Paleo-Sardinian, also known as Proto-Sardinian or Nuragic, is a set of extinct languages spoken on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia by the ancient Sardinian population during the Nuragic era. Starting from the Roman conquest of Sardinia and Corsica, a process of language shift took place, wherein Latin became the only language spoken by the islanders. Paleo-Sardinian is thought to have left traces in the island's onomastics as well as toponyms, which appear to preserve grammatical suffixes, and a number of words in the modern Sardinian language.
Pre-Indo-European hypothesis There is toponymic evidence suggesting that the Paleo-Sardinian language may have a connection to the reconstructed Proto-Basque and to the Pre-Indo-European Iberian language of Spain.Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, ed. 2010. Paleosardo: Le radici linguistiche della Sardegna neolitica (Paleosardo: The Linguistic Roots of Neolithic Sardinian). De Gruyter Mouton According to Max Leopold Wagner:
Massimo Pallottino, referring to various authors such as Bertoldi, Terracini and Wagner, highlighted the following similarities between Sardinian, Basque and Iberian:
Archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu hypothesized that the "Basque-Caucasian" idioms of the Bonnanaro culture replaced the previous languages of "pan-Mediterranean" type spoken by the preceding cultures.Giovanni Lilliu, La civiltà nuragica 1982, p.25
Eduardo Blasco Ferrer concluded that the Paleo-Sardinian language developed on the island in the Neolithic as a result of prehistoric migration from the Iberian Peninsula. In his analysis of the Paleo-Sardinian language, he finds only traces of Indo-European influence *ōsa, *debel- and perhaps *mara, *pal-, *nava, *sala which were possibly introduced in the Late Chalcolithic through Liguria. Similarities between Paleo-Sardinian and Ancient Ligurian were also noted by Emidio De Felice. Blasco Ferrer stated:
However, for the linguist and glottologist Giulio Paulis, the Basque language is not helpful in the interpretation of the toponymic heritage of Paleo-Sardinian origin.
Bertoldi and Terracini propose that the common suffix -ara, stressed on the antepenult, was a plural marker, and they indicated a connection to Iberian or to the Paleo-Sicilian languages. Terracini claims a similar connection for the suffixes -ànarV, -ànnarV, -énnarV,and -ònnarV, as in the place name Bonnànnaro. The suffix-ini also seems to be characteristic, as in the place name Barùmini. Infixes -arr-, -err-, -orr-, and -urr- have been claimed to correspond to the North African Numidia (Terracini), to the Basque-speaking Iberia and Gascony (Wagner, Rohlfs, Blasco Ferrer, Hubschmid), and to southern Italy (Rohlfs).
The non-Latin suffixes -ài, -éi, -òi, and -ùi survive in modern place names based on Latin roots. Terracini sees connections to Berber. Bertoldi sees an Anatolian connection in the endings -ài, -asài (similar claims have been made of the Elymians of Sicily). A suffix -aiko is also common in Iberia. The tribal suffix -itani, -etani, as in the Sulcitani, has also been identified as Paleo-Sardinian.
Several linguists, including Bertoldi, Terracini, Wagner, and Hubschmid, proposed various linguistic layers in prehistoric Sardinia. The oldest pan-Mediterranean was widespread in the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy, Sardinia, and North Africa. The second Hispano-Caucasian would explain the similarities between Basque and Paleo-Sardinian, and the third Ligurian.
Indo-European hypothesis
Ancient Balkan hypothesis The scholar Alberto Areddu developed the idea that Sardinia was civilizated by Aegaean/Pelasgian people around 1800 b.C.; on the basis of various lexical elements - unanimously recognized as belonging to the substratum - argued that we must speak in particular for the most conservative areas of the island, Ogliastra and Barbagia, of a particular branch of Indo-European, which shows strong formal and semantic correspondences with the few testimonies of Illyrian (or Thracian) and above all with their current linguistic continuation, the Albanian; the concordances are then extended to various toponyms and microtoponyms of the central area; for example the scholar provides the following comparisons with the Albanian: Sardinian: 'holly, butcher's broom, weed' (in Sardinian: laruspinosu 'thorny laurel') = Albanian halë 'bone; remains (of cereals); coniferous needle; black pine', halëz 'arista or remains of the ear; splinter'; Sardinian 'hind' = alb. drenje, drenushe 'doe'; Sardinian 'net to collect straw' = alb. kashtë 'straw'; Sardinian ‘Ruta graveolens’ in Sardinian called too: erba de sos bermes ‘worm grass’ = alb. krym ‘worm’ Sardinian 'ivy' = alb. dredhëz 'ivy'; Sardinian 'grudge' = alb. helm 'poison, sorrow'; Sardinian 'yew tree' = Albanian enjë 'yew’; Sardinian ‘Morel mushroom’ = alb. kërpudhë ‘mushroom’ Sardinian 'broom' = alb. modriqi 'broom'; Sardinian 'tendril' = alb. rrypthi 'tendril' ; Sardinian 'enclosure for animals' = alb. thark 'fence'; Sardinian 'tip, stony top', top. Zèppara = alb. thep 'stony tip'; Sardinian 'torrent' = alb. çurg 'brook, brook, stream of water'; Sardinian 'clematis', top. Urtzulei = alb. (h)urth, hurdh 'ivy'.
