Basque language

Basque(/ˈbæsk,ˈbɑːsk/;euskara[eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is a language spoken byBasquesand other residents of theBasque Country, a region that straddles the westernmostPyreneesin adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Basque is classified as alanguage 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 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 thethree "ancient provinces"in France.Gipuzkoa, most ofBiscay, a few municipalities on the northern border ofÁlavaand the northern area ofNavarreformed 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 ofSpanish, either because Basquewas replacedby Spanish over the centuries (as in most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it may never have been spoken there (as in parts ofEnkarterriand south-eastern Navarre).
InFrancoist Spain, Basque language use was discouraged by the government'srepressive policies. In the Basque Country, "Francoist repression was not only political, but also linguistic and cultural."Franco'sregime 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 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 orseparatism.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, calledEuskara Batua, was developed by theEuskaltzaindiain the late 1960s.
Besides its standardised version, the five historic Basque dialects areBiscayan,Gipuzkoan, andUpper Navarresein Spain andNavarrese–LapurdianandSouletinin 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 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 survivinglanguage isolateinEurope. The current mainstream scientific view on theorigin of the Basquesand of their language is that early forms of Basque developed before the arrival ofIndo-European languagesin the area, i.e. before the arrival ofCelticandRomance languagesin particular, as the latter today geographically surround the Basque-speaking region. Typologically, with itsagglutinative morphologyandergative–absolutive alignment,Basque grammarremains markedly different from that ofStandard Average Europeanlanguages. Nevertheless, Basque has borrowed up to 40 percent of its vocabulary from Romance languages,and theLatin scriptis used for theBasque alphabet.
In Basque, the name of the language is officiallyeuskara(alongside variousdialectforms).
In French, the language is normally calledbasque, thougheuskarahas become common in recent times. Spanish has a greater variety of names for the language. Today, it is most commonly referred to asvasco,lengua vasca, oreuskera. Both terms,vascoandbasque, are inherited from the LatinethnonymVascones, which in turn goes back to the Greek termΟὐάσκωνες(ouáskōnes), anethnonymused byStraboin hisGeographica(23 CE, Book III).
The Spanish termvascuence, derived from Latinvasconĭce,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 the 14th century when a law passed inHuescain 1349 stated thatItem nuyl corridor nonsia usado que faga mercadería ninguna que compre nin venda entre ningunas personas, faulando en algaravia nin en abraych nin enbasquenç: et qui lo fara pague por coto XXX sol—essentially penalising the use of Arabic, Hebrew, or Basque in marketplaces with a fine of 30sols(the equivalent of 30 sheep).
Although the Basque language is geographically surrounded byRomance 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 thepre-Indo-European languagesofprehistoric Europe.Consequently, it may be impossible to reconstruct the prehistory of the Basque language by the traditionalcomparative methodexcept by applying it to differences between Basque dialects. Little 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 asMiguel de UnamunoandLouis Lucien Bonapartehave noted that the words for "knife" (aizto), "axe" (aizkora), and "hoe" (aitzur) appear to derive from the word for "stone" (haitz), and have therefore concluded that the language dates toprehistoric Europewhen those tools were made of stone.Others find this unlikely: seetheaizkoracontroversy.
Latin inscriptions inGallia Aquitaniapreserve a number of words withcognatesin the reconstructedproto-Basque language, for instance, the personal namesNescatoandCison(neskatoandgizonmean 'young girl' and 'man', respectively in modern Basque). This language is generally referred to asAquitanianand is assumed to have been spoken in the area before theRoman Republic's conquests in the westernPyrenees. Some authors even argue forlate Basquisation, that the language moved westward duringLate Antiquityafter thefall of the Western Roman Empireinto the northern part ofHispaniainto what is now theBasque Country.
Roman neglect of this area allowed Aquitanian to survive while theIberianandTartessian languagesbecame extinct. Through the long contact with Romance languages, Basque adopted a sizeable number of Romance words. Initially the source was Latin, laterGascon(a branch ofOccitan) in the north-east,Navarro-Aragonesein the south-east andSpanishin 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 the revitalisation process, the extensive development and use oflanguage technologiesis also considered a significant additional factor.
