Family transmission of Basque language (Basque as initial language)Percentage of students registered in Basque language schools (2000–2005)Location of the Basque-language provinces within France and Spain
Basque (/ˈbæsk,ˈbɑːsk/BASK,BAHSK;[4]euskara[eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is a language spoken byBasques and other residents of theBasque Country, a region that straddles the westernmostPyrenees in adjacent parts of southwestern France and northern Spain. Basque is classified as alanguage isolate (unrelated to any other known languages), the only one inEurope. The Basques are indigenous to and primarily inhabit the Basque Country.[5] The Basque language is spoken by 806,000 Basques in all territories. Of them, 93.7% (756,000) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.3% (51,000) are in the French portion.[1]
Native speakers live in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish provinces and thethree "ancient provinces" in France.Gipuzkoa, most ofBiscay, a few municipalities on the northern border ofÁlava and the northern area ofNavarre formed the core of the remaining Basque-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen Basque fluency. By contrast, most of Álava, the westernmost part of Biscay, and central and southern Navarre are predominantly populated by native speakers ofSpanish, either because Basquewas replaced by eitherNavarro-Aragonese or Spanish over the centuries (as in most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it may never have been spoken there (as in parts ofEnkarterri and south-eastern Navarre).
InFrancoist Spain, Basque language use was discouraged by the government'srepressive policies. In the Basque Country, "Francoist repression was not only political, but also linguistic and cultural."[6]Franco's regime suppressed Basque from official discourse, education, and publishing,[7] making it illegal to register newborn babies under Basque names,[8] and even requiring tombstone engravings in Basque to be removed.[9] In some provinces the public use of Basque was suppressed, with people fined for speaking it.[10] Public use of Basque was frowned upon by supporters of the regime, often regarded as a sign of anti-Francoism orseparatism.[11] In the 1960s and later, the trend reversed and education and publishing in Basque began to flourish.[12] As a part of this process, a standardised form of the Basque language, calledEuskara Batua, was developed by theEuskaltzaindia in the late 1960s.
Besides its standardised version, the five historic Basque dialects areBiscayan,Gipuzkoan, andUpper Navarrese in Spain andNavarrese–Lapurdian andSouletin in France. They take their names from the historic Basque provinces, but the dialect boundaries are not congruent with province boundaries. Euskara Batua was created so that the Basque language could be used—and easily understood by all Basque speakers—in formal situations (education, mass media, literature), and this is its main use today. In both Spain and France, the use of Basque for education varies from region to region and from school to school.[13]
In Basque, the name of the language is officiallyeuskara (alongside variousdialect forms).
In French, the language is normally calledbasque thougheuskara has become common in recent times. Spanish has a greater variety of names for the language. Today, it is most commonly referred to asvasco,lengua vasca, oreuskera. Both terms,vasco andbasque, are inherited from the LatinethnonymVascones, which in turn goes back to the Greek termΟὐάσκωνες (ouáskōnes), anethnonym used byStrabo in hisGeographica (23 CE, Book III).[15]
The Spanish termvascuence, derived from Latinvasconĭce,[16] has acquired negative connotations over the centuries and is not well-liked amongst Basque speakers generally. Its use is documented at least as far back as the 14th century when a law passed inHuesca in 1349 stated thatItem nuyl corridor nonsia usado que faga mercadería ninguna que compre nin venda entre ningunas personas, faulando en algaravia nin en abraych nin enbasquenç: et qui lo fara pague por coto XXX sol—essentially penalising the use of Arabic, Hebrew, or Basque in marketplaces with a fine of 30sols (the equivalent of 30 sheep).[17]
Despite the Basque language being geographically surrounded byRomance languages, it is a language isolate that is unrelated to them or to any other living language. Most scholars believe Basque to be the last remaining descendant of one of thepre-Indo-European languages ofprehistoric Europe.[15] Consequently, it may be impossible to reconstruct the prehistory of the Basque language by the traditionalcomparative method except by applying it to differences between Basque dialects. Little is known of its origins, but it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in and around the area of modern Basque Country before the arrival of the Indo-European languages in western Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.
Authors such asMiguel de Unamuno andLouis Lucien Bonaparte have noted that the words for "knife" (aizto), "axe" (aizkora), and "hoe" (aitzur) appear to derive from the word for "stone" (haitz), and have therefore concluded that the language dates toprehistoric Europe when those tools were made of stone.[18][19] Others findthis theory unlikely.
Roman neglect of this area allowed Aquitanian to survive while theIberian andTartessian languages became extinct. Through the long contact with Romance languages, Basque adopted a sizeable number of Romance words. Initially the source was Latin, laterGascon (a branch ofOccitan) in the north-east,Navarro-Aragonese in the south-east andSpanish in the south-west.
