Bla bla bla

[nooj]

Here is a poem today by the Basque poet Oxobi who lived from 1888-1957.

Oxobi is a nom de plume, taken from a house his family used to live in, but originally it would have meant wolf-den (otso hobi). Basques used to name their houses and took their surnames from their houses, or from natural features around their houses, which is why you have so many Basques whose last names are e.g. Etxeberria 'the new house' or Mendizabal 'wide mountain' or Bidarte 'between roads' etc. And indeed, Oxobi is an actual last name used in Low Navarre.

I've bolded the words that are characteristic of his dialect in the Low Navarre region (in the French state).

Iratzea mertxikaz bete da jarriko
The fern will grow heavy with peaches
labettoa elur xuriz gorrituko
The small oven will be red-hot, fed on white snow
zezen beltza zazpi xahalez erdiko
The black bull will birth 7 calves
euskaldunek euskara dute galduko.
euskaldunek euskara dute galduko.
The Basques will lose their Basque
The Basques will lose their Basque

Ur gainean ezarri dute zubia
Over the river, they have raised a bridge
hartan erein ogiko hazi garbia
And there they will sow clean seeds of wheat
han jin arte irin opilno xuria
Until white balls of flour come from there
euskarak ez du galduko mihia.
euskarak ez du galduko mihia.
Basque will not lose its tongue
Basque will not lose its tongue

I'm not sure what the relevance of the wheat and the balls of flour are.
The first part is about a world gone topsy-turvy, the second one is clearly more optimistic.

[nooj]

Another poem by Oxobi.

Maitatua sobera, nintzelarik haurra,
Ez nakien nik zer zen amaren beharra ;
Bortu batean orai naiz bakar bakarra,
Aman orhoit orduko heldu zaut nigarra

When I was a boy, loved above all
I did not know what it was, to need a mother
Now that I am alone alone on the mountain
Thinking of my mother, the tears came to me

Aho batek eztiki diolarik : Ama
Hitz goxo bakar horrek mundu bat derama.
Ama baino hoberik zer ditake asma ?
Horren maitatzen beraz gaiten oro thema !

When a voice says sweetly: mother
This sweet word alone carries an entire world
What can be imagined that is better than a mother?
Let us all then work to love her!

Again, Oxobi writes in a Low Navarran dialect. The last line in particular had me stumped and I had to ask a native speaker (Guipuzkoan), because I simply don't know much about the Basque dialects spoken in the French state. Here is what the last line would look like in the Standard dialect.

LN: Horren maitatzen beraz gaiten oro thema
S: Hori maitatzera beraz gaitezen gustiak tema(tu)

This was a fun exercise to do. I learned some LN vocabulary and morphology, such as bortu 'mountain' (S: mendia), ditake 'could be' (S: daiteke) and LN syntax, such as -larik ending for temporal clauses. In S, it would be just -ela. For example, nintzelarik haurra 'when I was a boy' would be in S 'nintzela haurra'.

What I find incredibly impressive is how many Basque speakers have a general knowledge of what happens in other dialects, even ones far away from their own.

The singer-songwriter Mikel Laboa put this poem into song:

[nooj]

Txoria txori is the most famous song of Mikel Laboa. The words are actually of a Basque poet Joxean Artze, but Laboa put it to music. It is pretty much known by all Basques, in the north or in the south, it's that famous. In the Basque Country in the French state, it is usually known by the first word of the song, hegoak 'wings'.

Txoria, txori
The bird is a bird

Hegoak ebaki banizkio
nerea izango zen,
ez zuen alde egingo. x2

If if I had cut its wings
It would have been mine
It would not have left

Bainan, honela
ez zen gehiago txoria izango x2

But in doing this,
It would not have been a bird anymore

eta nik...
txoria nuen maite x2

And I,
it was the bird that I loved.


This version is by the American singer Joan Baez, who sang it to a full house in Bilbao in 1988. Her pronunciation is pretty great. The Franco dictatorship had ended in 1975, 13 years before. I love how the audience is extremely appreciative. I like the first few seconds when they realise what song she is singing for them. I like how they keep quiet for a bit, and then they join in. I never fail to get chills.



