Basque language
Basque (Euskara)
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Spoken in:
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Spain and
France |
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Region:
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Basque Country |
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Total speakers:
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580,000
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Ranking:
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Not in top 100
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Genetic
classification: |
Language isolate |
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Official status
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Official language of:
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Basque Country (Spain)
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Regulated by:
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Euskaltzaindia
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Language codes
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ISO 639-1:
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eu
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ISO 639-2(B):
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baq
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ISO 639-2(T):
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eus
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SIL:
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BSQ
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Basque is the
language spoken by the
Basque people, who live in northern
Spain
and the adjoining area of southwestern
France.
The Standard Basque name for the language is euskara;
other dialectal forms are euskera, eskuara
and üskara. Although it is geographically entirely
surrounded by
Indo-European languages, it is believed to be a
language isolate.
History and classification
The ancestors of Basques are among the
ancient inhabitants of
Europe,
and their origins are still unknown as are the origins of
their language itself. Many scholars have tried to link
Basque to
Etruscan,
African languages,
Caucasian languages and so on, but most scholars see
Basque as a
language isolate. It was spoken long before the
Romans brought Latin to the
Iberian Peninsula.
Geographic distribution
The region in which Basque is spoken is known as the
Basque Country, or Euskal Herria in Basque.
Official status
Basque holds official language status in the Basque
regions of Spain: the full
Basque Country and some parts of
Navarre.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, the local charter of the
Basque-colonized Ojacastro valley (Rioja)
allowed the inhabitants to use Basque in legal processes.
Dialects
Now there are eight dialects, which do not match with the
political divisions. One of the first scientific studies of
Basque was made by
Louis-Lucien Bonaparte (a descendant of
Napoleon).
Derived languages
There is now a unified version of Euskara called Batua
("unified" in Basque), which is the language taught in
schools. Batua is based largely on the
Gipuzkoa regional dialect.
In the 16th century, Basque sailors mixed Basque words
with a European Atlantic pidgin in their contacts with
Iceland.
Several travelling professional groups of Castile used
Basque words in their secret jargons : examples are the
gacería , the mingaña and the Galician
fala dos arxinas .
Grammar
Basque has some
grammatical forms unusual in Europe, such as the
ergative case, which forces the addition of a -k
to the subject when it has a transitive verb. The auxiliary
verb also reflects the number of the direct object, so the
auxiliary verb can contain a lot of information (about the
subject, the number of direct object, if it is singular or
plural, and the indirect object). Among European languages,
this system (inflection of the auxiliary) is only found in
Basque and some Caucasian languages.
For example, in the phrase:
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Martinek egunkariak erosten dizkit
which means "Martin buys the newspapers for me",
Martin-ek is the subject (more precisely, an ergative),
so it has the -k ending. Egunkariak has an
-ak ending which marks plural object (plural
absolutive, to be exact). The verb is erosten dizkit,
in which erosten is a kind of gerund ("buying") and
the auxiliary dizkit indicates:
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di- marks a verb with both a direct object
and an indirect one, in the present tense;
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-zki- is the number of the direct object
(in this case the newspapers; if it were singular there
would be no suffix); and
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-t is the indirect object mark: "for me".
Basque distinguishes between laminal sibilants (z,
tz) where friction occurs across the
blade of the tongue (like in a French or English s),
and
apical sibilants (s, ts)
where friction occurs at the tip of the tongue
(like in a Castilian s). It also features palatal
sibilants (x, tx),
sounding like English sh and ch.
Palatal sounds (plosive: tt /c/,
dd /J\/; sibilant: x /S/,
tx /tS/; nasal: ñ /J/; lateral:
ll /L/) are typical of diminutives, which
are used frequently in child language and
motherese (mainly to show affection rather than size).
E.g., tanta ("drop") vs. ttantta
(droplet). A few common words, such as txakur
("dog"), use palatal sounds even though in current usage
they have lost the diminutive sense; the corresponding
non-palatal forms now acquiring an augmentative or
pejorative sense: zakur ("big dog"). Many dialects
of Basque exhibit a derived palatalization effect in which
coronal onset consonants are changed into the palatal
counterpart after the high, front vowel [i]. For example,
the [n] in [egin] (to act) becomes a palatal [ñ] when the
suffix -a is added, changing /egina/ to [egiña] (the
action).
Letter j is pronounced as [j], [j\],
[J\], [Z], [S] or [x] according to region ([x] is typical of
the Spanish Basque Country). The vowel system is the same as
Spanish for most speakers, namely /a, e, i, o, u/. It is
thought that Spanish took this system from Basque. Speakers
of the Souletin dialect also have a sixth, front rounded
vowel, represented in writing by ü but
represents /2/ much like a German ö, rather than a
aGerman ü or French u /y/.