Since 1968, Basque has been immersed in a revitalisation process, facing formidable obstacles. However, significant progress has been made in numerous areas. Six main factors have been identified to explain its relative success:
While those six factors influenced the revitalisation process, the extensive development and use oflanguage technologies is also considered a significant additional factor.[21]
Hypotheses concerning Basque's connections to other languages
Many linguists have tried to link Basque with other languages, but no hypothesis has gained mainstream acceptance. Apart frompseudoscientific comparisons, the appearance of long-range linguistics gave rise to several attempts to connect Basque with geographically very distant language families such asGeorgian. Historical work on Basque is challenging since written material and documentation has been available only for some few hundred years. Almost all hypotheses concerning the origin of Basque are controversial, and the suggested evidence is not generally accepted by mainstream linguists. Some of these hypothetical connections are:
Inscription with Basque-like lexical forms identified as "UME ZAHAR",Lerga (Navarre)
Ligurian substrate: this hypothesis, proposed in the 19th century by d'Arbois de Jubainville, J. Pokorny, P. Kretschmer and several other linguists, encompasses the Basco-Iberian hypothesis.
Iberian: another ancient language once spoken in theIberian Peninsula, shows several similarities withAquitanian and Basque. However, most scholars say that there is not enough evidence to distinguish geographical connections from linguistic ones. Iberian itself remainsunclassified. Eduardo Orduña Aznar claims to have established correspondences between Basque and Iberian numerals[22] and noun case markers. Other scholars have also claimed to identify a similarity between Iberian and Basque.[23]
Vasconic substratum hypothesis: this proposal, made by the German linguistTheo Vennemann, claims that enoughtoponymical evidence exists to conclude that Basque is the only survivor of a larger family that once extended throughout most of western Europe, and has also left its mark in modern Indo-European languages spoken in Europe.
Georgian: linking Basque to theKartvelian languages is now widely discredited. The hypothesis was inspired by the existence of the ancientKingdom of Iberia in theCaucasus and some similarities in societal practices and agriculture between the two populations. Historical comparisons are difficult due to the dearth of historical material for Basque and several of the Kartvelian languages. Typological similarities have been proposed for some of the phonological characteristics and most importantly for some of the details of the ergative constructions, but they alone cannot prove historical relatedness between languages since such characteristics are found in other languages across the world, even if not in Indo-European.[24][25] According toJ. P. Mallory, the hypothesis was also inspired by a Basque place-name ending in-dze which is common in Kartvelian.[26] The hypothesis suggested that Basque and Georgian were remnants of a pre-Indo-European group.
Dené–Caucasian: based on the possible Caucasian link, some linguists, for exampleJohn Bengtson andMerritt Ruhlen, have proposed including Basque in the Dené–Caucasian superfamily of languages, but the proposed superfamily includes languages from North America and Eurasia, and its existence is highly controversial.[15]
Indo-European: a genetic link between Basque and the Indo-European languages has been proposed by Forni (2013),[28][29]Blevins (2018),[30] though their contributions to the hypothesis have been rejected by most reviewers,[31][32][33][34][35][36] both including scholars adhering to the mainstream view of Basque as a language isolate (Gorrochategui, Lakarra) and proponents of wide-range genetic relations (Bengtson).
Geographical traces of the Basque language. Blue dots: place names; red dots: epigraphic traces (gravestones...) in Roman times; blue patch: maximum extension.Percentage of fluent speakers of Basque (areas where Basque is not spoken are included within the 0–4% interval)Percentage of people fluent in Basque language in Navarre (2001), including second-language speakers
The region where Basque is spoken has become smaller over centuries, especially at the northern, southern, and eastern borders. Nothing is known about the limits of the region in ancient times but on the basis of toponyms and epigraphs, it seems that in the beginning of theCommon Era it stretched to the riverGaronne in the north (including the south-western part of present-day France); at least to theVal d'Aran in the east (now aGascon-speaking part ofCatalonia), including lands on both sides of thePyrenees;[37] the southern and western boundaries are not clear at all.
TheReconquista temporarily counteracted that contracting tendency when the Christian lords called on northern Iberian peoples (Basques,Asturians, and "Franks") to colonise the new conquests.
By the 16th century, the Basque-speaking area was reduced basically to the present-day seven provinces of the Basque Country, excluding the southern part of Navarre, the south-western part ofÁlava, and the western part of Biscay, and including some parts ofBéarn.[38]
In 1807, Basque was still spoken in the northern half of Álava—including its capital cityVitoria-Gasteiz[39]—and a vast area in central Navarre, but in those two provinces, Basque experienced a rapid decline that pushed its border northwards. In theFrench Basque Country, Basque was still spoken in all the territory except inBayonne and some villages around, and including some bordering towns inBéarn.
In the 20th century, however, the rise ofBasque nationalism spurred increased interest in the language as a sign of ethnic identity, and with the establishment of autonomous governments in theSouthern Basque Country, it has recently made a modest comeback. In the Spanish part, Basque-language schools for children and Basque-teaching centres for adults have brought the language to areas such as westernEnkarterri and the Ribera del Ebro in southern Navarre, where it is not known to ever have been widely spoken; and in the French Basque Country, those schools and centres have almost stopped the decline of the language.
