See also: Basque (homonymy)
The Basque ( will euskara out of Basque) is a Langue spoken with the Basque Country (France and Spain). 20 000 people are unilingual bascophones. In Spain, the number of speakers is of 734 100 (provinces of Biscay, Álava, Guipúzcoa and of Navarre). In France, there is more 67 200 speakers (statistics 2005), mainly in the department of the Yrénées-Atlantiques. The Basque is also spoken in the Basque Diaspora.
Etymology
The Basque word would come from the name of ancient people, the Vascons (it should be noted that in Spanish, Basque says vasco ), which also gave Gascon (adaptation Gallo-Roman E of a Prononciation Germanique Waskon )
History
See also: History of the Basque language
the Basque language , or Euskara is an essential component of the Basque identity. It is a single language by its originality and its harmony when she is spoken or sung. The origin is very remote, former to the speeches Indo-European S (from which is resulting the French). Remarkable fact, the language underwent very few modifications during the centuries as still has just confirmed it recent discovered Basque inscriptions on the archeological site of Véleia in the province of Alava, and practically has, if one excludes the many loans with the Romance languages, no general term with the European Langues current. If the linguists are not really fixed on the origin first of the Basque, they are intended to estimate that it is about one of the oldest languages and who underwent less modifications.
Classification
The Basque is one of the four linguistic families of Europe, with the Finno-ugric Langues (Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Lappish), the altaïques Langues (Turkish) and the Semitic languages (Maltese) not to belong to the family of the Indo-European Langues. The origin of the Basque language extremely old and is still known little about and even if it is thus advisable traditionally to regard it as a isolate, several assumptions put forth on the question (fastening with the Caucasian Langues, the Finno-ugric languages or the languages Berbère S of North Africa) were explored. Basques recognize by term Euskaldun (“that which has the Basque”), in opposition to Erdaldun (“that which has another language”) today applied especially to Spanish or the français.
Recent work proposes the assumption of a membership of the group of languages called sino-Caucasian : Merrit Ruhlen class Basque in the super-family of the Languages déné-Caucasians. It seems according to the author that the Basques occupied the Western Europe well before the migration of the Indo-Europeans at the second millenium before the Christian era. The Basques would then have been maintained towards the Atlantic and the the Pyrenees, in the area which they occupy currently named formerly according to the territories of the Caristes, of the Vascons, the Cantabres and the Vardules. Being given its extreme seniority (paleolithic superior or Mesolithic era?), Merrit Ruhlen thinks that it is not very probable that the Basque is a complete isolate, the error being to perhaps want to attach it to a precise family of languages. One currently bases the greatest hopes on work of the specialist in comparative literature and French bascologist who relate to all Eurasia. This last confirms that the Basque is indeed related with certain languages of the Caucasus, but also with other families of languages. Examples of relationship: Basque hogei " vingt" Proto-Caucasian *HVxGV " id." (nothing to see with the Celt ugeint /lat. uiginti " vingt" as one claimed), Basque behi " vache" /behor " jument" proto-Basque *beh- " animal femelle" connected with the bouroushaski behé " animal femelle" , Basque bihi " grain" and indonésien biji " id.". Since the publication in April 2007, this work is in the center of the debates between linguists, geneticists and archeologists. The latter mainly reproach Ruhlen for having extrapolated in the unknown.
Grammar
See also: Grammar of the Basque
If Basque grammar is of a radical originality, it is estimated that 75% of the vocabulary come from geographically close languages (Celtic, Latin, Gascon, Aragonese, novel of Navarre, Spanish, French). The Basque is a agglutinant Langue, where suffixes or radicals can be behind coupled of other suffixes or radicals. The kind (female/male) does not exist, except attache with the verb for the use of the tu. But the most important characteristic lies in the fact that out of Basque one combines often only the auxiliary of the verb, and that this auxiliary does not agree only with the subject as in French: this one also agrees with the complements, known as direct and indirect in français.
Writing
See also: Writing of the Basque
The Basque language is written with the Latin alphabet. The Basque alphabet is overall Phonétique, all the letter S of a Mot decide except for the H which is dumb in the majority of the dialects. Generally, the Voyelle S which are followed form a Diphtongue.
