It's first attested on a Phoenician stele
from the 9th c. BC (<s^rdn>). The autochthonous population at that time
were the Sards (Gk. Sardoi, Lat. Sardi), believed to be the creators of the
Nuraghic culture (named for the characteristic massive towers in the form of a
truncated cone, called the nuraghi/nuraxi). The Nuraghic culture began
about 1600 BC, and it has been suggested that the Sards were one of the Sea
Peoples (the <s^rdn.w> "Shardana" of the Egyptian sources),
but too little is known of their language to classify it anywhere. The
Greeks called the island Sardo (<sardo:>, treated either as an -oi- stem,
gen. <sardoos, -ous>, dat. <sardoi>, or a nasal stem
<sardon->). The Romans called it Sardinia, of course. They seized it in
238 BC and made it a Roman province, eventually extinguishing Sard resistance
and driving the pre-Roman Sard language (which had survived the Carthaginian
occupation of the island) to extinction.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 6:29 PM
Subject: [tied] Sardinia
I have tried to find out when appeared the word "Sardinia" in
the written sources for first time but I could not find anything.
Is there a
known ethymology of it?