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theadvancedapes  ·  4079 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Listen to what our ancestors' language sounded like 6,000 years ago

    I understand that a great deal of research and cross-referencing is done, but I can't help but wonder how close these reconstructions really are and it bums me out that we can never know empirically.

I agree, it is disappointing. When it comes to origin of language questions we are left with very little empirical evidence. All we can do is pull together the data that can be assembled and try to construct theories that are most in line with these data. IMO it will always be an incomplete project.

EDIT:

It's also a really fun recording to listen to!