Many linguists have tried to link Basque with other languages, but no hypothesis has gained mainstream acceptance. Apart frompseudoscientific comparisons, the appearance of long-range linguistics gave rise to several attempts to connect Basque with geographically very distant language families such asGeorgian. Historical work on Basque 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 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 theCommon Erait stretched to the riverGaronnein the north (including the south-western part of present-day France); at least to theVal d'Aranin the east (now aGascon-speaking part ofCatalonia), including lands on both sides of thePyrenees;the southern and western boundaries are not clear at all.
TheReconquistatemporarily counteracted this contracting tendency when 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 likeSpanish,Gascon,French, orLatinwere 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 the Basque Country, excluding the southern part of Navarre, the south-western part ofÁlava, and the western part of Biscay, and including some parts ofBéarn.
In 1807, Basque was still spoken in the northern half of Álava—including its capital cityVitoria-Gasteiz—and a vast area in central Navarre, but in these two provinces, Basque experienced a rapid decline that pushed its border northwards. In theFrench Basque Country, Basque was still spoken in all the territory except inBayonneand some villages around, and including some bordering towns inBéarn.
In the 20th century, however, the rise ofBasque nationalismspurred increased interest in the language as a sign of ethnic identity, and with the establishment of autonomous governments in theSouthern Basque Country, it has recently made 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 westernEnkarterriand 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 the official languages in this region. However, Basque was explicitly recognised in some areas. For instance, thefueroor charter of the Basque-colonisedOjacastro(now inLa 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.
TheSpanish Constitution of 1978states in Article 3 that theSpanish languageis the official language of the nation, but allows autonomous communities to provide a co-official language status for the otherlanguages of Spain.Consequently, the Statute of Autonomy of theBasque Autonomous Communityestablishes 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 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 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. TheLey del Vascuence("Law of Basque"), seen as contentious by many Basques, but considered fitting Navarra's linguistic and cultural diversity by some of 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 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 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 ofbilingualism. Basque transmission as 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 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, 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 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 toKoldo 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 the influence of the neighbouringRomance languageson 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 particularGasconandAragonese, and to a lesser degreeSpanishare thought to have received this influence in the past. In the case of Aragonese and Gascon, this would have been throughsubstrateinterference followinglanguage shiftfromAquitanianor 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 is one strongloanwordcandidate,ezker, long considered the source of the Pyrenean andIberian Romancewords 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 a limited area (GasconyandOld 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, 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 ofnomadicgroups of Castile are also said to use or have used Basque words in their jargon, such as thegaceríainSegovia, themingaña, the Galicianfala dos arxinasand theAsturianXíriga.
Part of theRomanicommunity in the Basque Country speaksErromintxela, which is a raremixed language, with aKalderashRomanivocabulary and Basque grammar.
A number of Basque-based or Basque-influencedpidginshave existed. In the 16th century, Basque sailors used aBasque–Icelandic pidginin their contacts with Iceland.TheAlgonquian–Basque pidginarose from contact between Basquewhalersand theAlgonquian peoplesin theGulf of Saint LawrenceandStrait of Belle Isle.
The Basque language features five vowels:/a/,/e/,/i/,/o/and/u/(the same that are found inSpanish,AsturianandAragonese). In theZuberoandialect, 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 the vowel/a/is elided before any following vowel.This does not prevent the existence of diphthongs with/a/present.
There are sixdiphthongsin Basque, all falling and with/i̯/or/u̯/as the second element.
In syllable-final position, all plosives aredevoicedand 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 the correspondingfricatives[β],[ð], and[ɣ].
Basque has a distinction betweenlaminalandapicalarticulation 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, thevoiceless 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 fromsu"fire". The affricate counterparts are written⟨tz⟩and⟨ts⟩. So,etzi"the day after tomorrow" is distinguished frometsi"to give up";atzo"yesterday" is distinguished fromatso"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⟩).
