Basque Country in Spain and France
Basque dialects
Spoken Basque
Basque
(Basque:
Euskara
) is the
language
spoken by the
Basque people
in the
Basque Country
and its
diaspora
. Although most other Europeans speak
Indo-European languages
, Basque is a
language isolate
and is not related to them or to any other language in the world.
The ancestors of Basques are among the oldest residents of
Europe
, and their origins are unknown, as are the origins of the language. Many scholars have tried to link Basque to
Etruscan
,
African languages
,
Caucasian languages
and so on, but most see Basque as a
language isolate
.
A connection with the
Iberian language
has given some hope, but it is unclear whether similarities are caused by genetic relations or mere vicinity.
It was spoken long before the
Romans
brought Latin to the
Iberian Peninsula
.
Percentage of fluent speakers of Basque.
Basque is spoken in an area that is smaller than what is known as the
Basque Country
(Basque:
Euskal Herria)
. Basque was once spoken over a larger area, but
Latin
took over in some places.
Historically, Latin or a Romance language has been official.
Today Basque holds co-official language status in the Basque regions of Spain: the full autonomous community of the Basque Country and some parts of
Navarre
. Basque has no official standing in the Northern Basque area of France, and French citizens are barred from using Basque in a French court of law.
There are six main Basque dialects, comprising
Biscayan
,
Guipuzcoan
, and
High Navarrese
(in Spain), and
Low Navarrese
,
Labourdin
, and
Souletin
(in France). The dialect boundaries are not, however, congruent with political boundaries.
One of the first scientific studies of Basque dialects, in particular the
auxiliary verb
forms, was made by
Louis-Lucien Bonaparte
(a nephew of
Napoleon Bonaparte
).
There is now a unified version called
Batua
("unified" in Basque), which is the language taught in schools. Batua is based largely on the
Gipuzkoa
regional dialect.
Basque is an
ergative-absolutive language
. Its grammar is very complex, with many different
cases
for nouns.
The vowel system is the same as most Spanish-speakers and has five pure vowels,
/i e a o u/
.
By contact with nearby peoples, Basque has borrowed words from
Latin
,
Spanish
,
French
,
Gascon
and others but accepted fewer than
Indo-European languages
. Some claim that many of its words come from Latin, but phonetic evolution has made many of them now appear as if they were native words, e.g.
lore
("flower", from
florem
),
errota
("mill", from
rotam
, "[mill] wheel"),
gela
("room", from
cellam
).
Basque is written with the
Latin alphabet
. The universal special letter is
n
, which is pronounced like the
n
in
onion
, and
c
and
u
are also used. Basque does not use
c, q, v, w, y
except for loanwords and are not considered part of the alphabet. Also,
x
is pronounced as a
sh
, as in
shine
.
- Bai
= Yes
- Ez
= No
- Kaixo!
, = Hello
- Agur!
,
Adio!
= Goodbye!
- Ikusi arte
= See you!
- Eskerrik asko!
= Thank you!
- Egun on
= Good morning (literally: Good day)
- Egun on, bai
= Standard reply to
Egun on
- Arratsalde on
= Good evening
- Gabon
= Good night
- Mesedez
= Please
- Barkatu
= Excuse (me)
- Aizu!
= Listen! (To get someone's attention, not very polite, to be used with friends)
- Kafe hutsa nahi nuke
= Can I have a coffee?
- Kafe ebakia nahi nuke
= Can I have a macchiato?
- Kafesnea nahi nuke
= Can I have a cafe latte?
- Garagardoa nahi nuke
= Can I have a beer?
- Komunak
= Toilets
- Komuna, non dago?
= Where are the toilets?
- Non dago tren-geltokia?
= Where is the train station?
- Non dago autobus-geltokia?
= Where is the bus station?
- Ba al da hotelik hemen inguruan?
= Where is the (nearest, only) hotel?
- Zorionak
= Happy holidays (During Christmas and new year's), congratulations
- Ez dakit euskaraz
= I do not speak Basque
- Ba al dakizu ingelesez?
= Do you speak English?
- Nongoa zara?
= Where are you from?
- Non dago...?
= Where is...?
- Badakizu euskaraz?
= Do you speak Basque?
- Bai ote?
= Really?
- Topa!
= Cheers!
- Hementxe!
= Over / right here!
- Geldi!
= Stop
- Lasai
= Take it easy
- Ez dut nahi
= I do not want