| Basque | |
| Nativename: | Basque: euskara |
| States: | Spain, France |
| Pronunciation: | in Basque pronounced as /eus̺ˈkaɾa/ |
| Region: | Basque Country |
| Ethnicity: | Basque |
| Speakers: | 806,000 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Speakers2: | 434,000 passive speakers[2] and 6,000 monoglots[3] [4] |
| Familycolor: | Isolate |
| Family: | Language isolate |
| Ancestor: | Proto-Basque |
| Ancestor2: | Aquitanian |
| Dia1: | Biscayan |
| Dia2: | Gipuzkoan |
| Dia3: | Upper Navarrese |
| Dia4: | Navarro-Lapurdian |
| Dia6: | Souletin (Zuberoan) |
| Script: |
|
| Nation: | Spain
|
| Minority: | France |
| Agency: | Euskaltzaindia |
| Iso1: | eu |
| Iso2b: | baq |
| Iso2t: | eus |
| Iso3: | eus |
| Lingua: | 40-AAA-a |
| Glotto: | basq1248 |
| Glottorefname: | Basque |
| Map: | Euskalkiak.svg |
| Mapscale: | 0.8 |
| Mapcaption: | Dialect areas of Basque. Light-coloured dialects are extinct. See |
| Map2: | File:Basque % (most recent).svg |
| Mapcaption2: | Basque speakers, including second-language speakers[5] |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Person: | Basque () |
| People: | Basques (Basque: Euskaldunak) |
| Language: | Basque (Basque: Euskara) |
Basque (;[6] Basque: euskara in Basque pronounced as /eus̺ˈkaɾa/) is the only surviving Paleo-European language spoken in Europe, predating the arrival of speakers of the Indo-European languages that dominate the continent today. Basque is spoken by the Basques and other residents of the Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Basque is classified as a language isolate. The Basques are indigenous to and primarily inhabit the Basque Country.[7] The Basque language is spoken by 806,000 Basques in all territories. Of these, 93.7% (756,000) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.3% (50,000) are in the French portion. Basque is considered the most spoken language isolate in the world.
Native speakers live in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish provinces and the three "ancient provinces" in France. Gipuzkoa, most of Biscay, a few municipalities on the northern border of Álava and the northern area of Navarre 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 of Spanish, either because Basque was replaced by Spanish over the centuries (as in most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it may never have been spoken there (as in parts of Enkarterri and south-eastern Navarre).
In Francoist Spain, Basque language use was discouraged by the government's repressive policies. In the Basque Country, "Francoist repression was not only political, but also linguistic and cultural."[8] Franco's regime suppressed Basque from official discourse, education, and publishing,[9] making it illegal to register newborn babies under Basque names,[10] and even requiring tombstone engravings in Basque to be removed.[11] In some provinces the public use of Basque was suppressed, with people fined for speaking it.[12] Public use of Basque was frowned upon by supporters of the regime, often regarded as a sign of anti-Francoism or separatism.[13] Overall, in the 1960s and later, the trend reversed and education and publishing in Basque began to flourish.[14] As a part of this process, a standardised form of the Basque language, called Euskara Batua, was developed by the Euskaltzaindia in the late 1960s.
Besides its standardised version, the five historic Basque dialects are Biscayan, Gipuzkoan, and Upper Navarrese in Spain and Navarrese–Lapurdian and Souletin 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.[15]
Basque is the only surviving language isolate in Europe. The current mainstream scientific view on the origin of the Basques and of their language is that early forms of Basque developed before the arrival of Indo-European languages in the area, i.e. before the arrival of Celtic and Romance languages in particular, as the latter today geographically surround the Basque-speaking region. Typologically, with its agglutinative morphology and ergative–absolutive alignment, Basque grammar remains markedly different from that of Standard Average European languages. Nevertheless, Basque has borrowed up to 40 percent of its vocabulary from Romance languages,[16] and the Latin script is used for the Basque alphabet.
In Basque, the name of the language is officially Basque: euskara (alongside various dialect forms).