Etruscan-Nuragic connection The linguist Massimo PittauPittau, La lingua sardiana o dei protosardi, Cagliari 2001. argues that the Paleo-Sardinian language and the Etruscan language were closely linked, as he argues that they were both emanations of the Anatolian branch of Indo-European. According to Pittau, the "Nuragics" were of Lydian origin who imported their Indo-European language to the island, pushing out the Pre-Indo-European languages spoken by the Pre-Nuragic peoples, but this hypothesis does not enjoy consensus. The Etruscan language is believed to be neither Indo-European nor related to the Anatolian languages nor to the Paleo-Sardinian language. The consensus among scholars is that Etruscan is only related to the Rhaetic language spoken in the Alps and to the language attested by a few inscriptions found on the island of Lemnos.
Some examples of Nuragic names of Indo-European origin might be:Massimo Pittau, Appellativi nuragici di matrice indoeuropea «sprig of cherry tree with fruits» (Osini), probably Sardian or Nuragic relict [suff. Aegean-Anatolian (s) a], perhaps to compare – not derive – with the Greek «cane, stem» (Indoeur.). "fog" (Barbagia and southern Sardinia); Sardian or Nuragic relict, to be compared – not derived – with the Greek «fog» (Indoeur.) (LISPR). «humidity of the night, frost, dew» (Log.), toponyms (Guspini), (Isili), (Ussassai), (Guspini) (suffixes and accent); Sardian or Nuragic relict, probably to compare – not derive – with a metathesis, with Lat. , Lithuanian , ant. Slavic , Vedic «dew» and with the Sanskrit «humidity» (DELL) and therefore Indo-European. (corrige DILS, LISPR).
Some scholars attribute a "Rhaetian-Etruscoid" strand with the suffix -èna that characterizes a series of toponyms in central Italy (Tuscany, Umbria, Tuscia and Marsica) and in Veneto, passing through Emilia and Romagna. The presence of this suffix is attested, at least since the Middle Ages, also in southern Corsica and in the eastern coast of Sardinia (Gallura, Barbagia, Ogliastra), e.g., Arzachèna, Lugulèna, etc.Mauro Maxia, Toponimi ricorrenti nel Mediterraneo occidentale, 2008, p.221-227
Other hypotheses
Archeologist Giovanni Ugas suggested that the three main Nuragic populations (Balares, Corsi and Ilienses) may have had separate origins and spoke different languages:
the Balares from the Iberian Peninsula or Southern France and thus of either non-Indo-European (Proto-Iberian) or Indo-European origin, linked to the Beaker culture. The Corsi people from the northeast may be of Ligurian origin. The Iolaei/Ilienses, who inhabited the southern plains and present-day Barbagia, likely would have spoken a pre-Indo-European language, possibly similar to Minoan and other languages of that area.
The common subdivision of modern Sardinian into the three dialects of Gallurese, Logudorese, and Campidanese might reflect that multilingual substratum. Other Paleo-Sardinian tribes of possible Indo-European stock were the Lucuidonenses from the north of the island, and the Siculensi from the Sarrabus region. See also Paleo-Corsican language Pre-Nuragic Sardinia Nuragic civilization List of ancient Corsican and Sardinian tribes History of Sardinia Prehistory of Corsica Notes
References
Further reading Alberto G. Areddu, Le origini albanesi della civiltà in Sardegna, Naples, Grafica Elettronica, 2007. Alberto G. Areddu, Un'ipotesi balcanica per il Nuragico, Quaderni di Semantica X 2024, 78-134.PDF https://www.academia.edu/164946385/Unipotesi_balcanica_per_il_Nuragico
Johannes Hubschmid, Sardische Studien, Bern, 1953. Massimo Pittau. La lingua sardiana o dei Protosardi, Cagliari: Ettore Gasperini, 2001. Giulio Paulis, I nomi di luogo in Sardegna, Sassari, 1987. Giulio Paulis. "Il paleosardo: retrospettive e prospettive", Aion: Annali del Dipartimento di Studi del Mondo Classico e del Mediterraneo Antico — Sezione linguistica 30, no. 4 (2010): 11-61.