**Historical Origins**:
– Sardinia first settled by Homo sapiens during Upper Paleolithic.
– Neolithic Sardinians had connections with Iberian and Southern French populations.
– Beaker folk settled in Late Eneolithic-Early Bronze Age.
– Nuragic civilization emerged in Middle Bronze Age.
– Ancient Nuragic Sards associated with the Sherden tribe.
**Cultural Evolution**:
– Nuragic tribes described by Romans as Iolei/Ilienses, Balares, and Corsi.
– Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans played significant roles in Sardinia’s development.
– Language spoken in Bronze Age Sardinia remains unknown.
– Proto-Sardinian language possibly akin to Proto-Basque or Etruscan.
– Various linguistic areas existed in Nuragic Sardinia.
**Medieval and Early Modern Period**:
– Sardinia ruled by Vandals, Byzantines, and Ostrogoths before Aragonese conquest.
– Aragonese rule led to repopulation with Spaniards and the use of Catalan dialect in Alghero.
– Sardinia becomes an Associate State of the Crown of Aragon.
– Ligurian colonists settle in specific regions in the 18th century.
– Significant migration flows from mainland Italy to Sardinia during this period.
**Kingdom of Italy and Demographics**:
– Piedmontese Kingdom of Sardinia annexes Italian peninsula and Sicily in 1861.
– Various migration waves from mainland Italy to Sardinia for mining and fishing industries.
– Fascist regime resettles miners and peasants from various Italian regions to Sardinia.
– Sardinia has a population density slightly more than a third of the national average.
– In 1931, only 3.2% of the island’s population was estimated to be native of the Italian mainland.
**Mining History and Demographic Shifts**:
– Reorganization of Sardinian mines since 1850 leads to migration flow from Italian peninsula.
– Mainland miners from Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany, and Romagna settle in Sardinian mining areas.
– Italian refugees from Istrian–Dalmatian exodus relocated in Nurra region after World War II.
– Carbonia developed a variety of Italian with Sardinian influences.
– Italian Tunisian families settle in Castiadas, east of Cagliari.
The Sardinians, or Sards (Sardinian: Sardos or Sardus; Italian and Sassarese: Sardi; Gallurese: Saldi), are a Romance language-speaking ethnic group native to Sardinia, from which the western Mediterranean island and autonomous region of Italy derives its name.
![]() Sardinian people and their traditional regional attires in 1880s | |
Regions with significant populations | |
(Inhabitants of Sardinia inclusive of all ethnicities) | |
2.250.000 (outside Sardinia) | |
Languages | |
Italian • Sardinian | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Spaniards, Italians, Corsicans |