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EUSKARA, THE LANGUAGE OF THE BASKONES

The Baskon language is an inflected language whose origin is still somewhat puzzling. The fact that it is not an Indoeuropean language, and shows no ressemblance to languages in neighbouring countries, has led to the formulation of a variety of hypotheses to explain its existence. Owing to some similarities with the Georgian language, some linguists think it could be related to languages from the Caucasus. Others relate the language to non-Arabic languages from the north of Africa. One of the most likely hypotheses argues that the Baskon language developed "in situ", in the land of Baskonia. That theory is supported by the discovery of some Baskon-type skulls in Neolithic sites, which ruled out the thesis of immigration from other areas. Many think it is a very old language because there are words, such as that for axe ("aizkora" or "haizkora") for example, that have the same root as the word rock ("aitz"> or "haitz")

Euskara, an integral part of the craft world in Gipuzkoa

Throughout history, the Baskon language has taken up words not only from Latin, Castilian and French, but also from Celtic (Deba, zilar: "silver"), and Arabic (azoka" "market", gutuna: "letter">). On the other hand, words such as the Castilian for "left" and "scrap"> ("izquierda" and "chatarra" respectively), and the French and English for "bizarre" come from the Basque language.

Rural communities have kept the language alive. Donardegi Baskon farmstead.

Before Roman times, it seems that the Euskara was spoken in an area larger than the present one, which bordered on the north with Aquitane, and on the south with the River Ebro. It is estimated, nowadays, that more than 750,000 people speak Euskara in the whole territory of Baskonia and in the rest of the world.

Euskara, was not written until the 16th century, but that was not obstacle to creating a rich oral literature, kept alive up to the present times by the "bertsolarismo" and the pastorals. Curiously, the first written texts in the Baskon language (the sentences "iziogui dugu" and "guec ajutu ez dugu", "we have lit" and "we have not helped") are in the 10th century Glosas Emilianenses, which contain the first examples of the Castilian ballad. In the 12th century, the Calixtino Codex mentions some Baskon vocabulary of the people living along the pilgrim's road to Santiago de Compostela. But Linguae Vasconum Primitiae, the first book written in Euskara by Bernard Dechepare, was not published until 1545. From the onwards, and not without difficulties, a flourishing literature has developed. The bersolarismo has been kept up in the oral literature. The "bertsolaris" improvise verses in a given metrical form (eight, ten lines...) for which they use little tunes. The meaning of the verses varies, going from satire and humour to the finest Iyricism. Competitions for bersolaris are held regularly; they help spread and interest in this type of popular literature.

"Kilometroak", a popular movement supporting the Baskon language.

Things have not been easy for the Baskon language. Apart from having to compete with two powerful neighbouring languages like Castilian and French, Euskara was a forbidden language during the dictatorship that followed the Civil War. For decades, children had to study in an unfamiliar language, and were severely punished when they spoke in their mother tongue, even at play time. An important movement to open up Baskon schools called "ikastolas" started at that time. After a long and systematic effort on the part of many people, a parallel school network was set up to satisfy the needs of teaching in Basque. Today Basque schools are in the process of becoming part of the Basque Autonomy school system, but in the rest of Baskonia private schools are the only ones which provide teaching in Euskara.

We also have to mention the effort carried out for the recovery of the Baskon language among adults. Therefore, every year a large number of people, whose mother tongue is other than Euskara, learn to speak it. That way, the old myth that Euskara is an impossible language to learn, is gone for ever.

Religion, a key element in the development of the written Baskon language.

From the studies carried out by Prince Luis Luciano Bonaparte, the author of the Linguistic Charter (1883), Euskara is considered to be divided in seven main dialects (Roncalés, the eight one, almost extinct), and a number of subdialects. The reason for such variety is the geographical location, and the fact that until recent times Euskara was mainly spoken in rural areas. With a view to modernizing the language, so it could be used as a cultural vehicle, the first steps were taken to define a unified language from 1964 onwards. Since 1968 Euskaltzaindia (the Baskon Academy of the Language), founded in Oñate in 1918, has been in charge of this task. The unified Baskon language was called Euskara Batua (unified), and it is mainly based on the variety of dialects from Laburdi (with a major literary tradition), and Gipuzkoa. In spite of the natural criticism and controversy, Euskara Batua is, nowadays, the most widespread type used by the mass media, in literature, and teaching.