basque.course.language.introduction.king.pdf

Introduction to

Basque

Alan R. King

©Alan King, 1997

Preface

The idea of publishing this Introduction came from several directions simultaneously, and it

is hoped that it will fill a certain void in a useful manner. I have not set out to write this

collection of materials from scratch, but have been content to draw from, and even reproduce,

selected passages and resources most of which I have published elsewhere previously in a

variety of places. I have endeavoured to make it clear in each case where I am recycling the

material from, and the interested reader is encouraged to refer to the original sources for fuller

information. Evidently, such a collection needn’t be read from one end to the other in the

order presented, and no chapter is a ‘prerequisite’ for reading any other.

Chapter 1 ( Frequently Asked Questions ) has been newly written, and a similar item

is simultaneously being added to my website. The questions are authentic ones representative

of frequent queries I receive about the Basque language from a variety of people: how can I

learn Basque? where does Basque come from? and so on. While in principle I am happy to

hear from anyone with an interest in the subject, the same questions do tend to get asked

again and again, and since my time, like everyone else’s, is limited, these FAQ may help to

cut corners in the future.

Chapter 2 ( The Basque Language Today ) is a compilation of some general facts

and information about present-day ‘social’ aspects of the language’s existence, ranging from

the country’s geography and recent political background to Basque-language media and the

contemporary music and fiesta scene. You can also find out what Basques think of foreigners

who try to speak their language, and there is a brief sketch of the present sociolinguistic

situation. This material derives from information given in Colloquial Basque , a language

course recently published by Begotxu Olaizola and myself, except for the sociolinguistic

section which was originally an appendix in my Ph.D. dissertation.

Chapter 3 (Getting Started ) will lead you by the hand while allowing you to

confront your first Basque dialogue. The point here is not to learn to speak Basque in half an

hour, but just to provide a first foretaste of what this language is like. This is actually an

excerpt from my larger-scale Basque course, called The Basque Language: A Practical

Introduction .

Chapter 4 ( Grammatical Sketch ) will be the meal’s main course for those with a

strong stomach for such fare, while others may well prefer to save it for reference use or just

skip it altogether. It doesn’t contain everything there is to be known about Basque grammar,

since that wouldn’t fit into twenty pages (and wouldn’t be very readable if it did!), but I dare

say it will serve to put those interested in the picture regarding the languages overall

grammatical ground pattern. Those looking for more detailed information than can be offered

here will be ready to dive into something more substantial afterwards. The better part of this

chapter is actually a very abbreviated version of a section of The Basque Language.

Chapter 5 ( Communicative Basque ) gives another view of the language, to be taken

on its own or in conjunction with the grammatical sketch. It consists of some very

commonplace conversational Basque sentence patterns organized according to the

communicative functions they are typically used to realize; both the organization and the

examples have been culled from my Basque Threshold Level book, Atalase Maila . Naturally,

there is some variation between Basque dialects regarding the precise form of the most

common phrases. Since such variation could not be accommodated within the present modest

scope, I have opted for a bias towards one dialect, the Gipuzkoan, which is in any case very

widely understood in most places these days.

Chapter 6 ( Basic Vocabulary ) is arranged by subject and has also been derived from

the Basque Threshold Level.

There is nothing like a good old piece of text with its translation and, if possible,

accompanying notes to provide the weathered field linguist with a rough-and-ready first

picture of an unfamiliar language, and I have catered to this need, within the limited space

available, in Chapter 7 ( Sample Texts ) . I have opted for two brief passages of Biblical

iii

narrative, using the recent and excellently translated Basque Bible. There are of course

arguments for and against using biblical passages for such purposes; while aware of both, it

seems to me that this remains a useful exercise; besides, I can vouch for the idiomatic, well-

written nature of this particular translation, which reflects the best of modern literary Basque

style at the present time. For the first passage I have chosen a personal favourite, the

Forbidden Fruit story at the beginning of Genesis. Following a hallowed tradition, I include as

the second and last passage part of the Prodigal Son parable from Luke.

In Chapter 8 ( Further Reading ) I end with a few pointers for those who do not wish

to stop here. It is not my objective to offer a heavyweight bibliography, so please do not

expect to find one! This is, after all, merely an Introduction.

May many appetites be whetted! For those which are, I remain open to further

discussion, comments and queries via my email address (alanking@bigfoot.com) or website

(http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/). On egin!

Alan R. King

Zarautz, 1997

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1. Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 2. The Basque Language Today

Chapter 3. Getting Started

Chapter 4. Grammatical Sketch

Chapter 5. Communicative Basque

Chapter 6. Basic Vocabulary

Chapter 7. Sample Texts

Chapter 8. Further Reading

Chapter 1

Frequently Asked Questions*

Questions about learning Basque

Is Basque grammar difficult? Is it unlike anything else?

Sound like simple questions, don’t they? Yet actually a conscientious linguist can

give no simple answer.

Define difficult. Have you successfully learnt a foreign language before, and if

so, would you say it was difficult? My own opinion is that really learning any

language is hard work. Some people nevertheless enjoy the adventure.

But is Basque more difficult than other languages to learn? That again

depends on which other languages you’re comparing with, and what you know before

you learn them. Generalizing, learning any Indo-European language of Europe (i.e.

almost any European language except for Basque, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian,

Maltese or Turkish — etc., depending on how we’re defining Europe, of course) is

easy if you already know another European language, as you probably do if you’re

reading this, and even easier still if you know more than one, as compared to learning,

say, a language from another continent. This is because European languages are pretty

similar to each other, in global terms, and also because they have a great many words,

phrases, and even grammatical devices in common.

Basque is an exception in this sense, at least to some extent. The reason is that

it is not related to all those other European languages, which unlike Basque belong to

a single language family called Indo-European. Basque is different, and different is

usually harder to learn.

So how different is Basque? Well actually, once we accept the basic fact that

it is a completely different kind of language from its Indo-European neighbours, it has

to be said that it does share some things with these. Not surprising, given that they

have been in close contact for millennia. But still, if you want a short answer: yes, it’s

pretty different.

Could you please advise me on a good beginning textbook and where to buy it

and a good source for tapes for pronunciation?

This is slightly embarassing, but the only books I can recommend at present were all

written by me. There are two to choose between: (a) A Basque Course: A Practical

Introduction by Alan R.. King, published by the University of Nevada Press (Reno,

Las Vegas and London), 1994; (b) Colloquial Basque: A Complete Language Course

by Alan R. King & Begotxu Olaizola Elordi, published by Routledge (London and

New York), 1996. Colloquial Basque can be bought on its own or with two

accompanying 60-minute cassettes. There are no tapes to accompany A Basque

Course .

Where you can buy them will depend on where you are. It would be nice to

say ‘available in all good bookshops’ (if your British, or ‘bookstores’ if American).

Colloquial is the better distributed of the two. Ridiculously (not my fault, I’m only the

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