Basque features great dialectal variation in stress, from
a weak pitch-accent in the central dialects to a marked
stress in some outer dialects, with varying patterns of
stress placement. Stress is in general not distinctive;
there are, however, a few instances where stress is
phonemic, serving to distinguish between a few pairs of
stress-marked words and between some grammatical forms
(mainly plurals from other forms). E.g., basóà
("the forest", absolutive case) vs. básoà ("the
glass", absolutive case; a borrowing from Spanish vaso);
basóàk ("the forest", ergative case) vs. básoàk
("the glass", ergative case) vs. básoak ("the
forests" or "the glasses", absolutive case). Given its great
deal of variation among dialects, stress is not marked in
the standard orthography and Euskaltzaindia only provides
general recommendations for a standard placement of stress,
basically to place a high-pitched weak stress (weaker than
that of Spanish, let alone that of English) on the second
syllable of a syntagma, and a low-pitched even-weaker stress
on its last syllable, except in plural forms where stress is
moved to the first syllable. This scheme provides Basque
with a distinct musicality which sets its sound apart from
the prosodical patterns of Spanish (which tends to stress
the second-to-last syllable). Euskaldunberris ("new
Basque-speakers", i.e. second-language Basque-speakers) with
Spanish as their first language tend to carry the prosodical
patterns of Spanish into their pronunciation of Basque,
giving rise to a much despised decaffeinated
pronunciation; e.g., pronouncing nire ama ("my
mom") as nire áma (- - ´ -), instead of as niré
amà (- ´ - `).
Vocabulary
By contact with neighbouring peoples, Basque has borrowed
words from
Latin,
Spanish,
French,
Gascon etc. Some studies claim that half of its words
come from Latin, but phonetic evolution has made many of
them appear nowadays as if they were native words, e.g.
lore ("flower", from florem), gela
("room", from cellam).
Writing system
Basque is written using the
Latin alphabet.
Phrases
Basic phrases
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Bai = Yes
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Ez = No
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Kaixo! (in Spain), Agur!
(in France)= Hello
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Agur! (in Spain), Adio!
(in France)= Goodbye!
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Ikusi arte = See you!
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Eskerrik asko! = Thank you!
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Egun on = Good morning
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Arratsalde on = Good evening
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Gabon = Good night
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Mesedez = Please
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Barkatu = Excuse (me)
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Aizu! = Listen! (To get someone's
attention, not very polite, to be used with friends)
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Kafe hutsa nahi nuke = Can I have a
coffee?
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Garagardoa nahi nuke = Can I have a
beer?
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Komunak = Toilets
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Komuna non dago? = Where are the
toilets?
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Non dago tren-geltokia? = Where is
the train station?
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Non dago autobus-geltokia? = Where
is the bus station?
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Ba al da hotelik hemen inguruan? =
Where is the (nearest, only) hotel?
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Zorionak = Happy holidays (During
Christmas and new year´s)
Advanced phrases
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Eup!= The real way to
greet someone on the street, pronounced apa or aupa.
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Kaixo aspaldiko! = Like Kaixo, but
adds "Long time, no see"-meaning.
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Ez horregatik = You're welcome
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Ez dut ulertzen = I don't
understand
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Ez dakit euskaraz= I don't speak
Basque
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Ba al dakizu ingelesez?= Dou you
speak English?
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Neska polita = (You´re a) beautiful
girl
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Zein da zure izena? = What is your
name?
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Pozten nau zu ezagutzeak = Nice to
meet you
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Ongi etorri! = Welcome!
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Egun on denoi = Good morning
everyone!
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Berdin / Hala zuri ere = The same
to you (E.g. after Kaixo or Egun on)
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Jakina! Noski! = Sure! OK!
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Nongoa zara? = Where are you from?
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Non dago...? = Where is...?
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Badakizu euskaraz? = Do you speak
Basque?
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Bai ote? = Really? Maybe?
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Bizi gara!! = We are alive!!
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Bagarela!! = So we are!! (Answer to
the above)
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Topa! = Cheers!
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Hementxe! = Over / right here!
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Geldi!= Stop
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Lasai= Take it easy
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Ez dut nahi= I don't want
See also
External links
Grammar
Dictionaries
References
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HUALDE, José Ignacio & DE URBINA, Jon Ortiz
(eds.): A Grammar of Basque. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 2003. ISBN 3-11-017683-1.
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TRASK, R. Larry: History of Basque. New
York/London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0415131162.
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Noka is a familiar form of address, used only in speaking to
women. It literally means to speak familiarly or informally to
women, and was used throughout the Basque Country when addressing
women or girls with whom one felt konfiantza (trust). Use of noka
began to decline in the 19th century, though speakers from some
small villages (many of whom immigrated to Chino) continue to use
it. 
Hika is an informal
form of address that is used among Basque speakers. It conveys
a degree of relationship or common connection between the two
speakers. It is perhaps best contrasted with "tu" and "usted"
in Spanish. The more familiar, or informal reference of "tu"
is closest to the hika form of address. 