Paleo-Sardinian language
| Paleo-Sardinian | |
|---|---|
| Nuragic | |
| Region | Sardinia |
| Ethnicity | Nuragic civilization |
| Extinct | c. 2nd century AD |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Paleo-Sardinian, also known as Proto-Sardinian or Nuragic, is an extinct language (or perhaps languages) spoken in Sardinia (and possibly Corsica) during the Bronze Age, which is thought to have left traces in the onomastics of the island and in the modern Sardinian language. By the third century, Latin had become the language of Sardinia, and the old language(s) survive mainly in toponyms, which appear to preserve grammatical suffixes, and in a few names of plants.
The Swiss linguist Johannes Hubschmid (1916-1995), one of the most renowned experts of the substratum elements, expressed himself in favour of six linguistic layers in prehistoric Sardinia.
There is toponymic evidence suggesting that the Paleo-Sardinian language may have had connection to the reconstructed Proto-Basque and to the pre-Indo-European Iberian language of Spain.Eduardo Blasco Ferrer concluded that it developed in the island in the Neolithic as a result of prehistoric migration coming from the Iberian peninsula. The author in his analysis of the Paleo-Sardinian language find only few traces of Indo-European influences (*ōsa, *debel- and perhaps *mara, *pal-, *nava, *sala), possibly introduced in the Late Chalcolithic through Liguria. Similarity between Paleo-Sardinian and Ancient Ligurian were also noted by Emidio De Felice.
Bertoldi & Terracini propose that the common suffix -ara (with stress on the antepenult) was a plural marker, and indicated a connection to Iberian or to the Paleo-Sicilian languages. Terracini claims a similar connection for the suffix -ànarV, -ànnarV, -énnarV, -ònnarV, as in the place name Bonnànnaro. A suffix -ini also seems to be characteristic, as in the place name Barùmini. A suffix or suffixes -arr-, -err-, -orr-, -urr- have been claimed to correspond to Numidia (Terracini), to Iberia (specifically Basque, Blasco Ferrer), to the south of Italy and Gascony (presumably Basque, Rohlfs), and to Basque (Wagner, Hubschmid).
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