Inlinguistics,attested languages are languages (living ordead) that have been documented and for which the evidence ("attestation") has survived to the present day. Evidence may berecordings,transcriptions,literature orinscriptions. In contrast,unattested languages may be names of purported languages for which no direct evidence exists, languages for which all evidence has been lost, or hypotheticalproto-languages proposed inlinguistic reconstruction.[2]
Within an attested language, particularword forms directly known to have been used (because they appear in the literature, inscriptions or documented speech) are calledattested forms. They contrast withunattested forms, which are reconstructions hypothesised to have been used based on indirect evidence (such as etymological patterns). In linguistic texts, unattested forms are commonly marked with a precedingasterisk (*).[3]
 | This article abouthistorical linguistics is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |