Thursday, March 30, 2006

Badakizu euskaraz?

An interesting part of Spanish 280 has been learning about all of the different languages used in Spain. In his overview, my Spanish teacher made a special point of saying what nutty people the Basques are, and how nobody can make any sense of them or their weird language (he said this in a very appreciative way, as he seems to have a healthy respect for nutty people with weird languages).

Being 1/16 Basque (it always bothers me when people use geneological fractions like that, but it's kind of more concrete and relevant than saying "my great-great-grandmother was Basque" -- maybe wrongly so), I decided to investigate.

So I've just pulled up some preliminary research on the Basque people and their language, Euskara.

Maybe it explains something about my extended family.

What is, then, this ancient people whose traditions celebrate unflagging valour and which, even in our times, has given so often proof of its heroism? Where do they come from? What is their relation to the other inhabitants of Europe and the rest of the world? These are
impossible questions
to answer.


The Basques are the mysterious race par excellence. They are alone among the multitude of the rest of mankind. They have no known family.

--ElisÄ‚©e Reclus, French writer and geographer
(1830- 1905)



The preservation of euskara, the Basque language, is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of philology. It is the only case of an archaic language surviving, of a language resisting the invasions of other languages for centuries and retaining its own personality.

--Antonio Tobar, Rector of the University of Salamanca


The Basque language is the despair of scholars and the most mysterious of all known languages.

--Aldous Huxley


Everyone who has visited the Basque country longs to return; it is a blessed land.

--Victor Hugo

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