In French, the language is normally called French: basque, though Basque: euskara has become common in recent times. Spanish has a greater variety of names for the language. Today, it is most commonly referred to as Spanish; Castilian: vasco, Spanish; Castilian: lengua vasca, or Spanish; Castilian: euskera. Both terms, Spanish; Castilian: vasco and French: basque, are inherited from the Latin ethnonym Latin: [[Vascones]], which in turn goes back to the Greek term Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Οὐάσκωνες (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ouaskōnes), an ethnonym used by Strabo in his Latin: [[Geographica]] (23 CE, Book III).[17]
The Spanish term Spanish; Castilian: Vascuence, derived from Latin Latin: vasconĭce,[18] 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 in Huesca in 1349 stated that Item nuyl corridor nonsia usado que faga mercadería ninguna que compre nin venda entre ningunas personas, faulando en algaravia nin en abraych nin en '''basquenç''': et qui lo fara pague por coto XXX sol—essentially penalising the use of Arabic, Hebrew, or Basque in marketplaces with a fine of 30 sols (the equivalent of 30 sheep).[19]
See main article: History of the Basque language. Basque is geographically surrounded by Romance languages but is a language isolate unrelated to them, and indeed, to any other language in the world. It is the last remaining descendant of one of the pre-Indo-European languages of Prehistoric Europe.[17] Consequently, the prehistory of the Basque language may not be reconstructible by means of the traditional comparative method except by applying it to differences between dialects within the language. 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.
Authors such as Miguel de Unamuno and Louis Lucien Bonaparte have noted that the words for "knife" (Basque: aizto), "axe" (Basque: aizkora), and "hoe" (Basque: aitzur) appear to derive from the word for "stone" (Basque: haitz), and have therefore concluded that the language dates to prehistoric Europe when those tools were made of stone.[20] [21] Others find this unlikely: see the Basque: aizkora|nocat=y controversy.
Latin inscriptions in Latin: [[Gallia Aquitania]] preserve a number of words with cognates in the reconstructed proto-Basque language, for instance, the personal names Basque: Nescato and Basque: Cison (Basque: neskato and Basque: gizon mean 'young girl' and 'man', respectively in modern Basque). This language is generally referred to as Aquitanian and is assumed to have been spoken in the area before the Roman Republic's conquests in the western Pyrenees. Some authors even argue for late Basquisation, that the language moved westward during Late Antiquity after the fall of the Western Roman Empire into the northern part of Hispania into what is now the Basque Country.[17]
Roman neglect of this area allowed Aquitanian to survive while the Iberian and Tartessian languages became extinct. Through the long contact with Romance languages, Basque adopted a sizeable number of Romance words. Initially the source was Latin, later Gascon (a branch of Occitan) in the north-east, Navarro-Aragonese in the south-east and Spanish 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 of language technologies is also considered a significant additional factor.[23]
While accepted by a majority of linguists as a non-Indo-European language, many attempts have been made to link the Basque language with more geographically distant languages. Apart from pseudoscientific comparisons, the appearance of long-range linguistics gave rise to several attempts to connect Basque with geographically very distant language families. Historical work on Basque is challenging since written material and documentation only is available 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:
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 this region in ancient times, but on the basis of toponyms and epigraphs, it seems that in the beginning of the Common Era it stretched to the river Garonne in the north (including the south-western part of present-day France); at least to the Val d'Aran in the east (now a Gascon-speaking part of Catalonia), including lands on both sides of the Pyrenees; the southern and western boundaries are not clear at all.
The Reconquista temporarily counteracted this contracting tendency when the Christian lords called on northern Iberian peoples — Basques, Asturians, and "Franks" — to colonise the new conquests. The Basque language became the main everyday language, while other languages like Spanish, Gascon, French, or Latin were preferred for the administration and high education.
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 of Álava, and the western part of Biscay, and including some parts of Béarn.
In 1807, Basque was still spoken in the northern half of Álava—including its capital city Vitoria-Gasteiz[37] —and a vast area in central Navarre, but in these two provinces, Basque experienced a rapid decline that pushed its border northwards. In the French Basque Country, Basque was still spoken in all the territory except in Bayonne and some villages around, and including some bordering towns in Béarn.
In the 20th century, however, the rise of Basque nationalism spurred increased interest in the language as a sign of ethnic identity, and with the establishment of autonomous governments in the Southern 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 western Enkarterri 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, these schools and centres have almost stopped the decline of the language.
Historically, Latin or Romance languages have been the official languages in this region. However, Basque was explicitly recognised in some areas. For instance, the fuero or charter of the Basque-colonised Ojacastro (now in La 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.[38]
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states in Article 3 that the Spanish language is the official language of the nation, but allows autonomous communities to provide a co-official language status for the other languages of Spain.[39] Consequently, the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque 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. The Ley 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,[40] 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.
