I'm impressed chiefly with how such linguistic investigations can extract so much from the past. We're talking about wind coming out of mouths 600 years ago! O

I'm impressed chiefly with how such linguistic investigations can extract so much from the past. We're talking about wind coming out of mouths 600 years ago! Of course we have writings and written accounts of speech to reference. But there is plenty of that! Fortunately. And current linguistic traditions can tell us where various groups ended up, a little more data. But very indirect.