Protovascuence y paleosardo: reconstrucción y comparación

Reconstruction of substrata residue demands a high level of competence in methodological linguistic premises. In this paper we first of all undertake a thorough discussion of the methodological flaws and weaknesses detected in the reconstruction of Palaeo–Basque. We then take issue with some misplaced conclusions drawn by the Basque linguist Joseba Lakarra when he dismisses any genealogical link between Basque and Palaeo–Sardinian. We make a powerful point for ascertaining a complete match of phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical diachronic rules between the two reconstructed languages, so as to provide compelling evidence of their common ancestral origin. Finally, we criticise the overall lack of toponymic data in Lakarra’s operational rules, which hampers a correct comparison between the two proto–systems and prevents the Basque scholar from assessing the telling support for evidence as to the common evolution of Paleo–Basque and Palaeo–Sardinian.