IE versus *PIE

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/2/01 12:19:49 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk writes:

> Linguistic work in the last twenty years has demonstrated beyond dispute
> that linguistic descent can be, and sometimes is, far more complicated than
> our conventional family-tree model would suggest.

-- quite true.

Although one should point out that the family-tree model is overwhelmingly
more _common_; and should therefore be regarded as the "default mode" absent
evidence to the contrary.