The letter⟨j⟩has a variety of realisations according to the regional dialect:[j,dʒ,x,ʃ,ɟ,ʝ], as pronounced from west to east in south Bizkaia and coastal Lapurdi, central Bizkaia, east Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, south Navarre, inland Lapurdi and Low Navarre, and Zuberoa, respectively.
The letter⟨h⟩is pronounced in the northern dialects, but not pronounced in the southern ones. Unified Basque spells it except when it is predictable, in a position following a consonant.
Unless they are recent loanwords (e.g.Ruanda"Rwanda",radar,robot... ), words may not have initial⟨r⟩. In older loans, initialr-took aprostheticvowel, resulting inerr-(Erroma"Rome",Errusia"Russia"), more rarelyirr-(for exampleirratia"radio",irrisa"rice") andarr-(for examplearrazional"rational").
Basque does not have/m/in syllable final position, and syllable-final/n/assimilates to the place of articulation of following plosives. As a result,/nb/is pronounced like[mb], and/nɡ/is realized as[ŋɡ].
Basque has two types ofpalatalization, automatic palatalization and expressive palatalization. Automatic palatalization occurs in westernLabourd, much ofNavarre, all ofGipuzkoa, and nearly all ofBiscay. As a result of automatic palatalization,/n/and/l/become thepalatal nasal[ɲ]and thepalatal lateral[ʎ]respectively after the vowel/i/and before another vowel. An exception is the loanwordlili'lily'. The same palatalization occurs after thesemivowel[j]of the diphthongsai, ei, oi, ui. This palatalization occurs in a wider area, includingSoule, all of Gipuzkoa and Biscay, and almost all of Navarre. In a few regions,/n/and/l/can be palatalized even in the absence of a following vowel. After palatalization, the semivowel[j]is usually absorbed by the palatal consonant. This can be seen in older spellings, such asmallainstead of modernmaila'degree'. That said, the modern orthography for Standard Basque ignores automatic palatalization.
In certain regions of Gipuzkoa and Biscay, intervocalic/t/is often palatalized after/i/and especially[j]. It may become indistinguishable from the affricate/tʃ/,spelled⟨tx⟩, soaita'father' may sound like it were spelledatxaoratta.This type of palatalization is far from general, and is often viewed as substandard.
InGoizuetaBasque, there are a few examples of/nt/being palatalized after/i/, and optional palatalization of/ld/. For example,mintegi'seedbed' becomes[mincei], andbildots'lamb' can be/biʎots̺/.
Basque nouns, adjectives, and adverbs can be expressively palatalized. These express 'smallness', rarely literal and often showing affection, in nouns, and mitigation in adjectives and adverbs. This is often used in the formation of pet names and nicknames. In words containing one or more sibilant, these sibilants are palatalized in order to form the palatalized form. That is,sandzbecomex, andtsandtzbecometx. As a result,gizon'man' becomesgixon'little fellow',zoro'crazy, insane' becomesxoro'silly, foolish', andbildots'lamb' becomesbildotx'lambkin, young lamb'.
In words without sibilants,/t/,/d/,/n/, and/l/can become palatalized. This palatalization is indicated in writing with a double consonant, except in the case of palatalized/n/which is written⟨ñ⟩. Thus,tanta'drop' becomesttantta'droplet', andnabar'grey' becomesñabar'grey and pretty, greyish'.
The pronunciation ofttanddd, and the existence ofdd, differ by dialect. In the Gipuzkoan and Biscayan dialectsttis often pronounced the same astx, that is, as[tʃ], anddddoes not exist.Likewise, in Goizueta Basque,ttis avoiceless palatal stop[c]and the corresponding voiced palatal stop,[ɟ], is absent except as an allophone of/j/. In Goizueta Basque,/j/is sometimes the result of an affectionate palatalization of/d/.
Palatalization of the rhotics is rare and only occurs in the eastern dialects. When palatalized, the rhotics become the palatal lateral[ʎ]. Likewise, palatalization of velars, resulting inttortx, is quite rare.
