internal reconstruction

noun

, Historical Linguistics.

1. the hypothetical reconstruction of an earlier stage of a language or of some part of it, as its phonology, by deductions from irregularities in its present structure, as the reconstruction of a stage in English when certain instances of r were related to s in a systematic way by comparing the pair was:were to other pairs, as lose:forlorn.

Example Sentences

As regards the internal reconstruction of France, the case is very different.

From Project Gutenberg