American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition
The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is a reconstructed language believed to have been spoken between the Caucusus and Vistula River around 7,000 years ago. The speakers of that language then migrated in all directions, into Europe and India, which gave it its name: Indo-European. As the people speaking this language moved farther and farther away from the center, their spoken language changed into varioius dialects and the dialects changed into languages like Proto-Germanic, Proto-Italic, and Proto-Slavicnone of which left traces. These languages then split into dialects which became languages until we reached our current state in which English, German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages are distinct, despite the fact that they are derived from the same mother language, Proto-Germanic. (Click here for a diagram.)
We believe that the forms listed below resemble some of the words in PIE. They were reconstructed using the Comparative Method of linguistic study: comparing various languages in a single family, then comparing the results between families until we work ourselves back up to the probably original form from which all the Indo-European forms of the word must have derived. You can browse the selection created for Houghton Mifflin by Calvert Watkins below. The English words that resulted from these forms are linked back to their entries in
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