Basque language
Basque
| Spoken in: | Spain |
| Region: | Basque Country |
| Total speakers: | 580,000 |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
Genetic
classification: | Language isolate |
| Official status |
|---|
| Official language of: | Spain |
| Regulated by: | Euskaltzaindia |
| Language codes |
|---|
| ISO 639-1: | eu |
| ISO 639-2(B): | baq |
| ISO 639-2(T): | eus |
| SIL: | BSQ |
Basque is the non-Indo-European language spoken by the Basque people, who live in northern Spain and the adjoining area of southwestern France. The Basque name for the language is Euskara.
History and Classification
The ancestors of Basques are among the ancient inhabitants of Europe, and their origins are still unknown as are the origins of their language itself. Many scholars have tried to link Basque to Etruscan, African languages, Caucasian languages and so on, but most scholars see Basque as a language isolate. It was spoken long before the Romans brought Latin to the Iberian Peninsula.
Geographic distribution
The region in which Basque is spoken is known as the Basque Country, or Euskal Herria in Basque.
Official status
Basque holds official language status in the Basque regions of Spain.
Dialects
Now there are eight dialects, which do not match with the political divisions. One of the first scientific studies of Basque was made by Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, a descendant of Napoleon.
Derived languages
There is now a unified version of Euskara called Batua ("unified" in Basque), which is the language taught in schools. Batua is based largely on the Gipuzkoa regional dialect.
Grammar
Basque has some grammatical forms unusual in Europe, such as the ergative case, which forces the addition of a -k to the subject when it has a transitive verb. The auxiliary verb also reflects the number of the direct object, so the auxiliary verb can contain a lot of information (about the subject, the number of direct object, if it is singular or plural, and the indirect object). This system (inflection of the auxiliary) is only found in Basque and some Caucasian languages.
For example, in the phrase:
- Martinek egunkariak erosten dizkit
which means "Martin buys the newspapers for me", Martin-ek is the subject (more precisely, an ergative), so it has the -k ending.
"Egunkariak" has an -ak ending which marks plural object (plural
absolutive, to be exact). The verb is erosten dizkit, in which erosten is a kind of gerund ("buying")
and the auxiliary dizkit indicates:
- di- marks a verb with both a direct object and an indirect one, in the present tense;
- -zki- is the number of the direct object (in this case the newspapers; if it were singular there would be no suffix); and
- -t is the indirect object mark: "for me".
Palatalization is quite typical of Basque pronunciation, where "tt" and "dd" are /tj/ (or /tS/) and /dj/ (or /dZ/) respectively. "s", "z" and "x" are sibilants, the latter designates /S/, the first is apical /s/ (friction occurs at the tip of the tongue) and the second laminal /s/ (friction occurs across the blade of the tongue).
Many dialects of Basque exhibit a derived palatalization effect in which coronal onset consonants are palatalized after the high, front vowel [i]. For example, the [n] in [egin] (to act) becomes a palatal [ñ] when the suffix -a is added, changing /egina/ to [egiña] (the action).
The function of stress in Basque is generally not understood. "j" is pronounced as [dj], [S], [X], [j] or [Z] according to region. The vowel system is the same as Spanish for most speakers, namely /a, e, i, o, u/. Some speakers also have /y/. It is thought that the Spanish took this system from Basque.
The accent in Basque is:
-´-´
In Spanish for example it is:
--´-
Vocabulary
By contact with neighbouring peoples, Basque has borrowed words from Latin, Spanish, French, Gascon etc. Some studies claim that half of its words come from Latin. Some other words are thought to go back to the Stone Age because they include the root haitz- (rock). For example, haiztoa (knife), haizkora (axe).
Writing system
Basque is written using the Latin alphabet
See also: Languages of France
External links
References
Hualde, José Ignacio; de Urbina, Jon Ortiz. A Grammar of Basque. Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-017683-1.
Referenced By
8859-1 | Absolutive case | Alava | Alava (province) | Aragonese | Aragonese language | Aranese | Autonomous Communities of Spain | Autonomous communities in Spain | Autonomous community | Autonomous comunities | Basque | Basque Country | Basque Country and Liberty | Basque Fatherland and Liberty | Basque people | Basque provinces | Basques | Bayonne | Bilbao | Bilbao, Spain | Bilbao, Vizcaya | Biscay | CP1252 | Caucasian Languages | Caucasian language | Cedilla | Class P: Language and Literature (Library of Congress classification) | Comunleng | Culture of France | Demographics of France | Demographics of Spain | Diachronic linguistics | Donostia-San Sebastián | Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa | EAJ-PNV | EAJ/PNV | Edgardo Mortara | Ergative case | Errenteria | Errenteria, Guipúzcoa | España | European language | European languages | Euskadi | Euskadi Ta Askatasuna | Euskal Buru Batzar/Partido Nacionalista Vasco | Euskal Herria | Eusko Alderdi Jertzailea | Eusko Alderdi Jertzailea/Partido Nacionalista Vasco | Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna | FRia | FrancE | Francais | France/People | Français | FrenchLanguage | French (language) | French Republic | French culture | French grammar | French language | Frenchman | Galego | Galego language | Galician | Galician language | Galizan | Gallego | Gascon | Gascon language | Georgian Language and Alphabet | Georgian alphabet | Georgian language | Gernika-Lumo, Vizcaya | Gipuzkoa | Guernica | Guernika | Guipuzcoa | Guipuzcoa (province) | Guipúzcoa | Guipúzcoa (province) | Hegoalde | Hispanic Pennisula | Hispanic peninsula | Historical-comparative linguistics | Historical linguistics | Human migration | Hyberian peninsula | ISO-8859-1 | ISO/IEC 8859-1 | ISO639 | ISO 3166-1:ES | ISO 3166-1:FR | ISO 639 | ISO 639-1 | ISO 639-2 | ISO 8859 | ISO 8859-1 | ISO language code ...
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