Re[2]: [tied] Grimm 's Law fact or myth: Gessman (1990)

At 3:14:07 AM on Friday, May 9, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:

[...]

> Obviously there are the same methodological problems in
> reconstructing words as reconstructing buildings or
> civilizations, but in each case what you reconstruct is
> something which once existed, and no one is doubt of that.

No, you reconstruct (an approximation to) something that
*may* have existed. In some cases the probability that it
existed is very high; in others it's much lower.
Reconstruct enough words, and it's virtually certain that
some of them didn't exist.

Brian