The starting point of this article is the debate about linguistic reconstruction which took place in the 9th volume of the Journal “Incontri linguistici”, 1984. Nine German and Italian renowned scholars accepted the challenge from Roberto Gusmani and offered a manifold reply to an article published the previous year in the same journal by Bernfried Schlerath. Walter Belardi and Riccardo Ambrosini played a prominent role in the research about linguistic reconstruction as well – Roberto Gusmani originally developed Belardi’s suggestions in a series of important contributions from 1979 to 1998.