As for the history behind the poem, Wikipedia states that:

Artzek, Donostiako Parte Zaharreko taberna batean, paperezko ezpainzapi batean idatzi zuen poema; Laboaren emazte Marisol Bastidari gustatu egin zitzaion; eta Mikel Laboak ezpainzapia etxera eraman eta musika jarri zion. Askatasun ukatuari egindako abestia da.

Joxean Artze was in a bar in the Old City of San Sebastian, he wrote the poem on a paper napkin. The wife of Laboa, Marisol Bastidari liked it; Mikel Laboa brought the paper napkin home and set it to music. It is a song made for freedom denied.

[nooj]

I regularly try to familiarise myself with French dialects in North America, as I generally prefer them to European dialects of French, except for the south of France.

Possibly my favourite dialects come from Acadie. Here is a speaker who comes from Nouveau Brunswick who is talking about the various ways you can use a bandeau. In Acadie, the /r/ is generally realised as [r], a trait that is barely present in the Québec media that I watch, most people in the cities have switched to the uvular fricative. I find that a real shame, because I love me a good alevolar tap or trill. You can also hear the alveolar tap realisation in my favourite Acadian singer, Lisa LeBlanc.

[nooj]

About the French from the south of France. This video is an interesting one, it is a report made in 1975.

The two towns featured and contrasted are Lombez and Samatan, in the south-west of France. The French of the older people, born prior to WWII is heavily influenced by their first language, which is Gascon, and I love it. See 1:12 onwards and listen also to the beautiful French of the town butcher at 5:40. By this time, the intergenerational transmission of Gascon would have stopped, and the next generation would grow up speaking only French.

Also interesting is the very different practices and rules of rugby in 1975. For example, the scrum, today the referee has to check that the scrum is set and approve of it before the ball goes in, in the video the guys just go straight at it. An easy way to get hurt, there's enormous pressure put on your head, neck and spine. And when someone does get knocked out, they just drag him off the field. That definitely wouldn't happen today...

[nooj]

One of my favourite shows in any language is called Biais. Biais is an Occitan word meaning a way to do things, a method, a technique. And that is precisely what this show seeks to do. Each episode is a short documentary around 10 minutes long that presents the savoir-faire of native speakers of Occitan, so generally very elderly people, all in Occitan. I believe I have watched every episode up to date.

Every so often, I find something that makes me happy to have learned French in the first place. And this is one of those things. I say that because the subtitles are unfortunately only in French, and not in Occitan. Although with Catalan I can understand the general gist, there's a lot I miss.

Of course, it also then makes me want to learn an Occitan variety, not just for the sake of learning a new language, but to be able to partake in the knowledge that these people have acquired over the years. For me, this is the richness of 'French' culture: one that is almost never shown, not even inside France itself. On one hand, because of ageism, on the other hand, because of classism (these people generally live in rural areas), and finally because of linguistic prejudice, because in France, if you don't speak French, nothing you say is of value.

Does this show prove that the French monolinguals are starting to wake up and starting to actually value their languages?

No. Biais is part of an Occitan program called Viure al Pais (living in the country), which airs once a week and is 45 minutes long. It is Occitan activists who create this magnificent show. And less than an hour a week is paltry, given that literally everything else in life is dominated by French. But anyway, the point is that no one other than Occitan activists cares about what these old people think, and certainly not what they have to say, and least of all in what language they say it in.

One of the ones I most like is episode 36, where an entire community comes together to create melsat, which is a kind of sausage. It is viewable on Dailymotion and remember to push up the video quality to its highest setting because it's simply stunning. Trigger warning for viewers, there are graphic scenes here of the slaughter of a pig. Although I have to say that if you eat meat, the meat that you eat is from the slaughterhouse, and even if you don't see it, that doesn't mean they don't suffer. But ἐν τῷ φρονεῖν μηδὲν ἥδιστος βίος...

This one is about coffee, and presents a native speaker of Bearnés, a variety of Gascon. He is a shepherd.

