Meet
Euskal Herria,
the Basque
Country
- 1. The Basque Country.
- 2. Meet the Basques. Euskaldunak, the Basque
people.
- 3. The Basque Language. Euskara, an isolate
language.
- 4. Language Status. How many people speak
basque.
- 5. Basque Links.
- 6. Political
Situation (in another page)
-
1. The Basque Country
The Basque Country is a nation in southwestern
Europe.
It is currently divided between two states: France and
Spain. Our country is located on the coast of the Bay of
Biscay, on both slopes of the Western Pyrenees that separate Spain
and France.
The Basque Country is the territory which is historically,
ethnically and culturally Basque. Spanish and French may call Basque
Country (Pays Basque, País Vasco) only to a portion of the
country, not the whole nation. Nevertheless, Basques conceive their
country as embracing the area of the traditional seven provinces:
Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Araba and Nafarroa on the Spanish
side, Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa on the
French side.
These provinces are divided among three politico-administrative
structures. Two are within the Spanish State: the Basque
Autonomous Community (formed by Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, blue
on the map above) and the Autonomous Community of Navarre
(Nafarroa alone, yellow on the map). The three provinces within
the French State (red on the map) are not autonomous. They form,
along with Bearn, the french department of Pyrenees
Atlantiques (capital Pau, in Bearn), which is part of the region
of Aquitaine (capital Bordeaux).
The Basque Country is a little nation: just 20.864 sq. km and 2.9
million people. Only 650.000 of them speak basque, mostly in the
Spanish side (only 70.000 in the French side). There is another
minority language in the Basque Country:
Occitan; several hundred people (or a few
thousand) speak Gascon and Bearnais dialects of Occitan in the french
side of the Basque Country.
The Basque name of the Basque Country is Euskal Herria.
The Basque word for the language is Euskara.
Euskal Herria is formed from euskal, the combining form of
Euskara, plus herri `country', with the article.
Euskadi is also used for the Basque Country. This is a
political name, coined at the end of the 19th century. Sometimes
spelled as Euzkadi, it has been translated as Basque
Fatherland or Basque State. Lately, Euskadi is used just
to name the territory under the Basque Autonomous Government (only
three provinces out of seven).
That territory, the Basque Autonomous Commnunity is
oficially called Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa in Basque
(initials: EAE), and Comunidad Autonoma Vasca in
Spanish (initials: CAV). It is important to note that most of
the Basque Country lies outside the borders of this autonomous
administration.
What Spaniards and French call "Spanish" or "French Basque
Country" is called Northern or Southern Basque Country by the
Basques:
Ipar Euskal Herria or Iparralde for the northern
part (under France).
Hego Euskal Herria or Hegoalde for the southern part
(under Spain).
Check also the page with the main
placenames.
2. Meet the
Basques
The Basques called themselves euskaldunak (singular,
euskaldun). The word is formed from euskara `Basque
language' and -dun `who has'; it literally means `one who has
(i.e., speaks) Basque'. Euskaldun means properly only
`Basque-speaker'. Ethnicity or being part of the Basque Nation is
therefore a question of language. You can be japanese and euskaldun,
but you can be born in the Basque Country and not be euskaldun. With
no euskara, there is no Euskal Herria. Without our language, the
Basque Country will not exist, from our point of view.
Spanish, French or English do not have comparative terms to this
basque word (euskaldun). You may read from a spanish source that
"most basques do not know the basque language". Well, you should
notice that basque or vasco are ambiguous from the
native point of view, and we would more properly say that "we
euskaldunak (native basques, basque-speaking people) are a minority
in our own country".
At the same time, there are no proper words in basque for ethnic
basque or person born in the Basque Country. Neologisms as
euskotar or euskal herritar are used to define such
terms.
3. The Basque
language
Euskara, the language of the Basques, is an isolate
language. It is not related to any other language at all, despite
serious (and less serious) attempts to find similarities between
Basque and other linguistic families or given languages.
It is a peculiar language, with distinctive lexical background and
grammar. Being isolate and relatively strange (compared to other
european languages), Basque is supposed to be extremely difficult.
But this is not true.
Larry Trask,
an english linguist that commands Basque perfectly, writes: "In
fact, Basque is a rather easy language to pick up, while mastering it
is no more difficult than mastering any other language. The
pronunciation is easy, the spelling is regular, there is no
grammatical gender, there are no noun-classes or verb-classes, and
there are no irregular nouns and hardly any irregular verbs". A
curious fact about Basque is that even pidginized forms of it have
evolved far from the Basque Country, for instance in Iceland (more
info at another page of GeoNative).
