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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:41 pm

Today's front page cover of El Mundo.

Taking up much of the left page: Messi's contract said he had to learn Catalan

On the bottom right in small text: The general in charge of the Rohingya genocide takes over Burma

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I couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it. Spanish nationalists get triggered so hard.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:25 pm

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In Canadian French the moose is called orignal. This text from 1603 by Samuel de Champlain is the earliest written attestation of the word in French, as far as I know. The word originally comes from Basque orein (the absolutive plural is oreinak). As you can see, it was at first borrowed wholesale in its plural form as orignac, and then subsequently changed to orignal.

The French colonists knew of this origin. See this passage from another French colonist, Marc Lescarbot, who writes in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1609):

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Basque sailors sailed all the way to America to do their fishing. They must have seen the moose and used the only word at hand to describe the enormous American 'deer'.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:07 am

Since October of last year, we have sociolinguistic data from the 2016 census data for the Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa (EAE). Neither the Navarran foral community nor the North Basque Country are counted, so it is not an overall picture of the Basque Country as a whole, but it does show the trends in Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba.


In these pictures you see the proportions of Basque speakers (euskaldunak), Basque receivers who can understand the language (hartzaileak) and non Basque speakers (erdaldunak). In Gipuzkoa, 2/3 of the population are Basque speakers or receivers, in Bizkaia it's 1/2 and in Araba we're a bit behind that.

Image

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In the next graph, you see that most people below the age of 30 can speak Basque, and below the age of 20, that figure becomes dominant. Over 80% of young people can speak Basque, and only around 7% don't understand Basque. Compare this trend to what it was in 1986 and you can see the difference. In some ways, in the EAE the Basques have reversed language shift.

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In the following graph you see a stark difference between women and men in terms of language. Emakumezkoak are women, gizonezkoak are men. Women speak more Basque in all age groups. They also form the majority of inscriptions in euskaltegis, the adult schools for learning Basque. Why are women more Basque than men?

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The next graph is both positive and negative. As you can see, the Basques have won important territories in terms of language knowledge, in some places where Basque had been lost for a century. But at the same time, the arnasguneak or breathing spaces for Basque, the areas where the use of Basque is majority (over 80% of the population), is retroceding. So at the same time, the most Spanish speaking regions are becoming more Basque (at least in terms of knowledge) and the most Basque speaking regions are becoming more Spanish speaking. This is not a positive trend, as we need arnasguneak. Medium sized towns and cities are becoming increasingly important.

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The following map is incredibly important and shows the enormous challenges that the Basque revitalisation movement has. The use of Basque in the home has barely shifted in 25 years. This is probably THE key battle to wage in the next decades, to create hundreds of thousands of NEW native speakers at home, convert (religiously!) Spanish speaking families into Basque speaking families.

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The two following graphs shows the stunning progression of the immersion model of Basque (model D) in contrast to model A (Spanish as the vehicular language of instruction) and model B (50% Basque, 50% Spanish).

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Last edited by nooj on Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:14 am

What are the conclusions to take away? A chiarascuro portrait of a Basque society in movement. The revitalisation movement has won important advances, but those advances have notably slowed down. In some ways, the 'easy' things to win have been won, and in the South Basque Country, Basque now has hit up against places that have stimied other revitalisation efforts.

Basque is still missing from so many places in society. For example, juridically, the presence of Basque used by lawyers, law clerks, judges etc is anecdotal. If you go to court, is your right to a fair trial in Basque guaranteed? In the audiovisual and entertainment industry, Basque is dominated by Spanish. Videogames, TV shows, movies: if the Basques secure these spaces, they will also secure the fidelity of a great proportion of those Basque speakers who KNOW Basque but don't speak it, and also spark interest to learn in those Spanish speakers who don't know Basque.

And looking further afield in Nafarroa (Garaia), the advances are much slower due in part to the bizarre tripartite linguistic division they have. And Iparralde, whilst the outright loss of Basque speakers seems to have been stemmed, Basque rests on a knife's edge. A Basque Country where Basque is not the language of the 7 provinces, is no Basque Country at all.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Sun Feb 07, 2021 3:19 pm

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This is an opinion piece published on the 10th of March 1970 by an anonymous author, in the monthly magazine Zeruko Argia. The title is 'From the Basque dialects to Basque'. This is about the time when unified Basque was being created, sparking intense debate within Basque society. I post it to show some of the arguments being used to defend the unified Basque, which would eventually become the standard Basque we use today.