[nooj]

2016an egindako Inkesta Soziolinguistikoaren arabera, euskarak 223.000 hiztun irabazi ditu azken 25 urtean. Kopurua handia da, baina erabilerak ez du erritmo berean gora egin. Izan ere, Euskal Herrian ezagutza % 28,4koa da, baina erabilera % 16,5ekoa.

According to the Sociolinguistic Survey done in 2016, Basque gained 223,000 speakers in the last 25 years. That's a big number, but its use has not grown at the same rate. In fact, the knowledge of Basque in the Basque Country is 28.4%, but its use remains at 16.5%.

This interesting factoid is a great worry to Basque activists. Huge advances have been made in making it so that people can speak Basque (70% of Basque children go through some form of education in Basque, either immersion or equal parity Basque-Spanish), but just because they can, doesn't mean they do.

It is for this reason that Euskaraldia has come about, it is an 11 day national initiative across the Basque nation, from the 23rd of November to the 3rd of December. Basque speakers and understanders sign their names up and receive badges. One badge is for people confident and ready to speak Basque, and that is called ahobizi (active mouth). The second badge is for people who are learning Basque and ready to listen in Basque, and they are called belarriprest (ear ready).

Ahobizi zara
Euskaraz egingo diezu ulertzen duten guztiei. Edonon, edonoiz eta ulertzen duen edonorekin arituko zara euskaraz.
Ezagutzen ez dituzunekin lehen hitza euskaraz egingo duzu, eta ulertzen baldin badute, hortik aurrerakoak ere.

You are an ahobizi
You will speak in Basque to all those who understand. Anywhere, anytime and with anyone who understands, you will do it in Basque.
With those who do not understand, the first word you will say will be in Basque, and if they understand, the next ones following on from that one will be in Basque too.

Belarriprest zara

Euskaraz dakiten guztiei zuri euskaraz egiteko gonbitea egingo diezu. Euskara ulertzen duzula adieraziko diezu eta zurekin euskaraz hitz egin dezatela eskatu.
Zuk euskaraz edo erdaraz erantzungo duzu, baina zuri euskaraz egiteko eskatuko duzu.

You are a belarriprest.
You will invite all those who know Basque to speak to you in Basque. You will explain to them that you understand Basque and you will ask that they speak with you in Basque.
You will answer either in Basque or in a foreign language, but you will demand that you be spoken to in Basque.


People are often hesitant to use Basque with people, for fear of not knowing who speaks or understands Basque. This initiative is a simple way to get over that.

This is the linguistic kale borroka (street warfare). It all starts from the simple choice of dislodging Spanish and French from household to household, street to street, town to town. A latter-day euskogudari is not someone who wields a gun, but who refuses to use the language of foreigners. Two Goliath language empires CAN go down to a David who is determined enough.

11 days has a special significance in Basque because the number 11, hamaika, in Basque, is also a way of saying a lot.

hamaika aldiz eskatu nion
I asked him for it, a million times (literally eleven times).

This initiative may only be '11 days' but what is really being asked for is: make your use of Basque forever.



It's also noteworthy the gender differential in the participants (nearly 200,000 people, which considering that there are around 750,000 Basque speakers in total, is a massive turnout). 63% of the participants are women.

[nooj]

In many ways, Basque is very different from the languages I have studied before, such as Arabic, Persian, Ancient Greek, Spanish, French etc. But in some respects, it can be quite similar.

Before I give some examples, a word of warning, anything that I say is dependant on the dialect, what works for one Basque dialect may be ungrammatical or just weird sounding in another.

1. baizik.

Ez naiz Sydney-ra joango, Melbourne-ra baizik.
I won't go to Sydney, but Melbourne.

This use of baizik (or other words that have the same function in other dialects) is identical to the use of sino in Spanish.

2. light verbs

In Persian, most verbs are made using کردن kardan 'to do, make' + a noun or an adjective. For example, the word for tear is گریه geryeh, and combining that with کردن, you get the verb for cry,
literally to do tears: گریه‌ کردن

Basque also does this a lot, using egin 'to do'. Tears, weeping is negar. To cry is to negar egin, literally to do tears.