Historically, Latin or Romance languages have been the official languages in the region. However, Basque was explicitly recognised in some areas. For instance, thefuero or charter of the Basque-colonisedOjacastro (now inLa Rioja) allowed the inhabitants to use Basque in legal processes in the 13th and 14th centuries. Basque was allowed in telegraph messages in Spain thanks to the royal decree of 1904.[40]
TheSpanish Constitution of 1978 states in Article 3 that theSpanish language is the official language of the nation, but allows autonomous communities to provide a co-official language status for the otherlanguages of Spain.[41] Consequently, the Statute of Autonomy of theBasque Autonomous Community establishes Basque as the co-official language of the autonomous community. The Statute of Navarre establishes Spanish as the official language of Navarre, but grants co-official status to the Basque language in the Basque-speaking areas of northern Navarre. Basque has no official status in the French Basque Country and French citizens are barred from officially using Basque in a French court of law. However, the use of Basque by Spanish nationals in French courts is permitted (with translation), as Basque is officially recognised on the other side of the border.
The positions of the various existing governments differ with regard to the promotion of Basque in areas where Basque is commonly spoken. The language has official status in those territories that are within the Basque Autonomous Community, where it is spoken and promoted heavily but only partially in Navarre. TheLey del Vascuence ('Law of Basque'), seen as contentious by many Basques, but considered fitting Navarra's linguistic and cultural diversity by some of the main political parties of Navarre,[42] divides Navarre into three language areas: Basque-speaking, non-Basque-speaking, and mixed. Support for the language and the linguistic rights of citizens vary, depending on the area. Others consider it unfair, since the rights of Basque speakers differ greatly depending on the place they live.
Map showing the historical retreat and expansion of Basque within the context of its linguistic neighbours between the years 1000 and 2000Testimonies of Basque sociolinguistic dynamics (French Basque Country)Lines in an exercise book given as punishment duringFranco's regime. The line is "En la escuela no tengo que hablar vasco" (transl. "I must not speak in Basque at school").
The 2021 sociolinguistic survey of all Basque-speaking territories showed that, of all people aged 16 and above:[1]
In theBasque Autonomous Community, 36.2% were fluent Basque speakers, 18.5%passive speakers and 45.3% did not speak Basque. The percentage was highest inGipuzkoa (51.8% speakers) andBizkaia (30.6%) and lowest in Álava (22.4%). Those results represent an increase from previous years (33.9% in 2016, 30.1% in 2006, 29.5% in 2001, 27.7% in 1996 and 24.1% in 1991). The highest concentration of speakers can now be found in the 16–24 age range (74.5%) vs. 22.0% in the 65+ age range.
In theFrench Basque Country, in 2021, 20.0% were fluent Basque speakers. Because the French Basque Country is not under the influence of the Basque Autonomous Country government, people in the region have fewer incentives from government authorities to learn the language. As such, those results represent another decrease from previous years (22.5% in 2006, 24.8% in 2001 and 26.4 in 1996 or 56,146 in 1996 to 51,197 in 2016). However, for those in the 16-24 age range, the proportion of Basque speakers increased to 21.5%, from 12.2% 20 years earlier.
InNavarre, 14.1% were fluent Basque speakers, 10.5% passive speakers, and 75.4% did not speak Basque. The percentage was highest in the Basque-speaking zone in the north (62.3% speakers, including 85.9% of youth) and lowest in the non-Basque-speaking zone in the south (1.6%). The overall proportion of 14.1% represented a slight increase from previous years (12.9% in 2016, 11.1% in 2006,10.3% in 2001, 9.6% in 1996 and 9.5% in 1991). Among age groups, the highest percentage of speakers can now be found in the 16–24 age range (28%) vs. 8.3% in the 65+ age range.
In 2021, out of a population of 2,634,800 over 16 years of age (1,838,800 in the Autonomous community, 546,000 in Navarre and 250,000 in the Northern Basque Country), 806,000 spoke Basque, which amounted to 30.6% of the population. Compared to the 1991 figures, that represents an overall increase of 266,000, from 539,110 speakers 30 years previously (430,000 in the BAC,[clarification needed] 40,110 in FCN,[clarification needed] and 69,000 in the Northern provinces). The number has tended to increase, as in all regions the age group most likely to speak Basque was those between 16 and 24 years old. In the BAC, the proportion in that age group that spoke the language (74.5%) was nearly triple the comparable figure from 1991, when barely a quarter of the population spoke Basque.[1]
While there is a general increase in the number of Basque speakers during the period, that is mainly because ofbilingualism. Basque transmission as a sole mother tongue has decreased from 19% in 1991 to 15.1% in 2016, and Basque and another language being used as mother language increased from 3% to 5.4% in the same time period. General public attitude towards efforts to promote the Basque language have also been more positive, with the share of people against those efforts falling from 20.9% in 1991 to 16% in 2016.[43]
In 2021, the study found that in the BAC, when both parents were Basque speakers, 98% of children were communicated to only in Basque, and 2% were communicated to in both Basque and Spanish. When only one parent was a Basque-speaker and had Basque as a first language, 84% used Basque and Spanish and 16% only Spanish. In Navarre, the family language of 94.3% of the youngest respondents with both Basque parents was Basque. In the Northern Basque Country, however, when both parents were Basque-speaking, just two thirds transmitted only Basque to their offspring, and as age decreased, the transmission rate also decreased.[1]
Basque speakers (as a % of each region's population), gains/losses compared to previous survey
The modern dialects of Basque according to 21st-century dialectology.
