Besides Basque, any trace of pre-Indo-European languages of Europe remaining?

Question

Euskara (and its Aquitanian ancestors) is famous for being a curious wrinkle in the Indo-European tapestry of languages blanketing Europe today. Did any other non-IE European language leave evidence of its existence in history? Perhaps words in today's IE languages which have no clear etymology to proto-IE? Or commentary from the historians of antiquity alluding to such languages? Or any other kind of anthropological evidence?

Answer 1

The Etruscan of pre-Roman Italy is considered a language isolate.

Classification

The majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family which in itself is an isolate family, that is, unrelated to other language groups by any known relationship. Since Rix (1998) it is widely accepted that Tyrsenian is composed of Rhaetic and Lemnian together with Etruscan.

In the 1st century BC the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus stated that the Etruscan language was unlike any other.[6] He agrees with the prevalent modern view that Etruscan, or more recently Tyrsenian, is an isolate. Bonfante, a leading scholar in the field, says "... it resembles no other language in Europe or elsewhere ...."

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In reference to the British Ils., there appears to be studies on preceltic place names, which are most likely non-Indo-European.

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Iberian spoken in the Iberian peninsula prior to the Celtiberians were neither Indo-European nor proven to be related to Basque. Your proposal is interesting; removing the known etymologies would surely leave those that survived the Baque, or Indo-European overlay if any should have survived indeed.

Below is a brief description of what can be known about this loosely defined language group. (since I am not allowed to leave a url, I shall have to excerpt the introduction of the article.)

Geographic distribution of Iberian Languages



Iberian language in the context of paleohispanic languages

Iberian scripts in the context of paleohispanic scriptsThe Iberian language spread along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

In the north, the Iberian language reached the south of France up to the Hérault river. Important written remains have been found in Ensérune, between Narbonne and Béziers in France, in an oppidum with mixed Iberian and Celtic elements. The southern limit would be Porcuna, in Jaén (Spain), where splendid sculptures of Iberian riders have been found.

Towards inland the exact distribution of the Iberian language is uncertain. It seems that the culture reached the inland through the Ebro river (Iberus in Latin) up to Salduie (Zaragoza) but not farther.

Among the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula it is believed that the following spoke Iberian languages: Ausetani (northeastern Catalonia), Ilergetes (Lleida and Huesca up to the Pyrenees), Indigetes (coast of Girona), Laietani (Barcelona), Cassetani (Tarragona), Ilercavones (Murcia and Levante up to Tarragona), Edetani (Valencia, Castellón and Teruel), Contestani (Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena and Albacete), Bastetani (Granada, Almería and Murcia) and Oretani (Jaén, Ciudad Real, Albacete and Cuenca). Turduli and Turdetani are believed to be of Tartessian language.

History

The origin of the language is unknown. There are three main hypotheses to explain the origin of the language:

Native hypothesis: assumes that Iberian language was the language of the native people who settled in the Iberian peninsula during the Neolithic.

African hypothesis: proposes that the language arrived from the north of Africa. This hypothesis links Iberian with the Berber languages.

European hypothesis: a recent theory, links the arrival of Basques/Aquitani and Iberians to the Pyrenees and the Iberian peninsula with the arrival of the urnfield culture.

Writing



Lead plaque from Ullastret using the dual variant of the northeastern Iberian script.

Lead plaque from La Bastida de les Alcuses (Mogente) using the southeastern Iberian script.

Lead plaque from la Serreta (Alcoy) using the Greco-Iberian alphabet.

Lead plaque from Castellet de Bernabè, ValenciaMain Article: Iberian scripts

The oldest Iberian inscriptions date to the 4th century BC or maybe the 5th century BC and the latest ones date from the end of the 1st century BC or maybe the beginning of the 1st century AD. The currently known Iberian inscriptions are more than two thousand; most of them short texts over ceramic with personal names, which are usually interpreted as ownership marks. The longest Iberian texts were made over lead plaques; among them the longest one is from Yátova (València) with more than six hundred signs.

Three different scripts have remained for the Iberian language:

Northeastern Iberian script

Dual variant (4th century BC and 3rd century BC)

Non-dual variant (2nd century BC and 1st century BC)

Southeastern Iberian script

Greco-Iberian alphabet (most of the aforementioned Leads of La Serreta are written in this version).

Answer 2

I think Magyar and Finnish  are pre Indo-European

Answer 3

You might want to consider the many local variations of the Celtic language. Gaelic, in Scotland and Ireland. Cornish, spoken in Cornwall, England. Maybe the Welsh language, too, and the pre-Roman language spoken in Brittany, France, for example.