The Basque used by the author is extremely close to the standard Basque used today. He/she signs it with the town of Larresorro in Lapurdi, but that doesn't mean they were from there, due to many southern Basque refugees living in the North Basque Country.

[Edit] I've since been told that Larresorro is the penname of the great Txillardegi himself, one of the fathers of Euskara Batua! That would explain why the Basque is so recognisable.

In the beginning he cycles through a variety of dialects to try to get the interlocutor to understand, before resorting to French. The interlocutor says ah, you mean unatua? Which is a word from the Lapurdi dialect.

To me the example seems exaggerated and even of dubious reality: Basque speakers generally know what people in neighbouring towns say, and they generally know what's said in neighbouring dialects. For example the interlocutor should have known what akitu meant, as it's not at all an unknown term in the Lapurdi dialect. But let's say that this person had never left their town before, or knew the word but was momentarily stunned by the sunlight or something, stranger things have happened. Today in the 21st century this could not happen: everyone in Sara knows what akitu means, what nekatu means, and of course unatu as well.


Something that happened to me yesterday. Me asking a person from Sara:

Are you tired? (Akitu zirea)
??
Are you tired? (Akitu ahal zera)
I don't understand.
Let's see... I'm asking if you're tired (ia nekatu zaren)...ummm are you tired (resorting to French).
Ah? Am I tired or not? (Ia unatu naizen)

That's what constitutes the 'richness' of Basque, in the eyes of some people.

The intention of people like us who want to pass from the Basque dialects to a single unified Basque, however, is qualified as an excuse invented by 'traitors'.

Instead they say, (in Spanish): let's fight so that our Basque, in its various forms, subsists and gives life...

Returning to the subject, in Hazparne for example some 20 km away from Sara, you hear 'akitu' and/or 'akhitu'. If the residents of Sara and Hazparne, despite being near neighbours, don't understand each other, what's the upside of the Basque dialects?

I don't see it. Our country is not a dialectological map, instead it's a group formed by men and women. We need to take 'Basque speaker' out from dialectology. I will say what the Catalan writer Moix said (in Spanish): a language that can be the plaything of a couple of grammarians doesn't interest me.

What then is the real treason? Wanting to stick to the Basque dialects whilst speaking/doing things in Spanish/French, or rather strengthening the unified Basque in Basque?

The matter of the unified Basque is not a mere matter of whether to write the H letter or not. It is the pressing need of changing things from top to bottom. Because a language is not a strange folkloric piece of clothing, to be worn in front of the tourists on Saturday evenings, it is the method of communication of a people. And this being so, the need for unity becomes obvious.

- some examples of how to write things in different ways in Basque dialects -

And don't say that these are unimportant details. These same things are the 'patoisation' and ruin of our language. In Spanish you can't write 'hemos ido, hamos ido, amoz ido' according to the author's whims. No. Not in French nor in Russian either. Why then in Basque? Because we're different? How are we different from them, unless it's in the level of literacy of our language? 'Richness', isn't that just the echo of a deeper error? That error being, our tribalism, navel-gazing, our inability to get out of the 'my region first' mindset.

One of the reasons that makes us use Spanish/French (one of the reasons, and not the principal one, I know) is dialectalism, as can be seen in my example from yesterday. When we Basque speakers need to say something essential to each other, we use our true method of communication, putting aside our folklorish stuff.

So, NO to 'all our strength behind the dialects', and YES to the unified Basque, with all our strength and speed. This is my position.

Basque speakers, like the Chinese or the Madagascans, need a single method of communication to continue our way of life.

It's either one Basque, or one foreign language. If a language does not serve to communicate (a tool for communication), whatever the folkore and dialect supporters might say, Basque speakers themselves are pushing Basque to the side. And they are correct in abandoning Basque, because a language is the servant and tool of man, and not the other way around.

Our choice then is not between dialects/unified Basque, but between unified Basque/foreign language. Because the foreign languages (Spanish/French) are unified and everywhere a useful and valuable tool.


There's many things I disagree with in this column but also some things I do agree with.

Recently in Reddit someone posted an article about how the Chinese government is suppressing the Uyghur language in China. Someone else asked in the comments, isn't it normal for a state to teach or privilege their state language?

That's the case for most European or American states today. The problem is that it's no longer problematic for these European or American states. Very few states get financially or politically punished for their intransigence and monolingual state policy. How do Americans and Europeans think their state languages attained absolute supremacy in their countries? Now I think the Chinese government is awful, but it's hypocritical for European and Americans to get outraged for the Chinese doing something without being outraged also by what their own states still do.

