Basques

Basques
Euskaldunak

1st row:Arista-Sancho III-Elcano-Loyola-Urdaneta-Oñate-Francesco Saverio 2nt row:Bolívar-Zumalakarregi-Gardoqui-Garat-Iraola-Arana-Errázuriz 3rd row:Garrastazu-Ravel-Evita-Atano VII-Basterretxea-Guevara-Mariano 4t row:Etxenike-Garamendi-Ibarretxe-Eyharts-Chao-Fernandez-Arteta
Tot population
approx. 2.6 million in Spain an Fraunce
Regions wi signeeficant populations
Spain	2,359,400
Basque Kintra	1,850,500
Álava	279,000
Biscay	1,160,000
Gipuzkoa	684,000
Navarre	508,900
Fraunce	230,200
Labourd	225,000
Lawer Navarre	40,000
Soule	20,000
Argentinae	3.5 million
Chile	1.7 - 4.5 million
Cuba	1.5 million
Brazil	uncertain
Ecuador	uncertain
Mexico	uncertain
Philippines	uncertain
Colombie	60,000
Unitit States	uncertain
Uruguay	102.200
Costa Rica	9,800
Venezuela	5,500
Bolivie	uncertain
Peru	uncertain
Leids
Basque- fewmonoglots Spaingie - 1,525,000 monoglots French- 150,000 monoglots Basque-Spaingie - 600,000 speakers Basque-French - 76,000 speakers
Releegion
Roman Catholicism,Atheism,Agnosticism

TheBasques(Basque:euskaldunak,Spaingie:vascos,French:basques) as anethnic groupprimarily inhabit an aurie traditionally kent as theBasque Kintra(Basque:Euskal Herria), a region that is locatit aroond the wastren end o thePyreneeson the coast o theBay o Biscayan straddles pairts o north-eastren Spain an sooth-wastren Fraunce.

The Basques are kent in the local leids as:

• Euskaldunak( "Basque speakers", uised loosely tae descrive aw ethnic Basques),euskal herritarrak( "natives o the Basque Kintra" ) oreuskotarrak( "natives of the Basque Kintra", an aften mentioned but rarely uised neologism) inBasque
• Vascosin Spaingie
• Basquesin French
• BascosinGascon

Etymology o the wirdBasque

The wirdBasquecomes frae FrenchBasque(pronooncit/bask/), which itsel comes fraeGasconBasco(pronooncit/ˈbasku/) an SpainyieVasco(pronounced/ˈbasko/). These, in turn, come fraeLiatinVasco(pronounced/wasko/), pluralVascones.The Laitinlabial-velar approximant/w/ generallyevolvit intaethebilabials/b/ and /β̞/ in Gascon an Spaingie, likely unner the influence o Basque anAquitanian,a leid kin wi auld Basque an spoken inGasconyinAntiquity(seimilarly the Laitin /w/ evolvit intae /v/ inFrench,Italianan ither leids).

Barscunes coin, Roman period

Several coins frae the 1st an 2nt centuries BC foond in the Basque Kintra bear the inscriptionbarscunes.The place whaur they wur mintit isnae certain but is thocht tae be somewhaur nearPamplonain the hertland o the aurie that historians believe wis inhabitit bi theVascones.Some scholars hae suggestit a Celtic etymology based onbhar-s-,meanin "summit", "point" or "leaves", accordin tae whilkbarscunesmey hae meant "the muntain fowk", "the muckle anes" or "the proud anes", while ithers hae positit a relationship tae aproto-Indo-Europeanruit*bar-meanin "border", "frontier", "mairch".

In Basque, Basques caw thairselseuskaldunak,singulareuskaldun,formed fromeuskal-(i.e. "Basque (eid)" ) an-dun(i.e. "ane who haes" );euskaldunliterally means a Basque speaker. No aw Basques is Basque-speakers, an no aw Basque speakers is Basques; ootlanders wha hae learned Basque can be criedeuskaldunakan aw. For that raison, theneologismeuskotar,pluraleuskotarrak,wis coined in the 19t century tae mean an ethnically Basque body whether Basque-speakin or no. Thir Basque wirds are aw derivit fraeeuskara,the Basque name for the Basque leid.

Alfonso Irigoyen claimit that the wirdeuskaracomes frae an auncient Basque verbenautsi"tae say" (cf. modren Basqueesan) and the suffix-(k)ara( "way (o doin something)" ). Thuseuskarawad literally mean "way o sayin", "way o speakin". Ane item o evidence in favour o this hypothesis is foond in the Spainyie beukCompendio Historial,written in 1571 bi the Basque writerEsteban de Garibay,wha records the name o the Basque leid as "enusquera".It mey be housomeivver a writin mistake.

In the 19t century, the Basque naitionalist activistSabino Aranapositit an oreeginal ruiteuzkowhilk, he thocht, came fraeeguzkiko( "o the sun" on the assumption o an oreeginalsolar religion). On the basis o this putative ruit Arana proposed the nameEuzkadifor an independent Basque naition, componed bi seiven basque historical territories. Arana's neologism Euzkadi, in the regularised spellin Euskadi, is still widely uised in baith Basque an Spainyie, syne it is nou the offeecial name o theAutonomous Commontyo theBasque Kintra.

It haes been suggestit that the ruit oeusk-mey be linkit tae the Aquitanian tribe o theAuscian aw.