Western (Biscayan)
Central (Gipuzkoan)
Upper Navarrese
Lower Navarrese–Lapurdian
Souletin (Zuberoan)
other Basque areasca 1850 (Bonaparte)
The modern Basque dialects show a high degree of dialectal divergence, sometimes making cross-dialect communication difficult. That is especially true in the case of Biscayan and Souletin, which are regarded as the most divergent Basque dialects.
Modern Basque dialectology distinguishes five dialects:[47]
Those dialects are divided in 11 subdialects, and 24 minor varieties among them.According toKoldo Zuazo,[48] the Biscayan dialect or "Western" is the most widespread dialect, with around 300,000 speakers out of a total of around 660,000 speakers. The dialect is divided in two minor subdialects (Western Biscayan and Eastern Biscayan), as well as transitional dialects.
Although the influence of the neighbouringRomance languages on the Basque language (especially the lexicon, but also to some degree Basque phonology and grammar) has been much more extensive, it is usually assumed that there has been some influence from Basque into those languages as well.Gascon andAragonese particularly andSpanish to a lesser degree are thought to have received Basque influence in the past. In the cases of Aragonese and Gascon, that would have been throughsubstrate interference followinglanguage shift fromAquitanian or Basque to a Romance language that has affected all levels of the language, including place names around the Pyrenees.[49][50][51][52][53]
Although a number of words of alleged Basque origin in Spanish are circulated (e.g.anchoa 'anchovies',bizarro 'dashing, gallant, spirited',cachorro 'puppy', etc.), most of them have more easily-explained Romance etymologies or not particularly-convincing derivations from Basque.[15] Ignoring cultural terms, there is one strongloanword candidate,ezker, long considered the source of the Pyrenean andIberian Romance words for "left (side)" (izquierdo,esquerdo,esquerre).[15][54] The lack of initial/r/ in Gascon could arguably be from Basque influence, but that issue is under-researched.[15]
There are other most commonly-claimed substrate influences:
The first two features are common, widespread developments in many Romance (and non-Romance) languages.[15][specify] The change of/f/ to/h/ occurred historically only in limited areas (Gascony and northernOld Castile), which correspond almost exactly to the places where heavy Basque bilingualism in the past is assumed and, as a result, has been widely postulated and equally strongly disputed. Substrate theories are often difficult to prove (especially in the case of phonetically-plausible changes like/f/ to/h/). As a result, many arguments have been made on both sides, but the debate largely comes down to the a priori tendency on the part of particular linguists to accept or reject substrate arguments.
Examples of arguments against the substrate theory[15] and possible responses:
Spanish did not fully shift/f/ to/h/; instead, it has preserved/f/ before consonants such as/w/ and/ɾ/ (cffuerte,frente). (On the other hand, the occurrence of[f] in those words might be a secondary development from an earlier sound such as[h] or[ɸ] and learned words or words influenced by written Latin form. Gascon has/h/ in these words, which might reflect the original situation.)
Evidence of Arabic loanwords in Spanish points to/f/ continuing to exist long after a Basque substrate might have had any effect on Spanish. (On the other hand, the occurrence of/f/ in those words might be a late development. Many languages have come to accept new phonemes from other languages after a period of significant influence. For example, French lost/h/ but later regained it as a result of Germanic influence, and it has recently gained/ŋ/ as a result of English influence.)
Basque regularly developed Latin/f/ into/b/ or/p/.
The same change also occurs in parts of Sardinia, Italy and the Romance languages of the Balkans where no Basque substrate can be reasonably argued for. (On the other hand, the fact that the same change might have occurred elsewhere independently does not disprove substrate influence. Furthermore, parts ofSardinia also have prothetic/a/ or/e/ before initial/r/, just as in Basque and Gascon, which may actually argue for some type of influence between both areas.)
Some examples in the initial position are for example,/v/ in Latinvulture, which became the/p/ ofputre; initial Spanish/b/ ofbolsa, "purse" also converged to a voiceless in Basquepoltsa, while/p/ of Latinpace[m], "peace" has evolved into the reverse direction, the voicing sound/b/ ofbake, or Latinpica[m], "magpie", which didn't change anything aspika. Latin/f/ officus, "fig" orfagus, "beech" changed also into/p/piku andpago. Logically, this paralelisms depend actually on phonetic evolutions, the time of the borrowing and the language from which it was loaned (Latin, Late Latin, Early Romance, Spanish, French or others). The same could be said for the borrowings in thereverse direction.