A comparison. People complain about how India or China are industrialising so quickly and massively and thereby contribute to climate change, which is a true. But they are following the tried and tested method by which first world nations got to where they are. Actually, you could argue they're a better job of it, with massive research and investment into renewable energies on the part of China. Saying that they should have learned from our mistakes is all well and good, but for many Chinese and Indians, that sounds an awful lot like discourse from someone who has gotten to the top and pulled up the ladder.

Similarly, it's very nice for speakers of a hegemonic language to say that dialectical diversity is a richness to be protected, and that a unified Basque is a bad idea because it would destroy that, when in actual fact the greatest threat to Basque dialectical diversity is and has always been Spanish and French. But French and Spanish speakers never practice what they preach with regards to their own language's dialectical variety. I would love to see a single town or city's official website in Spain or in France written in the Spanish or French dialect of said town, but I've never seen it, whereas I have seen dozens of examples in Basque.

It's a blatant double standard. For Spanish and French, there must be a standard language, a unified way of writing or speaking. But endangered languages are not allowed to, because they are considered valuable insofar as they are disunited. The object of dialectological research and not the subject of a people's communicative purposes.

I call this the hegemonic or dominant language speaker privilege.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Sun Feb 07, 2021 7:10 pm

According to a recent study, in the Universitat de les Illes Balears, the most used language is Spanish, not Catalan.

Un 32,7% de les assignatures que imparteixen els professors de la Universitat de les Illes Balears és només en castellà; un 32%, en català, i un 7,6%, en anglès, segons han admès a l'enquesta els mateixos docents. En el cas de les matèries que s'imparteixen en més d'una llengua, el castellà també hi és superior: un 11,4% del personal docent investigador reconeix que el castellà hi predomina sobre el català i un 9,6% indica que és a la inversa. Només en un 3,3% dels casos els dos idiomes tenen la mateixa presència.

Segons la mateixa enquesta, feta als alumnes, la diferència entre llengües encara és més clara en favor de l'espanyol: han afirmat que un 42,2% de les matèries es fa només en aquest idioma; un 25,3%, en català, i un 4,2%, en anglès. A les classes bilingües, han contestat, en un 9,9% domina el castellà i en un 9,6%, el català. Només en un 4,9% hi hauria la mateixa proporció entre les dues llengües.

De les enquestes als alumnes també es desprèn que el castellà predomina en la seva relació amb els professors. Un 54,8% reconeix que s'hi dirigeix en aquest idioma; un 35,2% diu que ho fa en català, i un 5,2%, que empra l'anglès. De la mateixa manera, asseguren que un 53,1% de les respostes que reben són en castellà; només un 36,1%, en català i un 5,8%, en anglès.

També mostra que el castellà és majoritari en els exàmens, segons els alumnes: un 49,6% dels enunciats és en aquest idioma, un 26,4% és en català i, en anglès, un 6,8%. Els estudiants enquestats també diuen que contesten un 53,3% dels examens en castellà; un 22,8%, en català i un 6,4%, en anglès.

Segons l'enquesta al professorat, el català és majoritari en assignatures com Biologia, Ciències Històriques, Ciències Matemàtiques i Informàtica, Filosofia i Treball Social, Física, Geografia, Pedagogia Aplicada o Pedagogia i Didàctiques Específiques. En canvi, el castellà és clarament l'idioma principal a Dret Privat, Dret Públic, Economia Aplicada, Economia i Empresa, Infermeria i Fisioteràpia, Medicina, Psicologia i Química.


Spanish is used more in some subjects, whilst Catalan is used more in other subjects. Catalan is the dominant language used in the university administration.

In those subjects where both languages can be used, Spanish is used more than Catalan. Interestingly enough they asked this question separately to teachers and students, and find that students say that their teachers use more Spanish. I guess the teachers are unaware of their own language practices and believe they're using more Catalan than they really are. There's more Spanish used than Catalan in the exams, research, in the day to day teacher interaction of questions and answers.

What do I think about this? If you know anything about me you'll know what I'm going to say. This is bad. The only public university in the Balearic Islands must be the fortress of Catalan normalisation in the Balearic education system, and it's anything but.