A few common words, such astxakur'dog', pronounced/tʃakur/, use palatal sounds even though in current usage they have lost the diminutive sense, the corresponding non-palatal forms now acquiring an augmentative or pejorative sense:zakur'big dog'.
There are some rules which govern the behavior of consonants in contact with each other. These apply both within and between words. When two plosives meet, the first one is dropped, and the second must become voiceless. If a sibilant follows a plosive, the plosive is dropped, and the sibilant becomes the corresponding affricate. When a plosive follows an affricate, the affricate becomes a sibilant, and a voiced plosive is devoiced. When a voiced plosive follows a sibilant, it is devoiced except in very slow and careful speech. In the central dialects of Basque, a sibilant turns into an affricate when it follows a liquid or a nasal. When a plosive follows a nasal, there is a strong tendency for it to become voiced.
Basque features great dialectal variation in accentuation, from a weakpitch accentin the western dialects to a marked stress in central and eastern dialects, with varying patterns of stress placement.Stress is in general not distinctive (and for historical comparisons not very useful); there are, however, a few instances where stress is phonemic, serving to distinguish between a few pairs of stress-marked words and between some grammatical forms (mainly plurals from other forms), e.g.basóà("the forest", absolutive case) vs.básoà("the glass", absolutive case; an adoption from Spanishvaso);basóàk("the forest", ergative case) vs.básoàk("the glass", ergative case) vs.básoak("the forests" or "the glasses", absolutive case).
Given its great deal of variation among dialects, stress is not marked in the standardorthographyandEuskaltzaindia(the Academy of the Basque Language) provides only general recommendations for a standard placement of stress, basically to place a high-pitched weak stress (weaker than that of Spanish, let alone that of English) on the second syllable of asyntagma, and a low-pitched even-weaker stress on its last syllable, except in plural forms where stress is moved to the first syllable.
This scheme provides Basque with a distinct musicality that differentiates its sound from theprosodicalpatterns of Spanish (which tends to stress the second-to-last syllable). SomeEuskaldun berriak("new Basque-speakers", i.e. second-language Basque-speakers) with Spanish as their first language tend to carry the prosodical patterns of Spanish into their pronunciation of Basque, e.g. pronouncingnire ama("my mum") asnire áma(– – ´ –), instead of asniré amà(– ´ – `).
The combining forms of nominals in final/-u/vary across the regions of the Basque Country. The/u/can stay unchanged, be lowered to an/a/, or it can be lost. Loss is most common in the east, while lowering is most common in the west. For instance,buru, "head", has the combining formsburu-andbur-, as inburuko, "cap", andburko, "pillow", whereaskatu, "cat", has the combining formkata-, as inkatakume, "kitten". Michelena suggests that the lowering to/a/is generalised from cases of Romance borrowings in Basque that retained Romance stem alternations, such askantu, "song" with combining formkanta-, borrowed from Romancecanto,canta-.
Basque is anergative–absolutive language. The subject of anintransitive verbis in theabsolutive case(which is unmarked), and the same case is used for thedirect objectof atransitive verb. The subject of the transitive verb is marked differently, with theergative case(shown by the suffix-k). This also triggers main and auxiliary verbal agreement.
Theauxiliary verb, which accompanies most main verbs, agrees not only with the subject, but with any direct object and the indirect object present. Among European languages, thispolypersonal agreementis found only in Basque, somelanguages of the Caucasus(especially theKartvelian languages),Mordvinic languages,Hungarian, andMaltese(all non-Indo-European). The ergative–absolutive alignment is also rare among European languages—occurring only in some languages of the Caucasus—but not infrequent worldwide.
