Languages & Linguistics

There were two recent questions (here and here) about historical pronunications. I know that languages evolve in sound over time, but how do linguists determine what the original phonology was several hundred or thousand years ago before we had audio recordings?

What techniques or heuristics do they rely on in their studies, and which are accessible to laymen attempting to recreate a historically accurate pronunciation?

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How do linguists determine historical pronunciation?

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