A lattice of locally coupled quantum oscillators is proposed as a candidate microscopic substrate for emergent spacetime. Each oscillator is treated as an elementary substrate unit (ESU): a minimal quantum degree of freedom whose local dynamics, correlations, and collective organization may underlie higher-level physical structure. For the minimal fixed cubic-lattice realization, the exact collective-mode dispersion relation is derived and shown to approach relativistic propagation at long wavelength, with limiting speed c_eff = a√(K/M). The leading lattice correction is anisotropic and quadratic in momentum, providing both a direct Lorentz-violation signature and an intrinsic ultraviolet cutoff. For a Planck-scale lattice spacing, the corresponding Lorentz-violation scale is E_LV ≈ ħc/ℓ_P ≈ 1.22×10^19 GeV, roughly eight orders of magnitude above the conservative quadratic-order lower bound inferred from GRB 090510 for the bosonic collective sector constructed here. Comparison with strings and matrix models, spin networks, causal sets, causal dynamical triangulations, and quantum graphity shows that the oscillator substrate trades background independence at this stage for calculability, explicit microscopic dynamics, and quantitative falsifiability. The framework further treats possible chains, loops, defects, networks, fields, and particles as structures to be generated—or excluded—by the substrate dynamics rather than inserted independently. Thus the model supplies a concrete first-stage substrate hypothesis and a dynamical selection principle. The calculation establishes kinematic continuum-like emergence on a fixed lattice; dynamical connectivity, a universal causal structure, a massless spin-2 gravitational sector with the required gauge structure, and viable chiral matter remain decisive tests of the broader hypothesis.