Paleo-Sardinian language

Paleo-Sardinian
Nuragic
Region	Corsica et Sardinia
Ethnicity	Nuragic civilization
Extinct	c. 2nd century AD
Language family	unclassified
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None
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Paleo-Sardinian (Paleosardinian) or Paleo-Sardo (Paleosardo), also known as 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.

Classification

Pre-Indoeuropean hypothesis

There is toponymic evidence suggesting that the Paleo-Sardinian language may have had connection to Basque or to the pre-Indo-European Iberian language of Spain, or maybe to the ancient languages of Sicily.

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).

The non-Latin suffixes -ài, -éi, -òi, -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 and may have a Celtic origin. The tribal suffix -itani, -etani, as in the Sulcitani, has also been identified as Paleosardinian.

Indoeuropean hypothesis

The linguist M.Pittau argues that the Paleo-Sardinian language (or "Sardian language") and the Etruscan language were closely linked, as they were both emanations of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European. According to the author the "Nuragics" were a population of Lydian origin who imported their language of Indo-European type in the island, that superimposed over the previous Pre-indoeuropean languages spoken by the Pre-Nuragic peoples.

Other hypotheses

Archeologist Giovanni Ugas suggested that the three main Nuragic peoples (Balares, Corsi and Ilienses) may have had separate origins and thus spoke different languages:

• the Balares from the Iberian peninsula (or Southern France) and possibly of proto-Iberian/Indo-European origin (Beaker culture)
• the Corsi of the north-east and possibly of Ligurian origin
• the Iolaei/Ilienses of the southern plains and Barbagia that probably spoke a pre-Indo-European language similar to Minoian and other languages of that area.

The three modern dialects of Gallurese, Logudorese, and Campidanese might reflect that multilingual substratum. Other minor Paleosardinian peoples of possible Indo-European stock were the Lugudonenses (may originally be from Provence, where is attested the toponym Lugdunum) of the north of the island and the Siculensi (perphans Siculi) of the Sarrabus region .

See also

• Pre-Nuragic Sardinia
• Nuragic civilization
• List of Nuragic tribes
• History of Sardinia
• Prehistory of Corsica

References

• Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, ed. 2010. Paleosardo: Le radici linguistiche della Sardegna neolitica (Paleosardo: The Linguistic Roots of Neolithic Sardinian). De Gruyter Mouton.
• Johannes Hubschmid, Sardische Studien, Bern (1953)
• Heinz Jürgen Wolf, Toponomastica Barbaricina, Nuoro (1998)
• Massimo Pittau, La lingua sardiana o dei Protosardi, Cagliari (2000)
• Giulio Paulis, I nomi di luogo in Sardegna, Sassari (1987)