Consider the phrase:
Martin-ekis the agent (transitive subject), so it is marked with the ergative case ending-k(with anepenthetic-e-).Egunkariakhas an-akending, which marks plural object (plural absolutive, direct object case). The verb iserosten dizkit, in whicherostenis a kind of gerund ("buying") and the auxiliarydizkitmeans "he/she (does) them for me". Thisdizkitcan be split like this:
The auxiliary verb is composed as di-zki-da-zue and means 'you pl. (do) them for me'
The pronounzuek'you (plural)' has the same form both in the nominative or absolutive case (the subject of an intransitive sentence or direct object of a transitive sentence) and in the ergative case (the subject of a transitive sentence). In spoken Basque, the auxiliary verb is never dropped even if it is redundant, e.g.dizkidazueinzuek niri egunkariak erosten dizkidazue'you (pl.) are buying the newspapers for me'. However, the pronouns are almost always dropped, e.g.zuekinegunkariak erosten dizkidazue'you (pl.) are buying the newspapers for me'. The pronouns are used only to show emphasis:egunkariak zuek erosten dizkidazue'it is you (pl.) who buys the newspapers for me', oregunkariak niri erosten dizkidazue'it is me for whom you buy the newspapers'.
Modern Basque dialects allow for the conjugation of about fifteen verbs, called synthetic verbs, some only in literary contexts. These can be put in the present and past tenses in the indicative and subjunctive moods, in three tenses in the conditional and potential moods, and in one tense in the imperative. Each verb that can be taken intransitively has anor(absolutive) paradigm and possibly anor-nori(absolutive–dative) paradigm, as in the sentenceAititeri txapela erori zaio("The hat fell from grandfather['s head]").Each verb that can be taken transitively uses those two paradigms for antipassive-voice contexts in which no agent is mentioned (Basque lacks a passive voice, and displays instead anantipassive voiceparadigm), and also has anor-nork(absolutive–ergative) paradigm and possibly anor-nori-nork(absolutive–dative–ergative) paradigm. This last is exemplified bydizkidazueabove. In each paradigm, each constituent noun can take on any of eight persons, five singular and three plural, with the exception ofnor-nori-norkin which the absolutive can only be third person singular or plural. The most ubiquitous auxiliary,izan,can be used in any of these paradigms, depending on the nature of the main verb.
There are more persons in the singular (5) than in theplural(3) for synthetic (or filamentous) verbs because of the two familiar persons—informalmasculine and feminine second person singular. The pronounhiis used for both of them, but where the masculine form of the verb uses a-k, the feminine uses an-n.This is a property rarely found in Indo-European languages. The entire paradigm of the verb is further augmented by inflecting for "listener" (theallocutive) even if the verb contains no second person constituent. If the situation calls for the familiar masculine, the form is augmented and modified accordingly. Likewise for the familiar feminine.
(Gizon bat etorri da, "a man has come";gizon bat etorri duk, "a man has come [you are a male close friend]",gizon bat etorri dun, "a man has come [you are a female close friend]",gizon bat etorri duzu, "a man has come [I talk to you (Sir / Madam)]")This multiplies the number of possible forms by nearly three. Still, the restriction on contexts in which these forms may be used is strong, since all participants in the conversation must be friends of the same sex, and not too far apart in age. Some dialects dispense with the familiar forms entirely. Note, however, that the formal second person singular conjugates in parallel to the other plural forms, perhaps indicating that it was originally the second person plural, later came to be used as a formal singular, and then later still the modern second person plural was formulated as an innovation.
All the other verbs in Basque are called periphrastic, behaving much like a participle would in English. These have only three forms in total, calledaspects: perfect (various suffixes), habitual(suffix-t[z]en), and future/potential (suffix.-ko/-go). Verbs of Latinate origin in Basque, as well as many other verbs, have a suffix-tuin the perfect, adapted from the Latin perfect passive-tussuffix. The synthetic verbs also have periphrastic forms, for use in perfects and in simple tenses in which they are deponent.
Within a verb phrase, the periphrastic verb comes first, followed by the auxiliary.
A Basque noun-phrase is inflected in 17 different ways for case, multiplied by four ways for its definiteness and number (indefinite, definite singular, definite plural, and definite close plural:euskaldun[Basque speaker],euskalduna[the Basque speaker, a Basque speaker],euskaldunak[Basque speakers, the Basque speakers], andeuskaldunok[we Basque speakers, those Basque speakers]). These first 68 forms are further modified based on other parts of the sentence, which in turn are inflected for the noun again. It has been estimated that, with two levels ofrecursion, a Basque noun may have 458,683 inflected forms.
