THE BASQUE COUNTRY AND ITS LANGUAGE

By Clara and Amaia M.

The Basque Country is the name given to the four provinces located in northern Spain (Biscay, Gipuzkoa, Alava and Navarre) and to three provinces located in southern France (Lapurdi, Nafarroa Behera and Zuberoa).

Each province has a capital: 
-Bilbo is the capital of Biscay. 
-Donostia (known also as San Sebastian) is the capital of Gipuzkoa.

-Gasteiz (known also as Vitoria) is the capital of Alava.

-Iruñea (known also as Pamplona) is the capital of Navarre.

-Baiona is the capital of Lapurdi.

-Donibane-Garazi is the capital of Nafarroa Behera.

-Maule is the capital of Zuberoa.

This region is considered home to the Basque people (in Basque known as Euskaldunak), to their language (in Basque known as Euskara), culture and traditions. Nevertheless, the area is neither linguistically nor culturally homogeneous, since the Basque language has influences from Spanish and French and large amounts of immigrants come to our region.

However, Basque and Spanish are co-official languages of the Basque Country, but as Basques are part of Spain, Spanish (which is compulsory to know) is spoken by all of us, whereas Basque is not. This is the reason why there is an official exam called EGA for those who want to prove their Basque knowledge (in our school most of the students have passed it!) and the chance to choose if you want to study in Basque or Spanish.

In addition to this, it should be noted that Basque is the most ancient language of Europe, in fact, it was spoken 8,000 years ago in the Pyrenees. Moreover, its origin is a mystery because it doesn’t come from Latin neither from Anglo-Saxon, nor from any language known nowadays.

Finally, it is interesting to know that, even if there is a standard version of the Basque language called Euskara Batua, which is taught in school, modern Basque shows a high degree of dialectal divergence, sometimes making cross-dialect communication difficult. This is especially true in the case of Biscayan and Zuberoan, which are regarded as the most divergent Basque dialects.

Modern Basque dialectology distinguishes five dialects: 

·        The Western dialect (Biscayan)

·        The Central dialect (Gipuzkera)

·        Upper Navarresse (Nafarrera)

·        Lower Navarrese-Larpurdian (Behe nafar-zuberera)

·        Souletin (Zuberoan)

These dialects are divided in 11 sub-dialects, their minor varieties being 24. In Beasain, the dialect we speak is the Central dialect, also called Gipuzkera.