The Language Situation

Description
English:

Modern map of Basque dialects, developed by Koldo Zuazo:

* Green: Western dialect
* Red: Central dialect
* Blue: Navarrese
* Orange: Navarrese-lapurdian
* Yellow: Dialect of Soule/
* Grey: Basque speaking places in the 19th century (according to Bonaparte's map)

Euskara:

Koldo Zuazok atondutako euskalkien mapa modernoa:

* Berdea: Mendebaldekoa
* Gorria: Erdialdekoa
* Urdina: Nafarra
* Laranja: Nafar-lapurtarra
* Horia: Zuberotarra
* Grisa: Euskara hitz egiten ziren tokian XIX. mendean (Bonaparteren maparen arabera)




Well I finally heard a couple people talking in Basque when I was on the bus here in Donostia, which has inspired me to write about the language situation:

The Basque country is composed of seven provinces and among these provinces there are six main dialects of the Basque language. Of course these dialects are further divided into sub-dialects depending on the region.

The Basque Country is a rather mountainous territory, which means the communication between two close towns in earlier years would have been minimal and, as a result, the languages of each town markedly different. Because of this, the language seemingly varies from person to person. The geography also helps explain why the Basque Country resisted, to the extent that it did, the Roman influence. Latin, without a doubt, penetrated the area and left its mark on the basque language, but only minimally. Many scholars believe similar languages were present in the Iberian peninsula at this time but that they succumbed to the Roman invasion to the point of extinction.

Basque later received, and continues to receive, a great amount of influence from Spanish. For half a century, the language had an illicit status in society because of the Franco regime. As such there is a whole "lost generation" of basque speakers. Many people refused to speak basque to their children for fear of being persecuted. These children never learned the language.

Due to the influence of these two languages many words in Basque resemble those of Latin and Spanish. In the case of Spanish the words are sometimes the same. Then in the late sixties/early seventies a new form of Basque was created.

In the decade leading up to Franco's death the idea of creating a form of Basque to help bridge the wide-array of regional differences was conceived. This new language, known as Euskara Batua (Unified Basque), a by-product of the increasing inter-connectedness of society at the time, invented a significant amount of new words to replace the older words which had been lost to the Spanish and Latin influence. This new form of Basque, is used in accordance with all official mediums of communication: TV, Radio, Government Documents, etc. Since it is an invented version of the language many refer to it as artificial, and there is still a strong tendency to maintain regional dialects.

Basque is spoken by about a third of the population of the Basque Country. It becomes more widespread in smaller towns outside of urban areas. In many towns for example, signs are only in Basque. Whereas in Donostia I rarely even hear Basque in the street and oftentimes when I attempt to speak with someone in Basque they say, "No se nada en Vasco" or, more often than not, I just receive weird looks.

Gipuzkoa, the province whose capital is Donostia/San Sebastian, is renowned for its dialect of Basque, Gipuzkera, as being the most similar to Batua. Perhaps the most similar version can be found in the town, Tolosa, a few kilometres inland. Many Basques consider the Basque of Tolosa to be very "fine." After spending some time in that town with a group of about thirty Basques I have to say that out of everything I've heard so far, their Basque is the most similar to that which I'm learning in class.

Many people speak poorer versions of Basque, especially around the coast and in big cities such as Donostia. A term is often utilized to describe the phenomena when people speak a rather "basque-ified version of spanish" or when they use words that are clearly spanish when other, Basque words are available. This is called Euskañol.

Unfortunately, my host family, for example, speaks a lot of Euskañol. I really had my doubts when a couple months ago they told me, "You're gonna teach us some basque." They are very nice people, but I can't help but feel disillusioned especially when my only request to the USAC people was to live with a Basque-speaking family. I'll have to say something so that another person doesn't have to put up with the same situation as me. They help out a lot in the sense that they relieve me of household duties. They feed me, change my sheets, and clean my clothes, but what's the point of having clean clothes when you can't even speak clean Basque in them?

Some glaring examples of the kind of basque I'm referring to:
When referring to silverware the words: Tenedorea, Kutxiloa, and Kutxara came up. In Basque the TX sound is the same as the Spanish CH. Hence, Tenedor, Cuchillo, and Cuchara. I am not learning much vocabulary at all from living here because of recurring, similar instances. Apparently my host family was right. In this case, I taught them the Basque words,
Sardeska, Labana, and Goilara.

Thankfully I'm making friends with a lot of Basque people who can answer my questions about language-related matters, and I'm starting to hang out with them more and more.