Urbian or Urian is a possible Old European or Pre-Indo-European (Pre-IE) language defined by Sorin Paliga. The Proto-Indo-European (Proto-IE) language, the descendants of which have replaced the Pre-IE language(s), ought not to include a root corresponding to Latin urbs, as the Proto-IE were nomadic or semi-nomadic (in the Kurgan model and most reconstructions of IE society from the roots). Therefore, a reconstructed *OR/UR- or *OL/UL-, "huge, big, elevated", used also to refer to an urban settlement, may well be the root of a cross-cultural repertory of words, such as Latin urbs, "city", Thracian Az-oros, Uri (Swiss location), Basque uri, hiri "township", Greek lab-yr-inthos and Sumerian Urbillum, today the city of Irbil in Iraq.