Basque leid

**Basque** (*Basque*: euskara, ) is the ancestral leid o the Basque fowk, who inhabit the Basque kintra, a region spannin an aurie in northeastren Spain an soothwastren Fraunce. It is spaken bi 25.7% o Basques in aw territories (665,800 oot o 2,589,600). O thir, 614,000 live in the Spaingie pairt o the Basque kintra an the remainin 51,800 live in the French pairt.

In academic discussions o the distribution o Basque in Spain an Fraunce, it is customary tae refer tae three auncient provinces in Fraunce an fower Spaingie provinces. Native speakers are concentratit in a contiguous aurie includin pairts o the Spaingie *[[Autonomous communities in Spain|Autonomous Communities]]* o the Basque Autonomous Commonty (Spaingie: *País Vasco*; Euskara: *Euskadi*) an Navarre an in the wastren hauf o the French *[[Depairtment (admeenistrative division)|Département]]* o Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Autonomous Commonty o País Vasco/Euskadi is an admeenistrative entity athin the binational ethnographic Basque Kintra incorporatin the traditional Spaingie provinces o Biscay, Gipuzkoa, an Álava, which retain thair existence as politico-admeenistrative diveesions.

Thir provinces an mony auries o Navarre are hivily populatit bi ethnic Basques, but the Euskara leid haed, at least till the 1990s, aw but disappeared frae maist o Álava, wastren pairts o Biscay an central an soothren auries o Navarre. In soothwastren Fraunce, the auncient Basque-populatit provinces wur Labourd, Lawer Navarre, an Soule. Thay an ither regions wur consolidatit intae a single *département* back in 1790 unner the name Basses-Pyrénées, which name persisted till 1969.

A standardized form o the Basque leid, cawed Euskara Batua, wis developed bi the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s. Euskara Batua is mainly uised in the Spaingie Basque Kintra. In Fraunce the Basque leid schuil Seaska an the association for a bilingual schoolin Ikasbi meet a wide range o Basque leid educational needs up tae the Saxt Form, while aften strugglin tae surmount financial an admeenistrative constraints.

Apairt frae this staundardized version, thare are sax main Basque dialects, correspondin tae the abuin mentioned historic provinces populatit bi Basques: Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan, an Upper Navarrese in Spain an Lower Navarrese, Lapurdian, an Zuberoan (in Fraunce). Housomeivver, the dialect boondars are no congruent wi poleetical boondars.

## Names o the leid
In Basque, the name o the leid is offeecially *Euskara* (alangside various dialect forms). Thare are currently three etymological theories o the name *Euskara* that are taken seriously bi linguists an vasconists which are discussed in detail on the Basque fowk page.

In French the leid is normally cawed *basque* or, in recent times, *euskara*. Thare is a greater variety o Spaingie names for the leid. The day, it is maist commonly referred tae as *el vasco*, *la lengua vasca* or *el euskera*. Baith terms, *vasco* an *basque*, are inheritit frae Latin ethnonym *Vascones* which in turn goes back tae the Greek  term *ουασκωνους* (ouaskōnous), an ethnonym uised bi Strabo in his *[[Geographica]]* (23 AD, Beuk III).

The term *Vascuence*, derivit frae Latin *vasconĭce*, haes acquired negative connotations ower the centuries an is no well liked amangst Basque speakers generally. Its uise is documentit at least as far back as the 14t century when a law passed in Huesca in 1349 statit 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 penalizin the uise o Arabic, Hebrew or Vascuence (Basque) wi a fine o 30 sols.

## History an classification
Tho geographically surroondit bi Indo-European Romance leids, Basque is classifee'd as a leid isolate. It is the last remainin pre-Indo-European leid in Wastren Europe. Consequently, its prehistory mey no be reconstructible bi means o the comparative method except bi applyin it tae differences atween dialects athin the leid. Little is kent o its oreegins but it is likely that an early form o the Basque leid wis present in Wastren Europe afore the arrival o the Indo-European leids tae the aurie.

Latin inscriptions in Aquitania preserve a nummer o wirds wi cognates in reconstructit proto-Basque, for instance the personal names *Nescato* an *Cison* (*neskato* an *gizon* mean "yung girl" an "man" respectively in modren Basque). This leid is generally referred tae as Aquitanian an is assumed tae hae been spoken in the aurie afore the Roman conquests in the wastren Pyrenees. Roman neglect o this aurie alloued Aquitanian tae survive while the Iberie an Tartessian leids became extinct. Throu the lang contact wi Romance leids, Basque adoptit a sizable nummer o Romance wirds. Initially the soorce wis Latin, later Gascon (a branch o Occitan) in the northeast, Navarro-Aragonese in the sootheast an Spaingie in the soothwast.

## Notes

## Freemit airtins
* Deustuko:Basque leid course (Spaingie)
* Schools o leids o the Basque kintra that teach Basque 
* Euskaltzaindia (The Royal Academy o the Basque Leid) offeecial web
* Ethnologue haes reports on Basque (ISO 639-1: eu), Navarro-Labourdin (ISO 639-3: bqe) an Souletin Basque.
* Center for Basque Studies at University o Nevada, Reno
* Basque language at Buber.net
* Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue 18, 1978. Miguel Echegaray shares several suggestions o possible etymological connections atween Basque an Inglis words.
* Linguistic maps o Basque Kintra
* Euskara Kultur Elkargoa-Basque Cultural Foundation 
* Basque  in the Rosetta Project
* Depairtment o Leid Policy o the Basque Govrenment
* Basque Culture Institute
*  Dictionnaire étymologique basque by Michel Morvan. (interactive dictionary, non standard, wi idiosyncratic etymological theories an no references).

### Basque media
* *[http://www.berria.info Berria: Newspaper]* 
* *[http://www.eitb.com EiTB: Tv an radio] * 
* *[http://www.argia.com Argia: Weekly magazine]* 

### Dictionaries
* Elhuyar Basque Spanish Dictionary
* Morris Basque-English Dictionary
* Hiztegia 3000 Online bidirectional Spanish-Euskara dictionary 

#### Grammar
* University o the Basque Kintra: A Brief Grammar o Euskara, the Basque Leid
* Basque Verb Tables 

#### Classification
* History of the Basque Language by Manfred Owstrowski) 
* A Final (?) Response to the Basque Debate in Mother Tongue 1 by John D. Bengston (scanned pages)
#### Basque letterin
* *[http://www.euskaltzaindia.net/arauak/dok/ProNor0017.htm Basque alphabet accordin tae Euskaltzaindia]*
* *[http://www.txikizabalo.org/grafia/ Arquitectura popular y grafía vasca] *, bi P. an J. de Zabalo, Biblioteca de Cultura Vasca, Editorial Vasca Ekin, Buenos Aires, 1947. Designs for a naitional typography derived frae Medieval an Modern-Age inscriptions.
* *[http://www.lanbroute.com/blog/tipografias-vascas.htm Tipografías vascas] *, a blog post reviewin Basque-style computer fonts.
* *[http://euskomedia.org/aunamendi/75100 Grafía vasca] *, in the Spainyie-leid Auñamendi Encyclopedia.