"protolang" meaning in English

See protolang in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: protolangs [plural]
Etymology: From proto- + -lang. Etymology templates: {{af|en|proto-|-lang}} proto- + -lang Head templates: {{en-noun}} protolang (plural protolangs)
  1. (conlanging) A constructed ancestor language from which other naturalistic conlangs are descended (actually or retroactively).
    Sense id: en-protolang-en-noun-KkJISzaK Categories (other): Conlanging, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -lang, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 69 31 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -lang: 73 27 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 80 20 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 88 12
  2. Clipping of proto-language. Tags: abbreviation, alt-of, clipping Alternative form of: proto-language
    Sense id: en-protolang-en-noun-uhF6yhsI Categories (other): English terms prefixed with proto- Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with proto-: 43 57
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          "ref": "1998 November 9, Nik Taylor <fortytwo@ufl.edu>, “New Project”, in Conlang mailing list:",
          "text": "I created a protolang (consisting mainly of phonology and inflections) to ensure realistic mutations.",
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          "ref": "2024 September 16, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@qfbox.info>, “Re: Hrmitt lexicon reached 800 entries”, in Conlang mailing list:",
          "text": "Then at one point I wanted to add head-marking to the language to mark tenses. In my initial sketch, this head-marking would have features of a \"real\" verb, a kind of calcified form from an ancestral verb in the protolang, kinda like how English uses \"was\" to mark past tense (\"I was going to the market\", \"I was reading yeserday\").",
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        "(conlanging) A constructed ancestor language from which other naturalistic conlangs are descended (actually or retroactively)."
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          "ref": "1998 November 9, Nik Taylor <fortytwo@ufl.edu>, “New Project”, in Conlang mailing list:",
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          "text": "Then at one point I wanted to add head-marking to the language to mark tenses. In my initial sketch, this head-marking would have features of a \"real\" verb, a kind of calcified form from an ancestral verb in the protolang, kinda like how English uses \"was\" to mark past tense (\"I was going to the market\", \"I was reading yeserday\").",
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        "(conlanging) A constructed ancestor language from which other naturalistic conlangs are descended (actually or retroactively)."
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    {
      "alt_of": [
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Download raw JSONL data for protolang meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (e2469cc and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.