page_title: Basque dialects
section_title: Morphological variation
hierarchical_section_title: Basque dialects / Morphological variation
caption_attribution_description: English: Modern map of Basque dialects, developed by Koldo Zuazo: *Green: Western dialect *Red: Central dialect *Blue: Navarrese *Orange: Navarrese-lapurdian *Yellow: Dialect of Soule/ *Grey: Basque speaking places in the 19th century (according to Bonaparte's map) Euskara: Koldo Zuazok atondutako euskalkien mapa modernoa: *Berdea: Mendebaldekoa *Gorria: Erdialdekoa *Urdina: Nafarra *Laranja: Nafar-lapurtarra *Horia: Zuberotarra *Grisa: Euskara hitz egiten ziren tokian XIX. mendean (Bonaparteren maparen arabera)
context_page_description: Basque dialects are linguistic varieties of the Basque language which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar from each other and from Standard Basque. Between six and nine Basque dialects have been historically distinguished:
  Biscayan
  Gipuzkoan
  Upper Navarrese
  Lower Navarrese
  Lapurdian
  Souletin
  In modern times, however, both Lower Navarrese and Lapurdian are considered part of a Navarrese–Lapurdian dialect, so there would be five dialects, divided into 11 subdialects and 24 minor varieties.
  The boundaries of all these dialects do not coincide directly with current political or administrative boundaries. It was believed that the dialect boundaries between Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan and Upper Navarrese showed some relation to some pre-Roman tribal boundaries between the Caristii, Varduli and Vascones. However, main Basque dialectologists now deny any direct relation between those tribes and Basque dialects. It seems that these dialects were created in the Middle Ages from a previously quite unified Basque language, and the dialects diverged from each other since then as a result of the administrative and political division that happened in the Basque Country.
context_section_description: Modern Basque dialects show a high degree of dialectal divergence. However, cross-dialectal communication without prior knowledge of either Standard Basque or the other dialect is normally possible to a reasonable extent, with the notable of exception of Zuberoan (also called Souletin), which is regarded as the most divergent Basque dialect.
  The names for the language in the dialects of Basque (Euskara in Standard Basque) for example exemplify to some degree the dialectal fragmentation of the Basque speaking area. The most divergent forms are generally found in the Eastern dialects.
  The following map shows the approximate areas where each word is used. The smaller-type instances are cases of the name being recorded for a particular area, the larger-type instances show super-regional forms common throughout the dialect area in question:
caption: The language name Euskara in the dialects of Basque located on the new dialect map by Koldo Zuazo.
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