Proto-language may either refer to a language that preceded a certain set of given languages, or to system of communication during a stage in glottogony that may not yet be properly called a language.
A relative proto-language is a language that reflects an earlier state in a language family. The emphasis is that it is reconstructed by comparing different members of the language family for which records are available. Examples are Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Bantu; see also Proto-World Language.
An absolute proto-language, as defined by linguist Derek Bickerton, is a primitive form of communication lacking:
The "me Tarzan, you Jane" nature of proto-language in this last sense is evident in pidgins, some features of early childhood language, and the language of adults who were deprived of language during the critical period (such as the feral child Genie). Derek Bickerton suggests language evolved from this kind of proto-language in a linguistic 'big bang'. But see also Terrence Deacon's arguments in his book The Symbolic Species for a radically different point of view.
Two other features of their communication that are reminiscent of pidgins are the fact that the protolanguage of signs was developed rapidly and spontaneously by the youngsters themselves, and of course the fact that they seem to have been already too old to learn how to make their protolanguage evolve towards a language with syntax.
Protolanguage does enable hearers to construct meanings which roughly fit the meanings that speakers have had in their thoughts, though this requires that the contexts be sufficiently restricted.
Protolanguage is not the result of a rough simplification of language; it is a tool for communicating meanings that has its own organization.
Other words that can be traced back to the Niger-Congo protolanguage include “yesterday,” which is jana in Swahili (Bantu subgroup) and ana in Yoruba (Kwa subgroup), and “three,” which is tatu in Swahili, eeta in Yoruba, and ati in Fulfulde (West Atlantic subgroup).
The protolanguage of this family, which began to diverge into separate branches about 6000 years ago, is known as ancestral Semitic.
It is also the protolanguage of other Semitic languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew.
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