History of the Basque Country
The Basque language is thought to have existed long before the arrival of Indo-Europeans, with the earliest evidence of its presence dating back 2,000 years. It is not the oldest language in Europe, but it is the oldest surviving Western European language. Its origins predate the spread of writing in Europe. There are several theories as to its origin: Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Eurasian pre-indo-European, Dene-Caucasian, Iberian or Berber with the arrival of certain Berber troops in 218 BC. The period from 1980 to the present day is marked by the officialization of the Basque language on Spanish territory. Strictly speaking, it is co-official with Spanish in the two autonomous communities corresponding to Basque territory in Spain. In the Northern Basque Country, Basque currently has no legal status. While Basque grammar is highly original, being "agglutinative" where suffixes and radicals can be added, its numerical system is "vicesimal" (base 20), as in Old French, Breton or Danish. On the other hand, 75% of the vocabulary is similar to that of languages such as Celtic, Aragonese, Gascon, French, Spanish and Latin. Several dialects can be distinguished. These are mainly Navarro-Labourdin, Biscayan, Souletin and Guipúzcoan. To compensate for the lack of mutual understanding between speakers, the Basque Language Academy established a unified Basque in the late 1960s. This common dialect is currently undergoing a process of standardization and unification.
Evolution of the Basque language
In spite of numerous borrowings from neighboring languages (Latinism and Romanism), the Basque spoken today differs little from the original. The influence of Spain and France has led to linguistic differentiation and it is clear that over the centuries and with the considerable development of the means of communication, the practice of the language has suffered a clear decline. The Basque language is still a minority language in both areas of Navarre, with Spanish being the only administrative language. Today, the Basque language is not only the language of the family intimacy or of the markets of villages, it is expressed in the press with various weeklies and on the airwaves with associative radios or still on certain stations of public service. There are about fifty radio stations broadcasting in Basque on both sides of the border. The television also, with the local channel TVPI, bought by the group Sud Ouest, Kanaldude, ETB 1, ETB 3 and ETB Sat. It also lives through an abundant literature and is at the service of multimedia and surfing the Internet.
Teaching
The Basque language is often passed on within the family, from generation to generation. But this transmission, insufficient to ensure its continuity, is completed by the ikastola (immersive teaching system) which have been the pioneers with the development of public and private bilingual courses since 1969. In addition, thousands of adults throughout the Basque Country are learning Basque through learning and literacy structures. Alongside families and schools, nurseries and kindergartens are one of the links in the language transmission process. This allows for early multilingualism and a more favorable future schooling in Basque, which continues in some colleges and high schools up to the final year of high school, and for some years now at the University of Bayonne. Basque writing is written with the Latin alphabet. The Basque alphabet is generally phonetic, all the letters of a word are pronounced except for the h which is silent in most dialects.
Basque language and culture
The expressions of the language are multiple through song, music, dance, theater, literature and cinema. Traditional Basque song: it occupies a primordial place and it is traditional at the end of the meal in an inn to find echoes in the form of improvised or rhymed songs. More specifically, it is since the end of the 19th century that the phenomenon of choral singing and opera has been born. There are also Basque choirs in Chile, Argentina, the United States and Mexico. Basque dance is omnipresent, with a rich and spectacular repertoire of traditional dances that has been able to renew itself. It is one of the essential elements of village festivals, ceremonies and numerous rituals celebrated throughout the year. Very often, theatrical performances take place in the streets, in the squares, the precursors of street theater. Three forms of expression can be distinguished: the Souletine pastoral, the masquerade that is performed in the province of Soule, and the toberak or charivari. In theaters, they are adaptations of foreign works (Bretch, Réza, Koltés...). In literature, nearly 1,500 books written in Basque are published each year. Basque cinema also shows its vitality and dynamism thanks to its distribution throughout France.
The Basque language in the world
The Basque language has always traveled the world and exported the language and culture of the Basque Country. In Chile, Mexico, many South American countries and also on the West Coast of the United States where you will feel like you are in the heart of a Basque village with the fronton, the trinquet and the names of the streets. It is precisely in California that the Basque presence is strongest. The Basque diaspora is a cultural reality whose history goes back to the Spanish conquest. Between 1900 and 1920, 430,000 French and Spanish Basques settled there. For more than a hundred years, until 1960, young Basques not only herded sheep, but also planted vines that are recognized today as excellent vineyards. 90% of California Basques live in Baskerfield, which has several Basque restaurants and a festival in May. They are now well established and often work as farmers, winemakers, academics..
