plural of Proto

Prototypical; preceding the proper beginning of something

first / (linguistics, genetics) most recent common ancestor (often hypothetical) of / (chemistry) Relating to protons and/or positive charge.

A surname.

The ancestor language of the Uralic language family, usually written with the UPA-transcription system.

Hypothetical prehistoric ancestor language of all Germanic languages, including English.

The earliest form of the Greek language, the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including Mycenaean and the classical Greek dialects; the language was already spoken by the ancestors of the Greeks in the Balkans (i.e. Greece) during the Neolithic period or the Bronze Age.

(linguistics) A language which is reconstructed by examining similarities in existing languages to try to deduce what a common ancestor language, no longer known, would have been like.

(linguistics) The hypothetical ancestral language of both modern Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages.

(linguistics) Of or relating to the Proto-Japonic language.