This "substrate" influenced the vocabulary and structure of the languages that eventually replaced them.
Vennemann argues that after the last Ice Age, much of Western and Central Europe was inhabited by speakers of Vasconic languages , of which Basque is the only surviving member. Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica
Vennemann posits that starting in the fifth millennium BCE, Atlantic/Semitidic seafaring colonizers (related to Semitic speakers) settled the coastal regions of Western and Northern Europe. This "substrate" influenced the vocabulary and structure of
The toponymic (place-name) links are tenuous and can be explained by other linguistic families. Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica