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50-497: Ustaritz ( French pronunciation: [ystaʁits] ; Basque : Uztaritze ) is a town in the traditional Basque province of Labourd , now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department , southwestern France . It is located on the river Nive some 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) inland from Bayonne . Ustaritz station has rail connections to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, Cambo-les-Bains and Bayonne. Ustaritz

100-400: A limited area ( Gascony and Old Castile ) that corresponds almost exactly to areas where heavy Basque bilingualism is assumed, and as a result has been widely postulated (and equally strongly disputed). Substrate theories are often difficult to prove (especially in the case of phonetically plausible changes like /f/ to /h/ ). As a result, although many arguments have been made on both sides,

150-622: A modest comeback. In the Spanish part, Basque-language schools for children and Basque-teaching centres for adults have brought the language to areas such as western Enkarterri and the Ribera del Ebro in southern Navarre, where it is not known to ever have been widely spoken; and in the French Basque Country, these schools and centres have almost stopped the decline of the language. Historically, Latin or Romance languages have been

200-812: A population of 2,634,800 over 16 years of age (1,838,800 in the Autonomous community, 546,000 in Navarre and 250,000 in the Northern Basque Country), 806,000 spoke Basque, which amounted to 30.6% of the population. Compared to the 1991 figures, this represents an overall increase of 266,000, from 539,110 speakers 30 years previously (430,000 in the BAC , 40,110 in FCN , and 69,000 in the Northern provinces). This number has tended to increase, as in all regions

250-464: A sole mother tongue has decreased from 19% in 1991 to 15.1% in 2016, while Basque and another language being used as mother language increased from 3% to 5.4% in the same time period. General public attitude towards efforts to promote the Basque language have also been more positive, with the share of people against these efforts falling from 20.9% in 1991 to 16% in 2016. In 2021, the study found that in

300-590: Is a language spoken by Basques and other residents of the Basque Country , a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Basque is classified as a language isolate (unrelated to any other known languages) and the only language isolate in Europe. The Basques are indigenous to and primarily inhabit the Basque Country. The Basque language

350-434: Is challenging since written material and documentation only is available for some few hundred years. Almost all hypotheses concerning the origin of Basque are controversial, and the suggested evidence is not generally accepted by mainstream linguists. Some of these hypothetical connections are: The region where Basque is spoken has become smaller over centuries, especially at the northern, southern, and eastern borders. Nothing

400-505: Is distinguished from atso "old woman". In the westernmost parts of the Basque country, only the apical ⟨s⟩ and the alveolar affricate ⟨tz⟩ are used. Basque also features postalveolar sibilants ( /ʃ/ , written ⟨x⟩ , and /tʃ/ , written ⟨tx⟩ ). Souletin dialect In English sources, the Basque-based term Zuberoan is sometimes encountered. In Standard Basque ,

450-582: Is generally referred to as Aquitanian and is assumed to have been spoken in the area before the Roman Republic 's conquests in the western Pyrenees . Some authors even argue for late Basquisation , that the language moved westward during Late Antiquity after the fall of the Western Roman Empire into the northern part of Hispania into what is now the Basque Country . Roman neglect of this area allowed Aquitanian to survive while

500-693: Is known about the limits of this region in ancient times, but on the basis of toponyms and epigraphs, it seems that in the beginning of the Common Era it stretched to the river Garonne in the north (including the south-western part of present-day France); at least to the Val d'Aran in the east (now a Gascon -speaking part of Catalonia ), including lands on both sides of the Pyrenees ; the southern and western boundaries are not clear at all. The Reconquista temporarily counteracted this contracting tendency when

550-496: Is known of its origins, but it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in and around the area of modern Basque Country before the arrival of the Indo-European languages in western Europe during the 3rd millennium BC. Authors such as Miguel de Unamuno and Louis Lucien Bonaparte have noted that the words for "knife" ( aizto ), "axe" ( aizkora ), and "hoe" ( aitzur ) appear to derive from

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600-943: Is markedly noticeable to speakers of other varieties. All six vowels can be nasalized ( /õ/ is absent in some Souletin varieties), with nasalization being phonemic. It is likely that the sixth vowel arose influenced by the Béarnese vowel shift some centuries ago instead of being an ancient vowel lost in other dialects of Basque. Souletin features the voiceless aspirated stops /pʰ/,/tʰ/,/cʰ/,/kʰ/ , which contrast with their unaspirated counterparts. The alveolar tap /ɾ/ present in other dialects has been lost in Souletin. The voiced fricatives /z̻/,/z̺/ are found almost exclusively in loanwords, they are present in other varieties only as allophones of their unvoiced counterparts. The phoneme /ʒ/ (written as j ) corresponds to /x/ in other varieties. The voiceless nasal glottal approximant /h̃/

650-639: Is one strong loanword candidate, ezker , long considered the source of the Pyrenean and Iberian Romance words for "left (side)" ( izquierdo , esquerdo , esquerre ). The lack of initial /r/ in Gascon could arguably be due to a Basque influence but this issue is under-researched. The other most commonly claimed substrate influences: The first two features are common, widespread developments in many Romance (and non-Romance) languages. The change of /f/ to /h/ occurred historically only in

700-513: Is spoken by 806,000 Basques in all territories. Of these, 93.7% (756,000) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.3% (50,000) are in the French portion. Native speakers live in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish provinces and the three "ancient provinces" in France. Gipuzkoa , most of Biscay , a few municipalities on the northern border of Álava and

750-724: The Algonquian peoples in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Strait of Belle Isle . The Basque language features five vowels: /a/ , /e/ , /i/ , /o/ and /u/ (the same that are found in Spanish , Asturian and Aragonese ). In the Zuberoan dialect, extra phonemes are featured: There is no distinctive vowel length in Basque, although vowels can be lengthened for emphasis. The mid vowels /e/ and /o/ are raised before nasal consonants. Basque has an a-Elision Rule, according to which

800-566: The Asturian Xíriga . Part of the Romani community in the Basque Country speaks Erromintxela , which is a rare mixed language , with a Kalderash Romani vocabulary and Basque grammar. A number of Basque-based or Basque-influenced pidgins have existed. In the 16th century, Basque sailors used a Basque–Icelandic pidgin in their contacts with Iceland. The Algonquian–Basque pidgin arose from contact between Basque whalers and

850-664: The French Basque Country , Basque was still spoken in all the territory except in Bayonne and some villages around, and including some bordering towns in Béarn . In the 20th century, however, the rise of Basque nationalism spurred increased interest in the language as a sign of ethnic identity, and with the establishment of autonomous governments in the Southern Basque Country , it has recently made

900-640: The Iberian and Tartessian languages became extinct. Through the long contact with Romance languages, Basque adopted a sizeable number of Romance words. Initially the source was Latin, later Gascon (a branch of Occitan ) in the north-east, Navarro-Aragonese in the south-east and Spanish in the south-west. Since 1968, Basque has been immersed in a revitalisation process, facing formidable obstacles. However, significant progress has been made in numerous areas. Six main factors have been identified to explain its relative success: While those six factors influenced

950-577: The Latin script is used for the Basque alphabet . In Basque, the name of the language is officially euskara (alongside various dialect forms). In French, the language is normally called basque , though euskara has become common in recent times. Spanish has a greater variety of names for the language. Today, it is most commonly referred to as vasco , lengua vasca , or euskera . Both terms, vasco and basque , are inherited from

1000-573: The Spanish language is the official language of the nation, but allows autonomous communities to provide a co-official language status for the other languages of Spain . Consequently, the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Autonomous Community establishes Basque as the co-official language of the autonomous community. The Statute of Navarre establishes Spanish as the official language of Navarre, but grants co-official status to

1050-445: The voiceless apicoalveolar fricative [s̺] is written ⟨s⟩ ; the tip of the tongue points toward the upper teeth and friction occurs at the tip (apex). For example, zu "you" (singular, respectful) is distinguished from su "fire". The affricate counterparts are written ⟨tz⟩ and ⟨ts⟩ . So, etzi "the day after tomorrow" is distinguished from etsi "to give up"; atzo "yesterday"

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1100-466: The 14th century when a law passed in Huesca in 1349 stated that Item nuyl corridor nonsia usado que faga mercadería ninguna que compre nin venda entre ningunas personas, faulando en algaravia nin en abraych nin en basquenç : et qui lo fara pague por coto XXX sol —essentially penalising the use of Arabic, Hebrew, or Basque in marketplaces with a fine of 30 sols (the equivalent of 30 sheep). Although

1150-633: The BAC, when both parents were Basque speakers, 98% of children were only communicated to in Basque, while 2% were communicated to in both Basque and Spanish. When only one parent was a Basque speaker and their first language was Basque, 84% used Basque and Spanish and 16% only Spanish. In Navarre, the family language of 94.3% of the youngest respondents with both Basque parents was Basque. In the Northern Basque Country, however, when both parents were Basque speaking, just two-thirds transmitted only Basque to their offspring, and as age decreased,

1200-412: The Basque Country, excluding the southern part of Navarre, the south-western part of Álava , and the western part of Biscay, and including some parts of Béarn . In 1807, Basque was still spoken in the northern half of Álava—including its capital city Vitoria-Gasteiz —and a vast area in central Navarre, but in these two provinces, Basque experienced a rapid decline that pushed its border northwards. In

