Basque
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is the mother tongue of approximately one fifth of Basques, 632,000 out of nearly 3,000,000. Of the native speakers, about 566,000 live in the Spanish part of the Basque country and the rest live in the French part. It is estimated that when second language speakers are included, some 1,063,000 persons speak Basque.
In academic discussions of the distribution of Basque in Spain and France, it is customary to refer to three ancient provinces in France and four Spanish provinces, often without advising that the French provinces ceased to be administrative reality over two centuries ago. Bearing this in mind, the geographic distribution of the native speakers of Basque can be reported as follows. They are concentrated in a contiguous area including parts of the Spanish Autonomous Communities of the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre and in the western half of the French Départment of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Autonomous Community of País Vasco/Euskadi is an administrative entity within the binational ethnographic Basque Country incorporating the traditional Spanish provinces of Biscay, Gipuzkoa, and Álava, which retain their existence as politico-administrative divisions.
These provinces and many areas of Navarre are heavily populated by ethnic Basques, but the Euskara language had, at least until the 1990s, all but disappeared from most of Álava, western parts of Biscay and central and southern areas of Navarre. In southwestern France the ancient Basque-populated provinces were Labourd, Lower Navarre, and Soule. They and other regions were consolidated into a single départment back in 1790 under the name Basses-Pyrénées, which name persisted until 1969.
A standardized form of the Basque language, called Batua, was developed by the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s. Batua is mainly used in the Spanish Basque Country. In France the Basque language school network Seaska and the association for a bilingual schooling Ikasbi meet a wide range of Basque language educational needs up to the Sixth Form, while often struggling to surmount financial and administrative constraints.
Apart from this standardized version, there are six main Basque dialects, corresponding to the above mentioned historic provinces populated by Basques: Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan, and Upper Navarrese in Spain and Lower Navarrese, Lapurdian, and Zuberoan (in France). However, the dialect boundaries are not congruent with political boundaries.
In Basque, the name of the language is officially Euskara. There are currently three etymological theories of the name Euskara that are taken seriously by linguists and vasconists which are discussed in detail on the Basque people page.
In French the language is normally called basque or, in recent times, euskara. There is a greater variety of Spanish names for the language. Today, it is most commonly referred to as el vasco, la lengua vasca or el euskera. Both terms, vasco and basque, are inherited from Latin ethnonym vascones which in turn goes back to the Greek term ουασκωνους (ouaskōnous), an ethnonym used by Strabo.
The term Vascuence, derived from Latin vasconĭce, 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 in Huesca in 1349 stated 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 penalizing the use of Arabic, Hebrew or Vascuence (Basque) with a fine of 30 sols.
Basic phrases
Kaixo! = Hello
Agur! / Aio! = Goodbye!
Ikusi arte = See you!
Eskerrik asko! = Thank you!
Egun on = Good morning (literally: Good day)
Arratsalde on = Good evening
Gabon = Good night
Barkatu = Excuse (me) (when asking for something)
Kafe hutsa nahi nuke (help·info) = Can I have a coffee?
Kafe ebakia nahi nuke (help·info) = Can I have a macchiato?
Kafesnea nahi nuke = Can I have a café latte?
Garagardoa nahi nuke = Can I have a beer?
Non dago komuna? = Where are the toilets?
Non dago tren-geltokia? = Where is the train station?
Non dago autobus-geltokia? = Where is the bus station?
Ba al da hotelik hemen inguruan? = Is there any hotel around here?
Zer moduz? = How are you?
Eskerrik asko = Thank you (very much).
Ez horregatik = You're welcome (response to Eskerrik asko).
Ez dut ulertzen = I don't understand
Ez dakit euskaraz hitz egiten = I don't speak Basque
Ba al dakizu ingeleraz hitz egiten? = Do you speak English?
Zein da zure izena? = What is your name?
Pozten nau zu ezagutzeak = Nice to meet you
Ongi etorri! = Welcome!
Egun on denoi = Good morning everyone!
Berdin/Hala zuri ere = The same to you (E.g. after Kaixo or Egun on)
Jakina! / Noski! / Bai horixe! = Sure! OK!
