Sardinians
 |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Italy: | |
 Sardinia
|
1,661,521 (Inhabitants of Sardinia, regardless of ethnicity) |
| Languages | |
| Italian • Sardinian • Other languages | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Christian (Roman Catholicism) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
|
Neolithic European farmers Corsicans Italians and Spaniards |
|
The Sardinians, or also the Sards (Italian and Sassarese: Sardi; Sardinian: Sardos or Sardus; Gallurese: Saldi), are the native people and indigenous ethnic group from which Sardinia, a western Mediterranean island and autonomous region of Italy, derives its name.
The ethnonym "S(a)rd" belongs to the Pre-Indo-European linguistic substratum. It makes its first appearance on the Nora stone, where the word Šrdn testifies to the name's existence when the Phoenician merchants first arrived. According to Timaeus, one of Plato's dialogues, Sardinia and its people as well might have been named after Sardò (Σαρδώ), a legendary woman born in Sardis (Σάρδεις), capital of the ancient Kingdom of Lydia.Pausanias and Sallust reported instead that it was a Libyan hero, Sardus Pater ("Sardinian Father") son of Hercules, the one who gave the island its name. There has also been speculation that identifies the ancient Nuragic Sards with the Sherden, one of the Sea Peoples. The ethnonym was then romanised as sardus (feminine sarda).
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