1250-455: The Basque language could be used—and easily understood by all Basque speakers—in formal situations (education, mass media, literature), and this is its main use today. In both Spain and France, the use of Basque for education varies from region to region and from school to school. Basque is the only surviving language isolate in Europe . The current mainstream scientific view on the origin of

1300-464: The Basque language in the Basque-speaking areas of northern Navarre. Basque has no official status in the French Basque Country and French citizens are barred from officially using Basque in a French court of law. However, the use of Basque by Spanish nationals in French courts is permitted (with translation), as Basque is officially recognised on the other side of the border. The positions of

1350-481: The Basque language is geographically surrounded by Romance languages , it is a language isolate that is unrelated to them or to any other language. Most scholars believe Basque to be the last remaining descendant of one of the pre-Indo-European languages of prehistoric Europe . Consequently, it may be impossible to reconstruct the prehistory of the Basque language by the traditional comparative method except by applying it to differences between Basque dialects. Little

1400-619: The Basques and of their language is that early forms of Basque developed before the arrival of Indo-European languages in the area, i.e. before the arrival of Celtic and Romance languages in particular, as the latter today geographically surround the Basque-speaking region. Typologically, with its agglutinative morphology and ergative–absolutive alignment , Basque grammar remains markedly different from that of Standard Average European languages. Nevertheless, Basque has borrowed up to 40 percent of its vocabulary from Romance languages, and

1450-474: The Christian lords called on northern Iberian peoples — Basques, Asturians , and " Franks " — to colonise the new conquests. The Basque language became the main everyday language , while other languages like Spanish , Gascon , French , or Latin were preferred for the administration and high education. By the 16th century, the Basque-speaking area was reduced basically to the present-day seven provinces of

1500-519: The Latin ethnonym Vascones , which in turn goes back to the Greek term Οὐάσκωνες ( ouáskōnes ), an ethnonym used by Strabo in his Geographica (23 CE, Book III). The Spanish term Vascuence , derived from Latin vasconĭce , has acquired negative connotations over the centuries and is not well-liked amongst Basque speakers generally. Its use is documented at least as far back as

1550-416: The age group most likely to speak Basque was those between 16 and 24 years old. In the BAC, the proportion in this age group who spoke the language (74.5%) was nearly triple the comparable figure from 1991, when barely a quarter of the population spoke Basque. While there is a general increase in the number of Basque speakers during this period, this is mainly because of bilingualism . Basque transmission as

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1600-446: The corresponding fricatives [β] , [ð] , and [ɣ] . Basque has a distinction between laminal and apical articulation for the alveolar fricatives and affricates. With the laminal alveolar fricative [s̻] , the friction occurs across the blade of the tongue, the tongue tip pointing toward the lower teeth. This is the usual /s/ in most European languages. It is written with an orthographic ⟨z⟩ . By contrast,

1650-538: The debate largely comes down to the a priori tendency on the part of particular linguists to accept or reject substrate arguments. Examples of arguments against the substrate theory, and possible responses: Beyond these arguments, a number of nomadic groups of Castile are also said to use or have used Basque words in their jargon, such as the gacería in Segovia , the mingaña , the Galician fala dos arxinas and

1700-499: The dialect is known as zuberera (the province name Zuberoa and the language-forming suffix -era ). Various local forms are üskara , xiberera and xiberotarra . In French, it is known as souletin . In Spanish , the dialect is called souletino or suletino . The southern dialect Roncalese was sometimes included within Zuberoan. A Basque language variety close to Zuberoan may have extended more to

1750-587: The east, into the Central Pyrenees , as attested by placenames and historical records about the Basque peoples ( Wascones, qui trans Garonnam et circa Pirineum montem habitant , ' Vascons , who reside beyond [river] Garonne and around the Pyrenees ' in the Royal Frankish Annals ). In addition to the five vowels present in all other Basque dialects, Zuberoan also has a close front rounded vowel /y/ (written ü ), which

1800-403: The influence of the neighbouring Romance languages on the Basque language (especially the lexicon, but also to some degree Basque phonology and grammar) has been much more extensive, it is usually assumed that there has been some feedback from Basque into these languages as well. In particular Gascon and Aragonese , and to a lesser degree Spanish are thought to have received this influence in

1850-469: The main political parties of Navarre, divides Navarre into three language areas: Basque-speaking, non-Basque-speaking, and mixed. Support for the language and the linguistic rights of citizens vary, depending on the area. Others consider it unfair, since the rights of Basque speakers differ greatly depending on the place they live. The 2021 sociolinguistic survey of all Basque-speaking territories showed that, of all people aged 16 and above: In 2021, out of