The common noun "liburu" (book) is declined as follows:
The proper name "Mikel" (Michael) is declined as follows:
Within a noun phrase, modifying adjectives follow the noun. As an example of a Basque noun phrase,etxe zaharrean"in the old house" is morphologically analysed as follows by Agirre et al.
Basic syntactic construction issubject–object–verb(unlike Spanish, French or English where asubject–verb–objectconstruction is more common). The order of the phrases within a sentence can be changed for thematic purposes, whereas the order of the words within a phrase is usually rigid. As a matter of fact, Basque phrase order is topic–focus, meaning that in neutral sentences (such as sentences to inform someone of a fact or event) thetopicis stated first, then thefocus. In such sentences, the verb phrase comes at the end. In brief, the focus directly precedes the verb phrase. This rule is also applied in questions, for instance,What is this?can be translated asZer da hau?orHau zer da?, but in both cases the question tagzerimmediately precedes the verbda. This rule is so important in Basque that, even in grammatical descriptions of Basque in other languages, the Basque wordgaldegai(focus) is used.
In negative sentences, the order changes. Since the negative particleezmust always directly precede the auxiliary, the topic most often comes beforehand, and the rest of the sentence follows. This includes the periphrastic, if there is one:Aitak frantsesa irakasten du,"Father teaches French", in the negative becomesAitak ez du frantsesa irakasten,in whichirakasten("teaching") is separated from its auxiliary and placed at the end.
Through contact with neighbouring peoples, Basque has adopted many words fromLatin,Spanish,FrenchandGascon, among other languages. There are a considerable number of Latin loans (sometimes obscured by being subject to Basque phonology and grammar for centuries), for example:lore("flower", fromflorem),errota("mill", fromrotam, "[mill] wheel"),gela("room", fromcellam),gauza("thing", fromcausa).
Basque is written using theLatin scriptincluding⟨ñ⟩and sometimes⟨ç⟩and⟨ü⟩. Basque does not use⟨c, q, v, w, y⟩for native words, but the Basque alphabet (established byEuskaltzaindia) does include them for loanwords:
The phonetically meaningfuldigraphs⟨dd, ll,rr, ts, tt, tx, tz⟩are treated as pairs of letters.
All letters and digraphs represent uniquephonemes. The main exception is when⟨i⟩precedes⟨l⟩and⟨n⟩, which in most dialects palatalises their sounds into/ʎ/and/ɲ/, even if these are not written. Hence,Ikurriñacan also be writtenIkurrinawithout changing the sound, whereas the proper nameAinhoarequires the mute⟨h⟩to break the palatalisation of the⟨n⟩.
⟨h⟩is mute in most regions, but it is pronounced in many places in the north-east, the main reason for its existence in the Basque alphabet.
Its acceptance was a matter of contention during the standardisation process because the speakers of the most extended dialects had to learn where to place⟨h⟩, silent for them.
InSabino Arana's (1865–1903) alphabet,digraphs⟨ll⟩and⟨rr⟩were replaced with⟨ĺ⟩and⟨ŕ⟩, respectively.
A typically Basque style of lettering is sometimes used for inscriptions.
It derives from the work of stone and wood carvers and is characterised by thickserifs.
Basque millers traditionally employed a separate number system of unknown origin.In this system the symbols are arranged either along a vertical line or horizontally. On the vertical line the single digits andfractionsare usually off to one side, usually at the top. When used horizontally, the smallest units are usually on the right and the largest on the left. As with the Basque system of counting in general, it isvigesimal(base 20). Although it is in theory capable of indicating numbers above 100, most recorded examples do not go above 100. Fractions are relatively common, especially1⁄2.
The exact systems used vary from area to area but generally follow the same principle with 5 usually being a diagonal line or a curve off the vertical line (aVshape is used when writing a 5 horizontally). Units of ten are usually a horizontal line through the vertical. The twenties are based on a circle with intersecting lines. This system is no longer in general use but is occasionally employed for decorative purposes.