The 2021 sociolinguistic survey of all Basque-speaking territories showed that, of all people aged 16 and above:
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, this represents an overall increase of 266,000, from 539,110 speakers 30 years previously (430,000 in the BAC, 40,110 in FCN, and 69,000 in the Northern provinces). This 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 this age group who spoke the language (74.5%) was nearly triple the comparable figure from 1991, when barely a quarter of the population spoke Basque.
While there is a general increase in the number of Basque-speaking during this period, this is mainly because of bilingualism. Basque transmission as a sole mother tongue has decreased from 19% in 1991 to 15.1% in 2016, while 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 these efforts falling from 20.9% in 1991 to 16% in 2016.
In 2021, the study found that in the BAC, when both parents were Basque speakers, 98% of children were only communicated to in Basque, while 2% were communicated to in both Basque and Spanish. When only one parent was a Basque speaker and their first language was Basque, 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.
| Across all | Navarre | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991[41] | 22.3% | 24.1% | 9.5% | - |
| 1996 | 24.4% (2.1%) | 27.7% (3.6%) | 9.6% (0.1%) | 26.4% |
| 2001 | 25.4% (1%) | 29.4% (1.7%) | 10.3% (0.7%) | 24.8% (1.6%) |
| 2006 | 25.7% (0.3%) | 30.1% (0.7%) | 11.1% (0.8%) | 22.5% (2.3%) |
| 2011[42] | 27.0% (1.3%) | 32.0% (1.9%) | 11.7% (0.6%) | 21.4% (1.1%) |
| 2016[43] | 28.4% (1.4%) | 33.9% (1.9%) | 12.9% (1.2%) | 20.5% (0.9%) |
| 2021 | 30.6% (2.2%) | 36.2% (2.3%) | 14.1% (1.2%) | 20.0% (0.5%) |
Basque is used as a language of commerce both in the Basque Country and in locations around the world where Basques immigrated throughout history.[44]
See main article: Basque dialects.
The modern Basque dialects show a high degree of dialectal divergence, sometimes making cross-dialect communication difficult. This 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:
These dialects are divided in 11 subdialects, and 24 minor varieties among them.According to Koldo Zuazo,[45] the Biscayan dialect or "Western" is the most widespread dialect, with around 300,000 speakers out of a total of around 660,000 speakers. This dialect is divided in two minor subdialects: the Western Biscayan and Eastern Biscayan, plus transitional dialects.
See also: List of Spanish words of Basque origin. Although the influence of the neighbouring Romance 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 feedback from Basque into these languages as well. In particular Gascon and Aragonese, and to a lesser degree Spanish are thought to have received this influence in the past. In the case of Aragonese and Gascon, this would have been through substrate interference following language shift from Aquitanian or Basque to a Romance language, affecting all levels of the language, including place names around the Pyrenees.[46] [47] [48] [49] [50]
Although a number of words of alleged Basque origin in the Spanish language are circulated (e.g. 'anchovies', 'dashing, gallant, spirited', 'puppy', etc.), most of these have more easily explicable Romance etymologies or not particularly convincing derivations from Basque.[17] Ignoring cultural terms, there is one strong loanword candidate,, long considered the source of the Pyrenean and Iberian Romance words for "left (side)" .[17] [51] The lack of initial pronounced as //r// in Gascon could arguably be due to a Basque influence but this issue is under-researched.[17]
The other most commonly claimed substrate influences:
The first two features are common, widespread developments in many Romance (and non-Romance) languages.[17] The change of pronounced as //f// to pronounced as //h// occurred historically only in a limited area (Gascony and Old Castile) that corresponds almost exactly to areas where heavy Basque bilingualism 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 pronounced as //f// to pronounced as //h//). As a result, although many arguments have been made on both sides, 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,[17] and possible responses:
Beyond these arguments, a number of nomadic groups of Castile are also said to use or have used Basque words in their jargon, such as the gacería in Segovia, the mingaña, the Galician fala dos arxinas[52] and the Asturian Xíriga.[53]
Part of the Romani community in the Basque Country speaks Erromintxela, which is a rare mixed language, with a Kalderash Romani vocabulary and Basque grammar.
