is not attested in writing, but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method by gathering the collected data on attested Baltic and other Indo-European languages. It represents the common Baltic speech that approximately was spoken between the 3rd millennium BC and ca. 5th century BC, after which it began dividing into West and East Baltic languages.[1] Proto-Baltic is thought to have been a fusional language and is associated with the Corded Ware and Trzciniec cultures.[2]
Generally, Proto-Baltic had a SOV word order.[3] Proto-Baltic is said to have possessed certain unique traits, such as turning short Proto-Indo-European vowels *o, *a into *a, retaining and further developing the Proto-Indo-European ablaut, retaining *m before dental consonants, the productivity of the word stem ē and free accentuation with two pitch accents. Also, the proto-language is thought to have had its own set of diminutive suffixes, identical endings for verb tenses and moods, past tense by applying thematic vowels *-ā- and *-ē-, as well as its own lexicon, including onomastic elements.[4]
- ^ Mažiulis V. J. Baltic languages. Development of the individual Baltic languages. Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ^ Gimbutienė, Marija (2004). Балты [Baltic people] (in Russian). Moscow: Centrpoligraf. pp. 60–74; 223. ISBN 5-9524-1359-5.
- ^ Dini 2000, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Dini 2000, p. 56.