I chose this example because when I was living in Spain, one of my close friends was Iranian and her name was نگار negār.

This word is actually interesting, and I will digress for a moment. In Persian, نگار can mean painting as well as idol, as the Iranians met many peoples who (they thought) worshiped images, and curiously enough, this sense of idol can also mean something of great beauty and something loved. Hence why my friend is called Painting.

I am absolutely certain that the semantic path this word took is identical to the one that the word بت but took in Persian. بت but is yet another word that means idol in Persian. It ultimately comes from the Sanskrit बुद्ध buddha, probably not directly through Sanskrit however. The Iranians, by virtue of their privileged geographical situation, had much contact with Buddhism, whether of the Indian or Chinese variety. The great beauty of the paintings and statues of the Buddha or of the Buddhist saints that Persian speaking poets saw, inspired mixed feelings among them. On one hand, idol worship is sinful. On the other hand, the aesthetic value of these Buddhas meant they became symbolic of something forbidden and beautiful at the same time. Even divinely beautiful.

Take this line by the Persian poet رودکی Rudaki.

بت پرستی گرفته ایم همه. این جهان چون بتست و ما شمنیم
bot parasti gerefteh im hameh. In jahān chun botast o mā shamanim.
We are all idol worshippers. For this world is the idol, and we are its shamans.

The Persian word shaman obviously comes from the Sanskrit श्रमण śramaṇa, that is, the word used to describe the Buddha's devout monk followers. The world is likened to the Buddha, and we are Buddha worshippers.

[nooj]

I wrote this verse down after reading it in a book a long time ago, because I found it so delightful. I miss Sanskrit. There was a time when I wanted to learn all the classical Indian languages of South India, because I fell HARD for Bhakti poetry from there. I would love to learn Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam etc etc in order to be able to read them in the original for myself.

अपारे काव्य-संसारे कविरेव प्रजापतिः
apāre kāvya-saṃsāre kavīreva prajāpatiḥ
In the boundless world of poetry
the poet is God the creator

Here is another example of baizik, from Joxean Artze, the same poet I was talking about who wrote Txoria Txori. Very thematically appropriate for Euskaraldia.

Hizkuntza bat ez da galtzen
ez dakitenek ikasten ez dutelako,
dakitenek hitz egiten ez dutelako baizik

A language does not die
because those who do not know it do not learn it,
but because those who know it do not speak it.

The last line in Spanish would be 'sino porque los que lo conocen no lo hablan'.

[nooj]

I am currently learning the subjunctive forms in Basque, which are marginal and Basque speakers do everything possible to avoid them in speech. But I feel like what the heck, my brain still has room in there, why not.

Instead of using subjunctive forms as Romance speakers might feel tempted to do, Basque speakers use nominalisations of verbs, verbs made into noun-like things. It is one of the things that makes Basque, Basque-y.

Whilst it is possible to say:

ohea eros dezazuen eskatu dizuet
dezazuen - 2nd person plural subjunctive of the auxiliary verb *edin.
I asked youse that youse buy the bed.

Normally, one would nominalise the verb erosi, to buy:

ohea erosteko eskatu dizuet
I asked youse for-the-buying the bed
I asked youse to buy the bed.

Another place where the subjunctive would sound odd is in sentences of desire, wish or hope.

For example, you COULD say:

pozik izan hadin nahi dinat
I want that you be happy
hadin - 2nd personal female allocutive (hika) singular subjunctive of the auxiliary verb *edin.

But it is much more natural to nominalise and say:

Pozik hi izatea nahi dinat
I want you-being-happy.
I want you to be happy.

As these nominalisations are nouns, for all intents and purposes, they act like nouns in terms of ergativity for example, or taking the partitive case in negations:

Good weather makes me happy.
Eguraldi onak potzen nau

You-being-happy makes me happy
Pozik hi izateak pozten nau

We will not cease from being a people
We will not cease being a people
Ez dugu utziko herria izatearik