It has been suggested that this article be merged into proto-language. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2013.
In historical linguistics, a daughter language is a language descended from another language through a process of genetic descent. Strictly speaking, the metaphor of the mother-daughter relationship can lead to misconceptualization of language history, as daughter languages are normally direct continuations of earlier stages, not separate entities in any way "born" to a parent who eventually dies.
Norwegian Bokmål is a daughter language of Danish, which is a daughter language of Old Norse, which is a daughter language of Proto-Germanic, which is a daughter language of Proto-Indo-European.