A number of Basque-based or Basque-influenced pidgins have existed. In the 16th century, Basque sailors used a Basque–Icelandic pidgin in their contacts with Iceland.[54] The Algonquian–Basque pidgin arose from contact between Basque whalers and the Algonquian peoples in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Strait of Belle Isle.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i pronounced as /link/ | u pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | e pronounced as /link/ | o pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | a pronounced as /link/ |
There is no distinctive vowel length in Basque, although vowels can be lengthened for emphasis. The mid vowels pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //o// are raised before nasal consonants.
Basque has an a-Elision Rule, according to which the vowel pronounced as //a// is elided before any following vowel. This does not prevent the existence of diphthongs with pronounced as //a// present.
| pronounced as //ai̯// | Basque: italic=no|bai | yes | pronounced as //au̯// | Basque: italic=no|gau | night | |
| pronounced as //ei̯// | Basque: italic=no|sei | six | pronounced as //eu̯// | Basque: italic=no|euri | rain | |
| pronounced as //oi̯// | Basque: italic=no|oin | foot | ||||
| pronounced as //ui̯// | Basque: italic=no|fruitu | fruit |
There are six diphthongs in Basque, all falling and with pronounced as //i̯// or pronounced as //u̯// as the second element.
| Labial | Lamino- dental | Apico- alveolar | Palatal or postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m pronounced as /link/ | n pronounced as /link/ | ñ, -in- pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p pronounced as /link/ | t pronounced as /link/ | tt, -it- pronounced as /link/ | k pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | b pronounced as /link/ | d pronounced as /link/ | dd, -id- pronounced as /link/ | g pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Affricate | tz pronounced as /link/ | ts pronounced as //t̺s̺// | tx pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f pronounced as /link/ | z pronounced as /link/ | s pronounced as /link/ | x pronounced as /link/ | h pronounced as //∅//, pronounced as /link/ | |
| (mostly)1 voiced | j pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Lateral | l pronounced as /link/ | ll, -il- pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Rhotic | Trill | r-, -rr-, -r pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Tap | -r-, -r pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
In syllable-final position, all plosives are devoiced and are spelled accordingly in Standard Basque. When between vowels, and often when after pronounced as //r// or pronounced as //l//, the voiced plosives pronounced as //b//, pronounced as //d//, and pronounced as //ɡ//, are pronounced as the corresponding fricatives pronounced as /[β]/, pronounced as /[ð]/, and pronounced as /[ɣ]/.
Basque has a distinction between laminal and apical articulation for the alveolar fricatives and affricates. With the laminal alveolar fricative in Basque pronounced as /s̻/, the friction occurs across the blade of the tongue, the tongue tip pointing toward the lower teeth. This is the usual pronounced as //s// in most European languages. It is written with an orthographic (z). By contrast, the voiceless apicoalveolar fricative in Basque pronounced as /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 from su "fire". The affricate counterparts are written (tz) and (ts). So, etzi "the day after tomorrow" is distinguished from etsi "to give up"; atzo "yesterday" is distinguished from atso "old woman".
In the westernmost parts of the Basque country, only the apical (s) and the alveolar affricate (tz) are used.
Basque also features postalveolar sibilants (pronounced as //ʃ//, written (x), and pronounced as //tʃ//, written (tx)), sounding like English sh and ch.
The letter (j) has a variety of realisations according to the regional dialect: pronounced as /[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.[55]
The letter (h) is pronounced in the northern dialects, but not pronounced in the southern ones. Unified Basque spells it except when it is predictable, in a position following a consonant.[56]
Unless they are recent loanwords (e.g. Ruanda "Rwanda", radar, robot ...), words may not have initial (r). In older loans, initial r- took a prosthetic vowel, resulting in err- (Erroma "Rome", Errusia "Russia"), more rarely irr- (for example irratia "radio", irrisa "rice") and arr- (for example arrazional "rational").
Basque does not have pronounced as //m// in syllable final position, and syllable-final pronounced as //n// assimilates to the place of articulation of following plosives. As a result, pronounced as //nb// is pronounced like pronounced as /[mb]/, and pronounced as //nɡ// is realized as pronounced as /[ŋɡ]/.
