22 Facts About Basque language

Gipuzkoa, most of Biscay, a few municipalities of Alava and the northern area of Navarre formed the core of the remaining Basque language-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen Basque language fluency.

In Francoist Spain, Basque language use was affected by the government's repressive policies.

Public use of Basque language was frowned upon by supporters of the regime, often regarded as a sign of anti-Francoism or separatism.

Besides its standardised version, the five historic Basque language dialects are Biscayan, Gipuzkoan, and Upper Navarrese in Spain and Navarrese–Lapurdian and Souletin in France.

Euskara Batua was created so that the Basque language could be used—and easily understood by all Basque speakers—in formal situations, and this is its main use today.

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The current mainstream scientific view on the origin of the Basques and of their language is that early forms of Basque developed before the arrival of Indo-European languages in the area, i e before the arrival of Celtic and Romance languages in particular, as the latter today geographically surround the Basque-speaking region.

Nevertheless, Basque has borrowed up to 40 percent of its vocabulary from Romance languages, and the Latin script is used for the Basque alphabet.

In French, the Basque language is normally called, though has become common in recent times.

Basque is geographically surrounded by Romance languages but is a language isolate unrelated to them, and indeed, to any other language in the world.

Little is known of its origins, but it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in and around the area of modern Basque Country before the arrival of the Indo-European languages in western Europe.

Since 1968, Basque language has been immersed in a revitalisation process, facing formidable obstacles.

Almost all hypotheses concerning the origin of Basque language are controversial, and the suggested evidence is not generally accepted by mainstream linguists.

Region where Basque language is spoken has become smaller over centuries, especially at the northern, southern, and eastern borders.

The Basque language became the main everyday language, while other languages like Spanish, Gascon, French, or Latin were preferred for the administration and high education.

In 1807, Basque language was still spoken in the northern half of Alava—including its capital city Vitoria-Gasteiz—and a vast area in central Navarre, but in these two provinces, Basque language experienced a rapid decline that pushed its border northwards.

General public attitude towards efforts to promote the Basque language have been more positive, with the share of people against these efforts falling from 20.

Part of the Romani community in the Basque Country speaks Erromintxela, which is a rare mixed language, with a Kalderash Romani vocabulary and Basque grammar.

The Algonquian–Basque language pidgin arose from contact between Basque language whalers and the Algonquian peoples in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Strait of Belle Isle.

Basque language has a distinction between laminal and apical articulation for the alveolar fricatives and affricates.

Basque language has two types of palatalization, automatic palatalization and expressive palatalization.

All the other verbs in Basque language are called periphrastic, behaving much like a participle would in English.

Basque language noun-phrase is inflected in 17 different ways for case, multiplied by four ways for its definiteness and number .