Proto-Germanic

Proto-Germanic, also called Common Germanic or Ur-Germanic, is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all the Germanic languages, which include languages such as English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese and Gothic. By definition, Proto-Germanic is the stage of the language constituting the most recent common ancestor of the attested Germanic languages. Proto-Germanic is itself descended from Proto-Indo-European (PIE).

Proto-Germanic is not directly attested by any surviving texts; it has been reconstructed using the comparative method. However, there are a few surviving inscriptions in a runic script from Scandinavia, the Vimose inscriptions, dated to c. 200 CE, which may represent a stage of Proto-Norse or late Common Germanic immediately following the "Proto-Germanic" stage.