Basque has two types of palatalization, automatic palatalization and expressive palatalization. Automatic palatalization occurs in western Labourd, much of Navarre, all of Gipuzkoa, and nearly all of Biscay. As a result of automatic palatalization, pronounced as //n// and pronounced as //l// become the palatal nasal pronounced as /[ɲ]/ and the palatal lateral pronounced as /[ʎ]/ respectively after the vowel pronounced as //i// and before another vowel. An exception is the loanword Basque: lili 'lily'. The same palatalization occurs after the semivowel pronounced as /[j]/ of the diphthongs ai, ei, oi, ui. This palatalization occurs in a wider area, including Soule, all of Gipuzkoa and Biscay, and almost all of Navarre. In a few regions, pronounced as //n// and pronounced as //l// can be palatalized even in the absence of a following vowel. After palatalization, the semivowel pronounced as /[j]/ is usually absorbed by the palatal consonant. This can be seen in older spellings, such as Basque: malla instead of modern Basque: maila 'degree'. That said, the modern orthography for Standard Basque ignores automatic palatalization.
In certain regions of Gipuzkoa and Biscay, intervocalic pronounced as //t// is often palatalized after pronounced as //i// and especially pronounced as /[j]/. It may become indistinguishable from the affricate pronounced as //tʃ//, spelled (tx), so Basque: aita 'father' may sound like it were spelled Basque: atxa or Basque: atta. This type of palatalization is far from general, and is often viewed as substandard.
In Goizueta Basque, there are a few examples of pronounced as //nt// being palatalized after pronounced as //i//, and optional palatalization of pronounced as //ld//. For example, Basque: mintegi 'seedbed' becomes pronounced as /[mincei]/, and Basque: bildots 'lamb' can be pronounced as //biʎots̺//.
Basque nouns, adjectives, and adverbs can be expressively palatalized. These express 'smallness', rarely literal and often showing affection, in nouns, and mitigation in adjectives and adverbs. This is often used in the formation of pet names and nicknames. In words containing one or more sibilant, these sibilants are palatalized in order to form the palatalized form. That is, s and z become x, and ts and tz become tx. As a result, Basque: gizon 'man' becomes Basque: gixon 'little fellow', Basque: zoro 'crazy, insane' becomes Basque: xoro 'silly, foolish', and Basque: bildots 'lamb' becomes Basque: bildotx 'lambkin, young lamb'.In words without sibilants, pronounced as //t//, pronounced as //d//, pronounced as //n//, and pronounced as //l// can become palatalized. This palatalization is indicated in writing with a double consonant, except in the case of palatalized pronounced as //n// which is written (ñ). Thus, Basque: tanta 'drop' becomes Basque: ttantta 'droplet', and Basque: nabar 'grey' becomes Basque: ñabar 'grey and pretty, greyish'.
The pronunciation of tt and dd, and the existence of dd, differ by dialect. In the Gipuzkoan and Biscayan dialects tt is often pronounced the same as tx, that is, as pronounced as /link/, and dd does not exist. Likewise, in Goizueta Basque, tt is a voiceless palatal stop pronounced as /[c]/ and the corresponding voiced palatal stop, pronounced as /[ɟ]/, is absent except as an allophone of pronounced as //j//. In Goizueta Basque, pronounced as //j// is sometimes the result of an affectionate palatalization of pronounced as //d//.
Palatalization of the rhotics is rare and only occurs in the eastern dialects. When palatalized, the rhotics become the palatal lateral pronounced as /[ʎ]/. Likewise, palatalization of velars, resulting in tt or tx, is quite rare.
A few common words, such as Basque: txakur 'dog', pronounced pronounced as //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: Basque: zakur 'big dog'.
There are some rules which govern the behavior of consonants in contact with each other. These apply both within and between words. When two plosives meet, the first one is dropped, and the second must become 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 when it follows a liquid or a nasal. When a plosive follows a nasal, there is a strong tendency for it to become voiced.
Basque features great dialectal variation in accentuation, from a weak pitch accent in the western dialects to a marked stress in central and eastern dialects, with varying patterns of stress placement.[57] Stress is in general not distinctive (and for historical comparisons not very useful); 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; an adoption from Spanish Spanish; Castilian: 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 (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 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 that differentiates its sound from the prosodical patterns of Spanish (which tends to stress the second-to-last syllable). Some Euskaldun 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. pronouncing nire ama ("my mum") as nire áma (– – ´ –), instead of as niré amà (– ´ – `).
