page_title: Paleo-Sardinian language
section_title: Other hypothesis
hierarchical_section_title: Paleo-Sardinian language / Other hypothesis
context_page_description: Paleo-Sardinian, also known as Proto-Sardinian or Nuragic, is an extinct language, or perhaps set of languages, spoken in the Mediterranean island of Sardinia by the ancient Sardinian population during the Nuragic era. Starting from the Roman conquest with the establishment of a specific province, a process of language shift took place wherein Latin came slowly to be 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.
context_section_description: Archeologist Giovanni Ugas suggested that the three main Nuragic populations (Balares, Corsi and Ilienses) may have had separate origins and so may have spoken different languages:
  the Balares might have possibly been from the Iberian peninsula or Southern France and thus of either Proto-Iberian or Indo-European origin, linked to the Beaker culture.
  The Corsi from the north-east might have possibly been of Ligurian origin.
  The Iolaei/Ilienses, who inhabited the southern plains and today's Barbagia, might have probably spoken a Pre-Indo-European language 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, who might have been originally from Provence, where the toponym Lugdunum is attested, and the Siculensi, perhaps related to the Siculi from Sicily, from the Sarrabus region.
caption: Nuragic populations