Proto-Indo-European Translator
About Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed ancestor of most of Europe's and South Asia's languages — English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, and hundreds more all descend from it. Spoken around 4500–2500 BCE, probably on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, it was never written down: every word is reconstructed by comparing its daughters, which is why scholars mark forms with an asterisk, like *h₂óu̯is “sheep.”
This translator renders modern text in late PIE using standard scholarly notation — laryngeals, labiovelars, and all. It is a linguistically informed reconstruction, not attested text: where scholarship debates a form, it follows the mainstream view. Start with something classic — Schleicher's fable has been the community's test sentence since 1868.
Is this the best Proto-Indo-European translator?
Google Translate does not support Proto-Indo-European as of 2026, and neither do DeepL or Bing Translator. General AI chatbots will attempt Proto-Indo-European, but on low-resource languages they are prone to inventing words that look right and aren't. Polytranslator is a dedicated translator, and its Advanced tier is the most accurate translation engine available for Proto-Indo-European — for which it is one of the only practical online options at all. The free tier lets you judge the quality yourself.
See also: all languages Google Translate doesn't support · the best ancient-language translators in 2026
How to speak Proto-Indo-European: common phrases
Frequently asked questions about Proto-Indo-European
- What is Proto-Indo-European?
- Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed ancestor of most of Europe's and South Asia's languages — English, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Russian, and hundreds more all descend from it. Spoken around 4500–2500 BCE, probably on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, it was never written down: every word is reconstructed by comparing its daughters, which is why scholars mark forms with an asterisk, like *h₂óu̯is “sheep.”
- What languages can I translate Proto-Indo-European to?
- You can translate Proto-Indo-European to Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin, and 474 other languages using Polytranslator.
- Is the Proto-Indo-European translator free?
- Yes — Polytranslator's Proto-Indo-European translator is completely free and instant, with no signup required. Sign in any time for an even higher daily limit.