The combining forms of nominals in final pronounced as //-u// vary across the regions of the Basque Country. The pronounced as //u// can stay unchanged, be lowered to an pronounced as //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 forms buru- and bur-, as in buruko, "cap", and burko, "pillow", whereas katu, "cat", has the combining form kata-, as in katakume, "kitten". Michelena suggests that the lowering to pronounced as //a// is generalised from cases of Romance borrowings in Basque that retained Romance stem alternations, such as kantu, "song" with combining form kanta-, borrowed from Romance canto, canta-.[58]
See main article: Basque grammar. Basque is an ergative–absolutive language. The subject of an intransitive verb is in the absolutive case (which is unmarked), and the same case is used for the direct object of a transitive verb. The subject of the transitive verb is marked differently, with the ergative case (shown by the suffix -k). This also triggers main and auxiliary verbal agreement.
The auxiliary verb, which accompanies most main verbs, agrees not only with the subject, but with any direct object and the indirect object present. Among European languages, this polypersonal agreement is found only in Basque, some languages of the Caucasus (especially the Kartvelian languages), Mordvinic languages, Hungarian, and Maltese (all non-Indo-European). The ergative–absolutive alignment is also rare among European languages—occurring only in some languages of the Caucasus—but not infrequent worldwide.
Consider the phrase:
Martin-ek is the agent (transitive subject), so it is marked with the ergative case ending -k (with an epenthetic -e-). Egunkariak has an -ak ending, which marks plural object (plural absolutive, direct object case). The verb is Basque: erosten dizkit, in which Basque: erosten is a kind of gerund ("buying") and the auxiliary Basque: dizkit means "he/she (does) them for me". This Basque: dizkit can be split like this:
The auxiliary verb is composed as di-zki-da-zue and means 'you pl. (do) them for me'
The pronoun zuek '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, e.g. Basque: dizkidazue in Basque: zuek niri egunkariak erosten dizkidazue 'you (pl.) are buying the newspapers for me'. However, the pronouns are almost always dropped, e.g. zuek in Basque: egunkariak erosten dizkidazue 'you (pl.) are buying the newspapers for me'. The pronouns are used only to show emphasis: Basque: egunkariak zuek erosten dizkidazue 'it is you (pl.) who buys the newspapers for me', or Basque: egunkariak 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 only in literary contexts. These can be put in the present and past tenses in the indicative and subjunctive moods, in three tenses in the conditional and potential moods, and in one tense in the imperative. Each verb that can be taken intransitively has a nor (absolutive) paradigm and possibly a nor-nori (absolutive–dative) paradigm, as in the sentence Aititeri txapela erori zaio ("The hat fell from grandfather['s head]").[59] 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 an antipassive voice paradigm), and also has a nor-nork (absolutive–ergative) paradigm and possibly a nor-nori-nork (absolutive–dative–ergative) paradigm. This last is exemplified by dizkidazue above. In each paradigm, each constituent noun can take on any of eight persons, five singular and three plural, with the exception of nor-nori-nork in which the absolutive can only be third person singular or plural. The most ubiquitous auxiliary, izan, can be used in any of these paradigms, depending on the nature of the main verb.
There are more persons in the singular (5) than in the plural (3) for synthetic (or filamentous) verbs because of the two familiar persons—informal masculine and feminine second person singular. The pronoun hi is used for both of them, but where the masculine form of the verb uses a -k, the feminine uses an -n. This is a property rarely found in Indo-European languages. The entire paradigm of the verb is further augmented by inflecting for "listener" (the allocutive) even if the verb contains no second person constituent. If the situation calls for the familiar masculine, the form is augmented and modified accordingly. 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)]")[60] This multiplies the number of possible forms by nearly three. Still, the restriction on contexts in which these 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. Note, however, that the formal second person singular conjugates in parallel to the other plural forms, perhaps indicating that it was originally the second person plural, later came to be used as a formal singular, and then later still the modern second person plural was formulated as an innovation.
All the other verbs in Basque are called periphrastic, behaving much like a participle would in English. These have only three forms in total, called aspects: perfect (various suffixes), habitual (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], and euskaldunok [we Basque speakers, those Basque speakers]). These 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 of recursion, a Basque noun may have 458,683 inflected forms.