Today I was reading through some FB pages of immigrants who live in Mallorca and I read this interesting discussion:

bonjour , je souhaiterais avoir des renseignements concernant la faculté de majorque... ma fille compte dans trois candidater à la faculté de palma pour y suivre des cours... je me pose une question qui va peut être paraître bête ... les cours sont dispensés en catalan ou en espagnol ??
car je ne souhaite pas la décourager .. mais elle étudie actuellement avec passion l espagnol dans le bus de faire ses études supérieures à majorque mais la destination sera peut être compromise si elle ne sait pas parler catalan .. et devra s orienter plus vers valence où le sud de l espagne ..
d avance merci


Bonjour! Alors moi j’ai commencé cette année des études de kinésithérapie à l’UIB et c’est vrai qu’il y a certains professeurs qui souhaitent donner leur cours en catalan. Pour l’instant, à ma demande, tous ont bien voulu changer pour parler en Castellano (espagnol).
Mes partiels pour le moment sont tous en Castellano pour la plupart de type réponses à choix multiples (donc pas besoin de rédiger).
Par contre il est vrai que dans ma promotion un grand nombre d’étudiants parlent entre eux catalan.
Moi personnellement j’avais juste un niveau bac espagnol quand je suis arrivé ici, les premiers mois ont été un peu compliqués j’ai pris un cours d’espagnol particulier par semaine et aujourd’hui, quatre mois plus tard, cela va beaucoup mieux. Les gens dans palma parlent le Castellano et les gens des peuples plus reculés savent aussi le parler même si ça leur coûtent.
Du coup moi pour l’instant je n’ai pas comme projet actuel d’apprendre le catalan, je me laisse d’abord le temps de maîtriser le castellano
Après il est vrai que j’ai entendu que dans d’autres études les classes étaient toutes en catalan mais je suppose que en demandant le changement doit être possible puisqu’il est argumenté par le fait que ce soit la langue que parle 400 millions de personnes et que l’université propose des Erasmus à travers l’Europe.


Do I blame Erasmus students and foreigners for pushing teachers to use Spanish? No. I blame the teachers themselves.

Grow a goddamn backbone, Jesus Christ, and defend the language of your students. If most of your students are from the Balearic Islands, and they sign up to a course where it is explicitly stated that the course will be given in Catalan, and then if a foreign student asks for the course to be given in Spanish, then you are hurting your students' right to have an education in Catalan. But legally you're under no obligation to do that, so don't do it!

I don't blame foreign students. There are in fact many foreign students who do their research beforehand and see whether a course is given in Spanish or not, or who decide to learn Catalan, or ask the teacher for a 10 min summary at the end of the class.

Do I disagree with the linguistic ideology in the discourse of this young student? Of course I do. The whiff/stench of linguistic supremacy is unmistakable. The duty of the education corps is not to give in to these views and thereby help perpetuate them, but to do their job and respect the rights of their Balearic students.

I think Catalan speakers are often their worst own enemies. There are too many Catalan speakers ready to give up their language to make things go easier and to avoid confrontation.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Sun Feb 07, 2021 8:33 pm

Recently I've been interested in the phenomenon of music that mixes two or more Spanish languages. It's not very common but it's not unheard of either. In some songs there is a clear predominance of one language, whereas others give equal time to the languages.

I'd like to see much more of this kind of collaboration in the future.

Here's two videos of two songs that each have hundreds of thousands of views. The rest are in links, in a variety of genres.

The first is Hitzeman by the Navarran electro-pop group Zetak, with the collaboration of the Catalan group Oques Grasses:



The second is the pop song Escriurem by Catalan musician Miki Nuñez with the help of the Bizkaian singer Izaro.



Vento Negro - Ezetaerre (hip hop) in Galician and Basque

Poemes de Destrucció- Lád Cúig and Desakato (Celtic rock/punk) in Asturian and Catalan

Lingua Ceive - Dakidarra (ska) in Galician, Basque, Catalan, Asturian

Bruixes - Roba Estesa (pop) in Galician and Catalan

Ara ve lo bó - La Pegatina and Esne Beltza (Catalan rumba) in Spanish, Catalan and Basque

La presó de Lleida - Roba Estesa and Alidé Sans (folk/pop) in Catalan and Aranese (Occitan)
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Tue Feb 09, 2021 1:15 pm

I asked if the changing of languages to accomodate a foreign student happens in the Basque Country as well and a Basque student replied:

Gurean bai. Euskal Ikasketak Gasteizen, frantses eskola batean. Neska italiar bi etorri eta klasea gazteleraz egiteko eskatu zuten euskara ez zutelako ulertzen. Irakasleak onartu
Baina ez da erasmus ikaslerik behar. Askotariko gradukoak batera egonda ere erdaraz egin ditugu.