The Basque language features five vowels:/a/,/e/,/i/,/o/ and/u/ (the same that are found inSpanish,Asturian andAragonese). In theZuberoan dialect, extra phonemes are featured:
There is no distinctive vowel length in Basque although vowels may be lengthened for emphasis. The mid vowels/e/ and/o/ are raised before nasal consonants.[60]
Basque has an elision rule according to which the vowel/a/ is elided before any following vowel.[61] That does not prevent the existence of diphthongs with/a/ present.
^Basque's two rhotics contrast only between vowels, and the trill is then written as-rr- and the tap as-r-. When a suffix is added to a word ending in-r, a trill is generally used, as inederrago 'more beautiful', fromeder 'beautiful' and-ago. There is a small number of words that are exceptions to the rule, with de Rijk listing the following ten common ones:zer,ezer,nor,inor,hor,paper,plater,plazer,ur, andzur.[63]
In syllable-final position, all plosives aredevoiced and are spelled accordingly in Standard Basque. When between vowels, and often when after/r/ or/l/, the voiced plosives/b/,/d/, and/ɡ/, are pronounced as the correspondingfricatives[β],[ð], and[ɣ].[62]
Basque has a distinction betweenlaminal andapical articulation for the alveolar fricatives and affricates. With the laminal alveolar fricative[s̻], the friction occurs across the blade of the tongue, the tongue tip pointing toward the lower teeth. That is the usual/s/ in most European languages and is written with an orthographic⟨z⟩. In contrast, thevoiceless apicoalveolar fricative[s̺] is written⟨s⟩; the tip of the tongue points toward the upper teeth and friction occurs at the tip (apex). For example,zu'you' (singular, respectful) is distinguished fromsu'fire'. The affricate counterparts are written⟨tz⟩ and⟨ts⟩. So,etzi'the day after tomorrow' is distinguished frometsi'to give up';atzo'yesterday' is distinguished fromatso'old woman'.[64]
In the westernmost parts of the Basque country, only the apical⟨s⟩ and the alveolar affricate⟨tz⟩ are used.
Basque also features postalveolar sibilants (/ʃ/, written⟨x⟩, and/tʃ/, written⟨tx⟩).[65]
Regional realisations of⟨j⟩
The letter⟨j⟩ has a variety of realisations according to the regional dialect:[j,dʒ,x,ʃ,ɟ,ʝ], as pronounced from west to east in south Bizkaia and coastal Lapurdi, central Bizkaia, east Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, south Navarre, inland Lapurdi and Low Navarre, and Zuberoa, respectively.[66]
The⟨h⟩ is pronounced only in the north-east, as the isoglosses here show.
The letter⟨h⟩ is pronounced in the northern dialects but not in the southern ones. Unified Basque spells it except when it is predictable, after a consonant.[clarification needed][67]
Unless they are recent loanwords (e.g.Ruanda'Rwanda',radar,robot ... ), words may not have initial⟨r⟩. In older loans, initialr- took aprosthetic vowel, resulting inerr- (Erroma'Rome',Errusia'Russia'), more rarelyirr- (for exampleirratia'radio',irrisa'rice') andarr- (for examplearrazional'rational').[68]
Basque does not have/m/ in syllable final position, and syllable-final/n/ assimilates to the place of articulation of following plosives. As a result,/nb/ is pronounced like[mb], and/nɡ/ is realized as[ŋɡ].[69]
Basque has two types ofpalatalization, automatic palatalization and expressive palatalization. Automatic palatalization occurs in westernLabourd, much ofNavarre, all ofGipuzkoa, and nearly all ofBiscay. As a result of automatic palatalization,/n/ and/l/ become thepalatal nasal[ɲ] and thepalatal lateral[ʎ] respectively after the vowel/i/ and before another vowel. An exception is the loanwordlili 'lily'. The same palatalization occurs after thesemivowel[j] of the diphthongsai, ei, oi, ui. The palatalization occurs in a wider area, includingSoule, all of Gipuzkoa and Biscay, and almost all of Navarre. In a few regions,/n/ and/l/ can be palatalized even in the absence of a following vowel. After palatalization, the semivowel[j] is usually absorbed by the palatal consonant. That can be seen in older spellings, such asmalla instead of modernmaila 'degree'. However, the modern orthography for Standard Basque ignores automatic palatalization.[70]
In certain regions of Gipuzkoa and Biscay, intervocalic/t/ is often palatalized after/i/ and especially[j]. It may become indistinguishable from the affricate/tʃ/,[71] spelled⟨tx⟩, soaita 'father' may sound like it were spelledatxa oratta.[72] That type of palatalization is far from general, and is often viewed as substandard.[71]
InGoizueta Basque, there are a few examples of/nt/ being palatalized after/i/, and optional palatalization of/ld/. For example,mintegi 'seedbed' becomes[mincei], andbildots 'lamb' can be/biʎots̺/.[72]
Basque nouns, adjectives, and adverbs can be expressively palatalized and express 'smallness', rarely literal; they often show affection in nouns and mitigation in adjectives and adverbs. That is often used in the formation of pet names and nicknames. In words containing one or more sibilant, those sibilants are palatalized to form the palatalized form. That is,s andz becomex, andts andtz becometx. As a result,gizon 'man' becomesgixon 'little fellow',zoro 'crazy, insane' becomesxoro 'silly, foolish', andbildots 'lamb' becomesbildotx 'lambkin, young lamb'.