| 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 noun "liburu" (book) is declined as follows:
| Case/Number | Singular | Plural | Undetermined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | liburu-a-Ø | liburu-ak | liburu-Ø | |
| Ergative | liburu-a-k | liburu-e-k | liburu-k | |
| Dative | liburu-a-ri | liburu-e-i | liburu-ri | |
| Local genitive | liburu-ko | liburu-e-ta-ko | liburu-tako | |
| Possessive genitive | liburu-a-ren | liburu-e-n | liburu-ren | |
| Comitative (with) | liburu-a-rekin | liburu-e-kin | liburu-rekin | |
| Benefactive (for) | liburu-a-rentzat | liburu-e-ntzat | liburu-rentzat | |
| Causal (because of) | liburu-a-rengatik | liburu-e-ngatik | liburu-rengatik | |
| Instrumental | liburu-a-z | liburu-etaz | liburu-taz | |
| Inessive (in, on) | liburu-a-n | liburu-e-ta-n | liburu-tan | |
| Ablative (from) | liburu-tik | liburu-e-ta-tik | liburu-tatik | |
| Allative (where to: 'to') | liburu-ra | liburu-e-ta-ra | liburu-tara | |
| Directive ('towards') | liburu-rantz | liburu-e-ta-rantz | liburu-tarantz | |
| Terminative (up to) | liburu-raino | liburu-e-ta-raino | liburu-taraino | |
| liburu-tzat | ||||
| Partitive | liburu-rik |
The proper name "Mikel" (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.[61]
| Word | Form | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| etxe | noun | house | |
| zahar- | adjective | old | |
| -r-e- | epenthetical elements | n/a | |
| -a- | determinate, singular | the | |
| -n | inessive case | in |
Basic syntactic construction is subject–object–verb (unlike Spanish, French or English where a subject–verb–object construction is more common). 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) the topic is stated first, then the focus. 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 as Zer da hau? or Hau zer da?, but in both cases the question tag zer immediately precedes the verb da. This rule is so important in Basque that, even in grammatical descriptions of Basque in other languages, the Basque word galdegai (focus) is used.
In negative sentences, the order changes. Since the negative particle ez 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 becomes Aitak ez du frantsesa irakasten, in which irakasten ("teaching") is separated from its auxiliary and placed at the end.
Through contact with neighbouring peoples, Basque has adopted many words from Latin, Spanish, French and Gascon, 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", from florem), errota ("mill", from rotam, "[mill] wheel"), gela ("room", from cellam), gauza ("thing", from causa).
See main article: Basque alphabet.
Basque is written using the Latin script including and sometimes and . Basque does not use for native words, but the Basque alphabet (established by Euskaltzaindia) does include them for loanwords:[62]
⟨Aa, Bb, Cc, (and, as a variant, Çç), Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ññ, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz⟩
The phonetically meaningful digraphs are treated as pairs of letters.
All letters and digraphs represent unique phonemes. The main exception is when precedes and, which in most dialects palatalises their sounds into pronounced as //ʎ// and pronounced as //ɲ//, even if these are not written. Hence, Basque: [[Ikurriña]] can also be written Basque: Ikurrina without changing the sound, whereas the proper name Basque: Ainhoa requires the mute to break the palatalisation of the .
is mute in most regions, but it 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 extended dialects had to learn where to place, silent for them.
In Sabino Arana's (1865–1903) alphabet,[63] digraphs and were replaced with and, respectively.
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 thick serifs.
Basque millers traditionally employed a separate number system of unknown origin.[64] In this system the symbols are arranged either along a vertical line or horizontally. On the vertical line the single digits and fractions 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 is vigesimal (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, especially .
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 (a V 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. | in Basque pronounced as /ɡis̻onemakume ɡus̻tiak as̺ke jajots̻en diɾa duintas̺un eta es̺kubide berbeɾak ditus̻tela eta es̻aɡueɾa eta konts̻ients̻ia dutenes̻ ɡeɾo elkaren artean s̺enide leges̻ jokatu be(h)ara 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. | IPA pronunciation pronounced as /[s̺artaldeko oi(h)anetan ɡatibatuɾik]/ pronounced as /eromaɾa ekari s̻induten es̺klabua/ pronounced as /eremintaɾi ofis̻ioa eman s̻is̻uten/ pronounced as /eta kateak eɡiten ditus̻u/ pronounced as /labetik ateɾats̻en dus̻un burdin ɡoɾia/ pronounced as /na(h)ieɾan molda s̻enes̻ake/ pronounced as /es̻patak eɡin dits̻akes̻u/ pronounced as /s̻uɾe (h)eritarek kateak (h)auts̺ dits̻aten/ pronounced as /baina s̻uk es̺klabu (h)orek/ pronounced as /kateak eɡiten ditus̻u kate ɡe(h)iaɡo]/ | 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. |
| Joseba Sarrionandia | Joseba Sarrionandia |