The Proto-Khmeric language is the reconstructed
proto-language
In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unatte ...
of the
Khmeric languages. It has been reconstructed by Sidwell & Rau (2015), whose reconstruction is based on the
sound law
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic ch ...
s provided in Ferlus (1992). It is agreed by most scholars that this language was phased out by 300 CE.
Reconstructed forms
The reconstructed Proto-Khmeric forms below are from Sidwell & Rau (2015: 273, 340-363).
Lexical innovations
Selected Khmeric lexical innovations:
See also
*
Proto-Austroasiatic language
Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while ...
References
*Ferlus, Michel. 1992
Essai de phonétique historique du khmer (Du milieu du premier millénaire de notre ère à l'époque actuelle) ''Mon-Khmer Studies'' 21: 57–89.
*Sidwell, Paul and Felix Rau (2015). "Austroasiatic Comparative-Historical Reconstruction: An Overview." In Jenny, Mathias and Paul Sidwell, eds (2015). ''The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages''. Leiden: Brill.
{{Austroasiatic languages
Khmer language
Khmeric