In words without sibilants,/t/,/d/,/n/, and/l/ can become palatalized, which is indicated in writing with a double consonant except in the case of palatalized/n/, which is written⟨ñ⟩. Thus,tanta 'drop' becomesttantta 'droplet', andnabar 'grey' becomesñabar 'grey and pretty, greyish'.[71]
The pronunciation oftt anddd, and the existence ofdd, differ by dialect. In the Gipuzkoan and Biscayan dialectstt is often pronounced the same astx, that is, as[tʃ], anddd does not exist.[71] Likewise, in Goizueta Basque,tt is avoiceless palatal stop[c] and the corresponding voiced palatal stop,[ɟ], is absent except as an allophone of/j/. In Goizueta Basque,/j/ is sometimes the result of an affectionate palatalization of/d/.[73]
Palatalization of the rhotics is rare and occurs only in the eastern dialects. When palatalized, the rhotics become the palatal lateral[ʎ]. Likewise, palatalization of velars, resulting intt ortx, is quite rare.[74]
A few common words, such astxakur 'dog', pronounced/tʃakur/, 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'.[74]
There are some rules governing the behaviour of consonants in contact with each other and apply both within and between words. When two plosives meet, the first one is dropped, and the second becomes voiceless. If a sibilant follows a plosive, the plosive is dropped, and the sibilant becomes the corresponding affricate. When a plosive follows an affricate, the affricate becomes a sibilant, and a voiced plosive is devoiced. When a voiced plosive follows a sibilant, it is devoiced except in very slow and careful speech. In the central dialects of Basque, a sibilant turns into an affricate if it follows a liquid or a nasal. When a plosive follows a nasal, there is a strong tendency for it to become voiced.[75]
Basque features great dialectal variation in accentuation, from a weakpitch accent in the western dialects to a marked stress in central and eastern dialects, with varying patterns of stress placement.[76]
Stress is in general not distinctive (and for historical comparisons not very useful); there are, however, a few instances in which 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; an adoption from Spanishvaso);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 standardorthography andEuskaltzaindia (the Academy of the Basque Language) provides only 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 asyntagma, and a low-pitched even-weaker stress on its last syllable, except in plural forms in which stress is moved to the first syllable.
That scheme provides Basque with a distinct musicality that differentiates its sound from theprosodical patterns of Spanish (which tends to stress the second-last syllable). SomeEuskaldun berriak ('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, e.g. pronouncingnire ama ('my mum') asnire áma (– – ´ –), instead of asniré amà (– ´ – `).
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The combining forms of nominals in final/-u/ vary across the regions of the Basque Country. The/u/ can stay unchanged, be lowered to an/a/, or it can be lost. Loss is most common in the east, while lowering is most common in the west. For instance,buru,'head', has the combining formsburu- andbur-, as inburuko,'cap', andburko,'pillow', whereaskatu,'cat', has the combining formkata-, as inkatakume,'kitten'. Michelena suggests that the lowering to/a/ is generalised from cases of Romance borrowings in Basque that retained Romance stem alternations, such askantu,'song' with combining formkanta-, borrowed from Romancecanto,canta-.[77]
Theauxiliary verb, which accompanies most main verbs, agrees not only with the subject but also with any direct or indirect object present. Among European languages, thepolypersonal agreement is found only in Basque, somelanguages of the Caucasus (especially theKartvelian languages),Mordvinic languages,Hungarian, andMaltese (all non-Indo-European). The ergative–absolutive alignment is also rare among European languages and occurs only in some languages of the Caucasus but is frequent worldwide.
Martin-ek is the agent (transitive subject), so it is marked with the ergative case ending-k (with anepenthetic-e-).Egunkariak has an-ak ending, which marks plural object (plural absolutive, direct object case). The verb iserosten dizkit, in whicherosten is a kind of gerund ("buying") and the auxiliarydizkit means "he/she (does) them for me". Thedizkit can be divided like this:
di- is used in the present tense when the verb has a subject (ergative), a direct object (absolutive), and an indirect object, and the object is him/her/it/them.
-zki- means the absolutive (in this case the newspapers) is plural; if it were singular there would be no infix; and
-t or-da- means "to me/for me" (indirect object).
in this instance there is no suffix after-t. A zero suffix in this position indicates that the ergative (the subject) is third person singular (he/she/it).