1900-599: The most divergent Basque dialects. Modern Basque dialectology distinguishes five dialects: These dialects are divided in 11 subdialects, and 24 minor varieties among them. According to Koldo Zuazo , the Biscayan dialect or "Western" is the most widespread dialect, with around 300,000 speakers out of a total of around 660,000 speakers. This dialect is divided in two minor subdialects: the Western Biscayan and Eastern Biscayan, plus transitional dialects. Although

1950-571: The northern area of Navarre formed the core of the remaining Basque-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen Basque fluency. By contrast, most of Álava, the westernmost part of Biscay, and central and southern Navarre are predominantly populated by native speakers of Spanish , either because Basque was replaced by Spanish over the centuries (as in most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it may never have been spoken there (as in parts of Enkarterri and south-eastern Navarre). In Francoist Spain , Basque language use

2000-670: The official languages in this region. However, Basque was explicitly recognised in some areas. For instance, the fuero or charter of the Basque-colonised Ojacastro (now in La Rioja ) allowed the inhabitants to use Basque in legal processes in the 13th and 14th centuries. Basque was allowed in telegraph messages in Spain thanks to the royal decree of 1904. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states in Article 3 that

2050-670: The past. In the case of Aragonese and Gascon, this would have been through substrate interference following language shift from Aquitanian or Basque to a Romance language, affecting all levels of the language, including place names around the Pyrenees. Although a number of words of alleged Basque origin in the Spanish language are circulated (e.g. anchoa 'anchovies', bizarro 'dashing, gallant, spirited', cachorro 'puppy', etc.), most of these have more easily explicable Romance etymologies or not particularly convincing derivations from Basque. Ignoring cultural terms, there

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2100-410: The public use of Basque was suppressed, with people fined for speaking it. Public use of Basque was frowned upon by supporters of the regime, often regarded as a sign of anti-Francoism or separatism . Overall, in the 1960s and later, the trend reversed and education and publishing in Basque began to flourish. As a part of this process, a standardised form of the Basque language, called Euskara Batua ,

2150-487: The revitalisation process, the extensive development and use of language technologies is also considered a significant additional factor. Many linguists have tried to link Basque with other languages, but no hypothesis has gained mainstream acceptance. Apart from pseudoscientific comparisons , the appearance of long-range linguistics gave rise to several attempts to connect Basque with geographically very distant language families such as Georgian . Historical work on Basque

2200-401: The transmission rate also decreased. Basque is used as a language of commerce both in the Basque Country and in locations around the world where Basques immigrated throughout history. The modern Basque dialects show a high degree of dialectal divergence, sometimes making cross-dialect communication difficult. This is especially true in the case of Biscayan and Souletin, which are regarded as

2250-534: The various existing governments differ with regard to the promotion of Basque in areas where Basque is commonly spoken. The language has official status in those territories that are within the Basque Autonomous Community, where it is spoken and promoted heavily, but only partially in Navarre. The Ley del Vascuence ("Law of Basque"), seen as contentious by many Basques, but considered fitting Navarra's linguistic and cultural diversity by some of

2300-518: The vowel /a/ is elided before any following vowel. This does not prevent the existence of diphthongs with /a/ present. There are six diphthongs in Basque, all falling and with /i̯/ or /u̯/ as the second element. In syllable-final position, all plosives are devoiced and are spelled accordingly in Standard Basque. When between vowels, and often when after /r/ or /l/ , the voiced plosives /b/ , /d/ , and /ɡ/ , are pronounced as

2350-578: The word for "stone" ( haitz ), and have therefore concluded that the language dates to prehistoric Europe when those tools were made of stone. Others find this unlikely: see the aizkora controversy . Latin inscriptions in Gallia Aquitania preserve a number of words with cognates in the reconstructed proto-Basque language , for instance, the personal names Nescato and Cison ( neskato and gizon mean 'young girl' and 'man', respectively in modern Basque). This language

2400-464: Was developed by the Euskaltzaindia in the late 1960s. Besides its standardised version, the five historic Basque dialects are Biscayan , Gipuzkoan , and Upper Navarrese in Spain and Navarrese–Lapurdian and Souletin in France. They take their names from the historic Basque provinces, but the dialect boundaries are not congruent with province boundaries. Euskara Batua was created so that

2450-402: Was discouraged by the government's repressive policies . In the Basque Country, "Francoist repression was not only political, but also linguistic and cultural." Franco's regime suppressed Basque from official discourse, education, and publishing, making it illegal to register newborn babies under Basque names, and even requiring tombstone engravings in Basque to be removed. In some provinces

2500-560: Was the location of the assembly of local Basque leaders before the French Revolution . The 19th-century French playwright and historian Jean-Joseph Ader (1796–1859) was born in Ustaritz. This Pyrénées-Atlantiques geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Basque language France Basque ( / ˈ b æ s k , ˈ b ɑː s k / ; euskara [eus̺ˈkaɾa] )

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