Search results
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.
Proto-Balto-Slavic ( PBS or PBSl) is a reconstructed hypothetical proto-language descending from Proto-Indo-European (PIE). From Proto-Balto-Slavic, the later Balto-Slavic languages are thought to have developed, composed of the Baltic and Slavic sub-branches, and including modern Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian, among others.
The traditional view is that the Balto-Slavic languages split into two branches, Baltic and Slavic, with each branch developing as a single common language (Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic) for some time afterwards. Proto-Baltic is then thought to have split into East Baltic and West Baltic branches.
Proto-Baltic, the ancestral Baltic language from which the various known languages evolved, developed from the dialects of the northern area of Proto-Indo-European. These dialects also included the Slavic and Germanic protolanguages (and possibly also Tocharian).
Contents. Home Geography & Travel Languages. Relationship between Baltic and Slavic. Because contact between the Balts and Slavs from the time of Proto-Indo-European was never broken off, it is understandable that Baltic and Slavic should share more linguistic features than any of the other Indo-European languages.
This seems to suggest that there was indeed a Proto-Baltic period, which lasted for at least a few generations but probably no longer than a few centuries. It has long been clear that West and East Baltic are also separated by some isoglosses that connect East Baltic with Slavic.
Phonological evidence for a Proto-Baltic stage in the evolution of East and West Baltic. Eugen Hill. The position of the so-called ‘Baltic’ languages Lithuanian, Latvian and Old Prussian within the Balto-Slavonic branch of Indo-European is still a matter of debate.
