Linguistic reconstruction

Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of an unattested ancestor language of one or more given languages.

Quotes

• We must not make the mistake of confusing our methods, and the results flowing from them, with the facts; we must not delude ourselves into believing that our retrogressive method of reconstruction matches, step by step, the real progression of linguistic history.
  • E. Pulgram, "Proto-Indo-European Reality and Reconstruction", Language, 35 (1959), pp. 421-6. Quoted in E. F. Bryant, The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture (Oxford UP, 2001), ch. 4

• No reputable linguist pretends that Proto-Indo-European reconstructions represent a reality, and the unpronounceability of the asterisked formulae is not a legitimate argument against reconstruction.
  • Ernst Pulgram, quoted by Jean-Paul Demoule, The Indo-Europeans: Archaeology, Language, Race, and the Search for the Origins of the West (2023)