Paleo-Sardinian language

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.

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. According to Max Leopold Wagner:

So e.g. sakkáyu, -a, sakkáġġu, -a is in Sardinian a lamb or a goat of a year or a year and a half; brings to mind the Aragonese segało, Catalan sagall, Béarnese sigàlo 'goat of the same age', which my colleague Rohlfs combined with the Basque segaila 'a year old goat' which seems to be derived from the Basque sekail, segail 'svelte', sakaildu 'décharner, maigrir'. Of course, not everything is equally certain, and the investigation must be continued and expanded. Naturally I am far from wanting to identify Sardinians and Basques, Sardinians and Iberians, I believe that one must always bear in mind that other influences may also have manifested themselves, long-standing Mediterranean influences, Ligurian and perhaps even Alpine influences. Certain coincidences between Sardinian and Albanian are also notable.

Massimo Pallottino, referring to various authors such as Bertoldi, Terracini and Wagner, highlighted the following similarities between Sardinian, Basque and Iberian:

Various Sardinian onomastic elements recall Iberian place names, not only in the roots (which often have a pan-Mediterranean diffusion) but also in the morphological structure of the words, for example: Sardinian: ula-, olla-; Iberian: Ulla; Sardinian: paluca, Iberian: baluca; Sardinian: nora, nurra, Iberian: nurra; Sardinian: ur-pe, Iberian: iturri-pe.

Added to this is a fact that, due to the number of concordances, cannot be considered casual and appears to be of the highest interest: the existence, that is, of specific analogies between elements of the lexical heritage of the Basque language and individual lexical relics or toponymic entries in Sardinia:

Examples: Sardinian: aurri (black hornbeam); Basque: aurri (name of tree) Sardinian: bitti (little lamb); Basque: bitin (little goat); Sardinian: golosti (holly); Basque: gorosti (holly) Sardinian: sgiàgaru (dog); Basque: zakur (dog); Sardinian: mògoro (height); Basque: mokor (clod, trunk); Sardinian: òspile (small enclosure); Basque: ospel (shady place) Sardinian: orri, orrui; Basque: orri (juniper) Sardinian: usai, useis; Basque: usi (forest);

The correspondences also extend to formative elements: for example -aga, which in Basque is used for toponyms with a collective meaning (harriaga-pile of stones from harri-stone) and which can explain the Sardinian type nuraghe compared to nurra (also the Iberian toponym Tarracone to the Sardinian maragoni).