Basque: A Language Thriving In Isolation

How many European languages do you know of? Go ahead and make a list in your head. What did you think of? Probably Romance languages like Italian, French, and Spanish, right? Most people can think of the main Romance languages, but not many can name the other European languages. One such language is Basque.

Basque is spoken by Basques, a Southern European ethnic group with shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Geographically, it is spoken in Basque Country, located in the Western Pyrenees, a mountain range between Spain and France. It is unrelated to any European language, though the extinct Aquitanian language is said to be a precursor.

When I listened to samples of native speakers, I was not surprised to find that it sounds like no other language I have ever heard. My first thought was that it reminded me of Hungarian, and soon it changed to sounding like Spanish, but at the same time it sounded like neither. It is, in my opinion, pleasant to listen to; native speakers seem to consistently draw out vowels, and rather than leave a gap in their sentence, hold an “eh” or “ah” sound to fill the silence.

Basque is also one of the only surviving pre-indo-European languages, the rest of which include the Dravidian languages in South Asia, the Kartvelian languages in the Caucasus, and the Paleosiberian languages in Northern Eurasia. Pre-indo-European languages refer to ancient languages that existed in Prehistoric Europe and South Asia prior to the arrival of Indo-European languages, the oldest of which dates back to the 19th century BC in Kültepe (located in modern-day Turkey).

There are less than a million native speakers worldwide, so the language is by no means dying. However, it was in significant danger from 1936 to 1975, when the Francoist Dictatorship ruled Spain. At that time, the government placed restrictions on political, linguistic, and cultural practices. The use of the Basque language in public was suppressed, and some were even fined for speaking it. It was frowned upon for supposedly being anti-Francoist and Separatist. Basque inscriptions on tombstones were erased, and it was forbidden to register newborns under Basque names. Overtime, the effects of this were reversed, and a standardized version of the language, Euskara Batua, was developed.

Besides this standardized version, there are five dialects of Basque: Biscayan, spoken in Biscay; Gipuzkoan, spoken in the province of Gipuzkoa and a small part of Navarre; the extinct Upper Navarrese, spoken in Navarre, Spain; Navarrese-Lapurdian, spoken in the lower Navarre and Labourd former provinces of the French Basque Country; and Souletin, spoken in Soule, France. The name of the language in Basque is Euskara, and in French it is referred to as either Basque or Euskara. In Spanish, it is called el vasco, la lengua vasca, or el euskera.

There are some hypotheses of how Basque is connected to other languages, but due to the scarcity of written documentation, they are all controversial. For example, in the 19th century, d'Arbois de Jubainville, J. Pokorny, P. Kretschmer and several other linguists proposed the Ligurian substrate. Basque has also previously been linked to Georgian, but Kartvelian languages are now proven to be completely unrelated.

Although the Basque language does not have its own country and is completely isolated, their ethnic group still thrives in the Iberian peninsula, and more and more Basque children are learning the language in school.

Approximately 6,500 languages are spoken around the world today. There are so many fascinating cultures, dialects, and traditions that are all beautiful in their own way, just begging to be researched; why not start now?