However, whereas stories can travel quickly and easily change over time, making late texts unreliable evidence for early Germanic culture, language changes in somewhat more predictable ways. Through the comparative method, it is possible to compare words in related languages and rationally reconstruct what their lost, earlier forms must have been, and to some extent what those earlier forms must have meant. This in turn allows the reconstruction of the names of some gods, supernatural beings, and ritual practices. For example, all the Germanic languages use a similar neuter noun to denote pagan gods: Gothic "guþ", Old English "god", Old High German "got", and Old Norse "guð". Proto-Germanic, therefore, surely had a similar word with a similar sense.