From: G&P
Message: 61640
Date: 2008-11-15
>I don't think we can
"prove" anything.
…
>Most scientific fields have competing theories.
This raises questions about the nature of proof, which take us beyond the topics of this group. But in asmuch as anything is proved, many of the reconstructions of PIE are proved.
As for competing theories, of course there are many in PIE linguistics. Existence, number and nature of laryngeals is just one example. There’s others too. Out of competing theories gradually a consensus emerges. Eventually this becomes undeniable, in the nature of any scientific proof.
Peter