The auxiliary verb is composed asdi-zki-da-zue' and means 'you pl. (do) them for me'.
di- indicates that the main verb is transitive and in the present tense
-zki- indicates that the direct object is plural
-da- indicates that the indirect object is me (to me/for me;-t becomes-da- unless final)
-zue indicates that the subject is you (plural)
The pronounzuek 'you (plural)' has the same form both in the nominative or absolutive case (the subject of an intransitive sentence or direct object of a transitive sentence) and in the ergative case (the subject of a transitive sentence). In spoken Basque, the auxiliary verb is never dropped even if it is redundant:dizkidazue inzuek niri egunkariak erosten dizkidazue 'you (pl.) are buying the newspapers for me'. However, the pronouns are almost always dropped:zuek inegunkariak erosten dizkidazue 'you (pl.) are buying the newspapers for me'. The pronouns are used only to show emphasis:egunkariak zuek erosten dizkidazue 'it is you (pl.) who buys the newspapers for me', oregunkariak niri erosten dizkidazue 'it is me for whom you buy the newspapers'.
Modern Basque dialects allow for the conjugation of about fifteen verbs, called synthetic verbs, some occurring only in literary contexts. They can exist in the present and the past tenses in the indicative and the subjunctive moods, in three tenses in the conditional and the potential moods, and in one tense in the imperative. Each verb that can be taken intransitively has anor (absolutive) paradigm and possibly anor-nori (absolutive–dative) paradigm, as in the sentenceAititeri txapela erori zaio ('The hat fell from grandfather['s head]').[78] Each verb that can be taken transitively uses those two paradigms for antipassive-voice contexts in which no agent is mentioned (Basque lacks a passive voice, and displays instead anantipassive voice paradigm), and also has anor-nork (absolutive–ergative) paradigm and possibly anor-nori-nork (absolutive–dative–ergative) paradigm. The last is exemplified bydizkidazue above. In each paradigm, each constituent noun can take on any of eight persons, five singular and three plural, with the exception ofnor-nori-nork in which the absolutive can be only third-person singular or plural. The most ubiquitous auxiliary,izan, can be used in any of those paradigms, depending on the nature of the main verb.
There are more persons in the singular (5) than in theplural (3) for synthetic (or filamentous) verbs because of the two familiar persons—informal masculine and feminine second-person singular. The pronounhi is used for both of them, but though the masculine form of the verb uses a-k, the feminine uses an-n. That is a property rarely found in Indo-European languages. The entire paradigm of the verb is further augmented by inflecting for "listener" (theallocutive) even if the verb contains no second person constituent. If the situation calls for the familiar masculine, the form is augmented and modified accordingly and likewise for the familiar feminine.
(Gizon bat etorri da,'a man has come';gizon bat etorri duk,'a man has come [you are a male close friend]',gizon bat etorri dun,'a man has come [you are a female close friend]',gizon bat etorri duzu,'a man has come [I talk to you (Sir / Madam)]')[79] That multiplies the number of possible forms by nearly three. Still, the restriction on contexts in which those forms may be used is strong since all participants in the conversation must be friends of the same sex and not too far apart in age. Some dialects dispense with the familiar forms entirely, but the formal second-person singular conjugates in parallel to the other plural forms, which perhaps indicates that it was originally the second-person plural and later came to be used as a formal singular, and the modern second-person plural was formulated only later as an innovation.
All other verbs in Basque are called periphrastic and behave much as participles would in English. They have only three forms in total, calledaspects: perfect (various suffixes), habitual[80] (suffix-t[z]en), and future/potential (suffix.-ko/-go). Verbs of Latinate origin in Basque, as well as many other verbs, have a suffix-tu in the perfect, adapted from the Latin perfect passive-tus suffix. The synthetic verbs also have periphrastic forms, for use in perfects and in simple tenses in which they are deponent.
Within a verb phrase, the periphrastic verb comes first, followed by the auxiliary.
A Basque noun phrase is inflected in 17 different ways for case, multiplied by four ways for its definiteness and number (indefinite, definite singular, definite plural, and definite close plural:euskaldun [Basque-speaker],euskalduna [the Basque speaker, a Basque-speaker],euskaldunak [Basque-speakers, the Basque-speakers], andeuskaldunok [we Basque speakers, those Basque-speakers]). The first 68 forms are further modified based on other parts of the sentence, which in turn are inflected for the noun again. It has been estimated that with two levels ofrecursion, a Basque noun may have 458,683 inflected forms.[81]
Word
Case
Result
meaning
etxe
Ø
etxe
house
etxe
a
etxea
the house
etxe
ak
etxeak
the houses
etxe
a + ra
etxera
to the house
etxe
ak + ra
etxeetara
to the houses
etxe
a + tik
etxetik
from the house
etxe
ak + tik
etxeetatik
from the houses
etxe
a + (r)aino
etxeraino
until the house
etxe
ak + (r)aino
etxeetaraino
until the houses
etxe
a + n
etxean
in the house
etxe
ak + n
etxeetan
in the houses
etxe
a + ko
etxeko
of the house (belonging to)
etxe
ak + ko
etxeetako
of the houses (belonging to)
The common nounliburu'book' is declined as follows:
The proper nameMikel (Michael) is declined as follows:
Word
Case
Result
meaning
Mikel
(r)en
Mikelen
of Mikel
Mikel
(r)engana
Mikelengana
to Mikel
Mikel
(r)ekin
Mikelekin
with Mikel
Within a noun phrase, modifying adjectives follow the noun. As an example of a Basque noun phrase,etxe zaharrean'in the old house' is morphologically analysed as follows by Agirre et al.[82]
Word
Form
Meaning
etxe
noun
house
zahar-
adjective
old
-r-e-
epenthetical elements
n/a
-a-
determinate, singular
the
-n
inessive case
in
Basicword order in syntactic construction issubject–object–verb. The order of the phrases within a sentence can be changed for thematic purposes, whereas the order of the words within a phrase is usually rigid. As a matter of fact, Basque phrase order is topic–focus, meaning that in neutral sentences (such as sentences to inform someone of a fact or event) thetopic is stated first, then thefocus. In such sentences, the verb phrase comes at the end. In brief, the focus directly precedes the verb phrase. This rule is also applied in questions, for instance,What is this? can be translated asZer da hau? orHau zer da?, but in both cases the question tagzer immediately precedes the verbda. This rule is so important in Basque that, even in grammatical descriptions of Basque in other languages, the Basque wordgaldegai'focus' is used.[clarification needed]
In negative sentences, the order changes. Since the negative particleez must always directly precede the auxiliary, the topic most often comes beforehand, and the rest of the sentence follows. This includes the periphrastic, if there is one:Aitak frantsesa irakasten du,'Father teaches French', in the negative becomesAitak ez du frantsesa irakasten, in whichirakasten ('teaching') is separated from its auxiliary and placed at the end.