Other features may shock you, for instance: pluri-personal verbs,
the 3-number system (singular, plural and indefinite), allocutive
speech, ergative construction, the 20-or-so declination cases (very
easy to learn: they are just strictly regular postpositions),
particular word order, positional nouns... Many of these features are
strange to European language speakers, but are not that rare among
the world's languages.
4. Language
status
The positions of the various existing governments in the Basque
Country with regard to the promotion of Basque are very different.
The language has official status in those territories which are
within the Basque Autonomous Community, but only partially in
Nafarroa, which is divided by the law in three distinct language
areas (this law is strongly rejected by the Basque-speaking people of
Nafarroa).
Nevertheless, co-officiality with Spanish does not mean equal
status. Spanish rules and the Basque-speaking have great difficulties
to deal with their administration in their own language, despite the
law that grants that right.
Basque has no official standing in the Northern Basque Country,
the part under France. French language laws and political culture are
extremely hostile to regional languages. An absurd example of
discrimination: If you have French nationality, you cannot use Basque
to declare in a French court, but if you have Spanish nationality,
you can do so, as Basque is officially recognised at the other side
of the frontier.
|
Language knowledge in the Basque
Country
|
|
Territory
|
population
|
basque-speaking (%)
|
almost basque-speaking (%)
|
non basque (%)
|
|
Araba
|
271.000
|
8
|
15
|
77
|
|
Bizkaia
|
1.143.000
|
18
|
18
|
64
|
|
Gipuzkoa
|
670.000
|
44
|
14
|
42
|
|
Lapurdi
|
186.000
|
26
|
11
|
66
|
|
Nafarroa
|
519.000
|
10
|
10
|
80
|
|
Nafarroa Beherea
|
34.700
|
61
|
-
|
-
|
|
Zuberoa
|
15.800
|
63
|
-
|
-
|
|
BAC
|
2.084.000
|
24
|
8
|
67
|
|
Northern BC
|
237.000
|
27
|
9
|
64
|
|
Southern BC
|
2.603.000
|
21
|
7
|
71
|
|
Euskal Herria
|
2.846.000
|
23
|
14
|
63
|
- Source:
Population data: 1991. Language data are from 1996
(source: EKB), except for partial data of the Northern BC
provinces (these are from 1991). At the same time, the
totals for BAC and Southern BC are from 1991, not based
on the partial data of 1996.
- Initials used: BAC: Basque Autonomous Community, formed by
Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. Northern BC: Three provinces
(Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa), under the French
State. Southern BC: Four provinces (the 3 of BAC and
Nafarroa) under the Spanish State. Euskal Herria: the
whole Basque Country. See map above.
- Almost
basque-speaking is a term
coined by Basque sociolinguists to name those who
understand Basque but do not speak it, or have poor
command of the language.
|
5. Basque
links
General stuff
- Buber's Basque Page. English-language Internet guide to Basque
resources.
- Eusnet / Jalgi. Basque Internet Service Providers
- Euskal Herria Journal. An independentist site.
- Elkarri. This group promotes dialogue for a peaceful
settlement of the Basque conflict.
- Basque Arts - Basque Culture and products now on sale on
Internet
- Jalgi Hadi: a personal homepage
- EHE: pro-language association
- Basque Red Net (Euskal Sare Gorria):
- Eugenio Alberdi´s page (great!)
- Basque Autonomous Govt. site (for 3 provinces only):
- Kaixo. Basque search engine.
- Basque in Navarre, official information and maps
Linguistic stuff
- Online dictionary: Euskalterm terminology database by UZEI.
Interface in Basque but easy to use. English, French, Basque and
Spanish covered.
- Basque online speech database. Hear the sound of spoken Basque
(the Bakio variety of Bizkaian dialect), and know (and hear) the
phonemes of Basque, courtesy of
Aholab.
- Basque computational linguistics group (Ixa), and one of their
works, the Basque online spell checker, Euspell.
- Larry Trask's Basque site. Trask, a linguist, has developed an
interesting site for foreigners who wish to know more about the
Basque language. A linguistic sketch, cultural vocabulary and a
Basque FAQ are there.
- Linguistic facts, seriously and plainly explained by another
linguist: Manfred Ostrowski.
- Eguneratua / Last updated: 1999.01.10
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