Dialects
See also: Dialects of the Basque
In 1571, one must with Jean de Liçarrague, on order of Jeanne d' Albret, the translation out of Basque of the New Testament. The principal dialects of the Basque are the navarro-labourdin, the guipuzcoan, the Souletin and the Biscayen. Some are not very understandable between them like the biscayen and the Souletin. Another dialect, roncalais it, saw its last speaker dying out in 1991 (Fidela Bernat).
The standard Basque, or “Basque unified”, is based on the central dialects like the guipuzcoan and the navarro-labourdin, but also on the traditional labourdin of the 17th century, precursor of the Basque literature and hyphen between the continental and peninsular dialects.
The Basque unified, or will euskara batua , Co-official language with the Castilian in the autonomous communities Basque and Navarrese, is largely taught there, and starts to supplant there the dialectal forms, henceforth associated with the nonformal exchanges, even with rurality.
French side, from the Constitution, the Basque (like the other languages of France except French) does not have any legal statute.
Speakers
On a total population of 2 975 000 inhabitants divided in the 7 provinces of the Basque Country, 26.9% are bilingual and 15.3% have an approximate knowledge of the Basque, that is to say 1 255 750 people. (881 300 people are active bilingual speakers and 454 400 are passive bilingual speakers). From the point of view of their relationship with will euskara, the inhabitants of the Basque Country divide themselves into 4 main categories.- unilingual the bascophones speaks only the Basque in France or Spain. They are old and very few (Less than 0.7%, which represents 20 all the same; 000 people).
- the bilingual credits speak two languages, French /basque or Spanish /basque. They are 26.9% and are divided into 3 subcategories:
- 40% is bilingual with French or Spanish dominating or the Erdara dominating.
- 29% is the bilingual ones balanced, they know as well the Basque as will erdara it.
- 32% is bilingual with the Basque dominating.
- the passive bilingual include/understand or read the Basque but speak it little. They account for 15.3% and are increasingly numerous, because the language classes for adults are very popular.
- unilingual not the bascophones knows only Spanish or French. They form the great majority of the population with 57.8%.
Prototype
An extract of the “Lord's Prayer Noster” in Basque language:
Gure Aita, zeruetan zirena:
saindu izan bedi zure Izena,
etor bedi zure erreinua,
egin bedi zure nahia,
zeruan bezala lurrean ere.
Emaguzu gaur
egun hontako ogia;
barkatu gure zorrak,
guk era gure zorduner
barkatzen diegunez geroz;
eta ez gu tentaldirat ereman,
bainan atera gaitzazu gaitzetik.
An extract of the “Sanctus” in Basque language:
Saindu saindu Saindua, diren guzien Jainko Jauna. Zeru lurrak beterik dauzka zure distirak. Hozana zeru gorenetan! Benedikatua Jaunaren izenean datorrena. Hozana zeru gorenetan!
Examples
Notes:
The R is rolled to the Spanish Basque Country. To the Pays Basque north, the R simple is rolled, the R double is generally pronounced “with the Frenchwoman” at the new generations. The H is generally aspired to the French Basque Country, but it is completely dumb in the Spanish Basque Country. The S is pronounced in the Spanish Basque Country between S and CH ; in the French Basque Country, he is practically pronounced like a CH . Z is pronounced like a S everywhere, and the X is pronounced like a CH everywhere.
The J represents in theory the there consonant of yoghourt at the beginning of a word (inside a word, one generally uses the letter I ). This pronunciation is the standard pronunciation recommended for the unified Basque. However, in the Spanish Basque Country, one tends to pronounce it like a J Spanish (a species of scraping of throat), whereas in Navarre and in Labourd, the pronunciation is rather a D y palatalized, as in devil and that, into Drunk, one pronounces even the letter J like the J French of newspaper .
The nouns and adjectives are declined by increasing suffixes. The form given in the list above is that of absolutif unspecified: with this form, the nouns and adjectives appear in their simplest form, without any suffix.
(To see a longer list, consult the article Liste Swadesh of the Basque .)
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