Through contact with neighbouring peoples, Basque has adopted many words fromLatin,Spanish,French andGascon, among other languages. There are a considerable number of Latin loans (sometimes obscured by being subject to Basque phonology and grammar for centuries), for example:lore ('flower', fromflorem),errota ('mill', fromrotam,'[mill] wheel'),gela ('room', fromcellam),gauza ('thing', fromcausa).[83]
An example of Basque lettering in a funerary stela
Basque is written using theLatin script including⟨ñ⟩ and sometimes⟨ç⟩ and⟨ü⟩. Basque does not use⟨c, q, v, w, y⟩ for native words, but the Basque alphabet (established byEuskaltzaindia) does include them for loanwords:[84]
The phonetically meaningfuldigraphs⟨dd, ll,rr, ts, tt, tx, tz⟩ are treated as pairs of letters.
All letters and digraphs represent uniquephonemes. The main exception is⟨i⟩ if it precedes⟨l⟩ and⟨n⟩, which, in most dialects, palatalises their sounds into/ʎ/ and/ɲ/, even if they are not written. Hence,Ikurriña can also be writtenIkurrina without changing the sound, and the proper nameAinhoa requires the mute⟨h⟩ to break the palatalisation of the⟨n⟩.
The letters of the alphabet in a Basque-style font
⟨h⟩ is mute in most regions but is pronounced in many places in the north-east, the main reason for its existence in the Basque alphabet. Its acceptance was a matter of contention during the standardisation process because the speakers of the most widespread dialects had to learn where to place⟨h⟩, which was silent for them.
A typically Basque style of lettering is sometimes used for inscriptions.It derives from the work of stone and wood carvers and is characterised by thickserifs.
An example of the number system employed by millers
Basque millers traditionally employed a separate number system of unknown origin.[86] In this system the symbols are arranged either along a vertical line or horizontally. On the vertical line the single digits andfractions are usually off to one side, usually at the top. When used horizontally, the smallest units are usually on the right and the largest on the left. As with the Basque system of counting in general, it isvigesimal (base 20). Although it is in theory capable of indicating numbers above 100, most recorded examples do not go above 100. Fractions are relatively common, especially1⁄2.
The exact systems used vary from area to area but generally follow the same principle with 5 usually being a diagonal line or a curve off the vertical line (aV shape is used when writing a 5 horizontally). Units of ten are usually a horizontal line through the vertical. The twenties are based on a circle with intersecting lines. This system is no longer in general use but is occasionally employed for decorative purposes.
Gizon-emakume guztiak aske jaiotzen dira, duintasun eta eskubide berberak dituztela; eta ezaguera eta kontzientzia dutenez gero, elkarren artean senide legez jokatu beharra dute.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Esklabu erremintaria Sartaldeko oihanetan gatibaturik Erromara ekarri zinduten, esklabua, erremintari ofizioa eman zizuten eta kateak egiten dituzu. Labetik ateratzen duzun burdin goria nahieran molda zenezake, ezpatak egin ditzakezu zure herritarrek kateak hauts ditzaten, baina zuk, esklabu horrek, kateak egiten dituzu, kate gehiago.
The blacksmith slave Captive in the rainforests of the West they brought you to Rome, slave, they gave you the blacksmith work and you make chains. The incandescent iron you take out of the oven can be adapted as you wish, you could make swords so your people could break the chains, but you, o, slave, you make chains, more chains.
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^Villamor, Fernando (2020), A BASIC DICTIONARY AND GRAMMAR OF THE IBERIAN LANGUAGE
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