History of the Basque language
Basque(/bæsk,bɑːsk/;[1]euskara[eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is a pre-Indo-European languagespoken in theBasque Country,extending over a strip along eastern areas of theBay of Biscayin Spain and France, straddling the western Pyrenees. It is classified as alanguage isolate,having no demonstrable genetic relation to any other known language, with the sole exception of theextinctAquitanian language,which is considered to be an ancestral form of Basque.[2][3]
Prehistory
[edit]
The mainstream view of linguists today is that Basque is the last surviving member of one of the ancient "pre-Indo-European"language familiesthat were once spoken widely in Western Europe.[4]By theRoman period,the majority of the Western European population had become speakers of Indo-European languages; nevertheless, toponyms, personal names, and inscriptions attest to the presence of languages with Basque-like morphology and lexical roots around thePyreneesat the time. Since theEarly Middle Ages,Basque has receded geographically, and for the past 400 years it has been largely confined to theBasque Country.Basque has both influenced, and been influenced by, its geographically neighboring languages, exchanging bothloanwordsand structures.[citation needed]
Early attestations
[edit]Basque remained until the late-20th century a language steeped in oral tradition and little used in writing. In 2022, an inscription dated to the first quarter of the first century BCE, known as theHand of Irulegi,was found to contain a supposed Basque word, providing the earliest attestation of the language to date.[5]A few Roman-period inscriptions in Latin also include Basque names.[6]
It is generally thought that the first attestation of Basque in a manuscript is constituted by six words in the tenth- or eleventh-centuryGlosas Emilianenses.[7]A more substantial early witness is a few words and phrases inAymeric Picaud'saccount of his journeytoSantiago de Compostela(around the year 1140).[8]
The first book written in Basque, theLinguae Vasconum Primitiae,appeared in 1545.[9]Yet Basque was never used for official documents, and came to be gradually excluded as an oral communication language from governing, educative, administrative bodies, and finally also from Church.[citation needed]
Modern history
[edit]Basque venturershave taken their language overseassince the sixteenth century, especially into the Americas, where it came to be diluted in the larger, prevailing colonial languages, likeSpanish,French,orEnglish.[citation needed]
During the twentieth century, scholars, writers and activists endeavoured to develop a long-discussed aspiration to create a unified, formal standard, which finally crystallized instandard Basque (euskara batua)as of 1968.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^"Basque".Oxford English Dictionary(Online ed.).Oxford University Press.(Subscription orparticipating institution membershiprequired.);[bæsk]is the US pronunciation, in British English it is[bask]or[bɑːsk].
- ^Trask 1997,p. 35.
- ^Lakarra 2017,pp. 60–61.
- ^Trask 1997,p. 10.
- ^Olaya, Vicente G. (2022-11-14)."Researchers claim to have found earliest document written in Basque 2,100 years ago".EL PAÍS English Edition.Retrieved2022-11-14.
- ^"University of Cambridge Language Centre Resources - Basque".langcen.cam.ac.uk.Retrieved2022-11-14.
- ^'Written Basque may be 1,000 years older than anyone thought',The Economist(17 November 2022).
- ^Trask, L.The History of BasqueRoutledge: 1997ISBN0-415-13116-2
- ^Linguae Vasconum Primitiae: The first fruits of the Basque language, 1545(Translation to English ed.). Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada. 2012.
References
[edit]- Lakarra, Joseba A. (2017). "Basque and the Reconstruction of Isolated Languages". In Campbell, Lyle (ed.).Language Isolates.London: Routledge. pp. 59–99.
- Trask, Robert Lawrence (1997).The History of Basque.London: Routledge.ISBN0-415-13116-2.