Yes, in our university. Doing Basque philology at Gasteiz, in a French class. Two Italian girls came and they asked for the class to be given in Spanish because they didn't understand Basque. The teacher said okay. But it's not only Erasmus students. When students from many different courses are together, we speak in Spanish [NB: understand that he considers this a bad thing]

Barkatu, ez dut ulertzen gertakizuna. Zergatik euskal ikasketetan matrikulatu zuten bi italiar horiek, euskaraz jakin gabe?


I don't understand. Why would the Italians sign up to a Basque philology course without knowing Basque?

Badira beste graduetakoekin batera egiten diren zenbait hautazko ikasgai. Frantsesa horietako bat da. Beste graduren bat ikasten egon arren frantsesa hautatu eta talde berean sartu gintuzten


There are several optional subjects that you can do with people from other courses. French is one of those subjects. Although the Italians were studying a different course, they chose French and they put us into the same group as them.

Eskerrik asko azalpenagatik. Eta orain dudarekin gelditzen naiz, hizkuntza aldaketa honek zu eta zuek molestatzen zaituzte? Ikasle guztiek aho batez onartzen ohi duzue irakaslearen erabakia? Zer gertatzen da batek badio ezetz?


Did this shift in language annoy you? Do the students usually agree unanimously with the teacher's decision? What happens if one student says no (to changing the language of the course)?

Batetik Euskal ikasketetako gradua egiten zaudelako, bestetik ikasleon hizkuntza hautua urratu delako, bai. Amorru itzela. Gehienetan irakaslearen lehen hitza ere erdaraz izan da. Kasu jakin horretan irakasleak onartu edo ez galdetu zigun eta gehiengoak baietz esan zuen.


Yes, I was annoyed. For one thing because you're studying Basque philology. Second because the language choice of us students is being infringed upon. Bloody angry. Most of the time the first word of the teacher is in Spanish as well. In that specific case, the professor asked us whether we accepted or not, and the majority said yes.


As you can see it's not just in the Balearic Islands, but in the Basque Country itself. If I was paying for a course with my fellow students who all speak the language that was advertised and some people came in (and it doesn't matter if they were foreigners or locals who wanted to change the language) I'd be disgruntled too. And yet again the problem is mostly on the part of the locals. The guy I'm talking to says it clearly, most of the time the teacher starts first in Spanish (and then I guess the students push him/her into speaking Basque).

Whilst the bulk of the responsability of language loyalty falls upon the Basque students and professors (did anyone in the administration think to put the Italians in a Spanish speaking class, if there was any?), there are multiple solutions if you want to be a respectful Erasmus student. 1) check beforehand what language the courses are going to be in. 2) if the teacher or class refuses to change, and you really want to do this subject, then ask the teacher for a 10 min summary at the end of the class. This is what I've heard some foreign students do in Catalonia.

Maybe to some people it's a lot of fuss for nothing. But if you concede space to Spanish in the university in order to be nice to people who want you to speak Spanish, where else will you concede? At the town hall? At the supermarket? At school? In a job?

Because let me tell you, the list of places where you will be asked or told 'why can't you just speak Spanish, because all of us speak it and I don't understand your language?' is very very long indeed.
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:27 pm

I learned that the 17th century Mexican poet Juana Inés de la Cruz was of Basque descent from her father's side. She didn't know him well, but she grew up on her grandfather's estate in New Spain. From her grandfather she must have learned Basque because she uses Basque in one of her villancicos (at the time poetic compositions to be sung at church), and in her letters she calls herself Basque. By the way, did you know she owned the biggest library of New Spain at the time? :shock:

In this villancico, she - or the character that she gives words to - calls Basque the language of her ancestors. She also learned Nahuatl from the workers and she composed some villancicos in Nahuatl for Mexican parishioners to sing to the Virgin Mary, but I don't speak Nahuatl (sadly). You can read one here.

Image

Image

The corresponding Basque bits are bolded and I've added orthographical updates when needed, as well as some notes.

Lady Maria
Why do you go to heaven
And do not wish to be in your home
In Arantzazu?


Andre = andre. No change.

Arançazu = Arantzazu, the Basque equivalent of Guadalupe. A pilgrimage site just outside the town of Oñati, Gipuzkoa. The legend goes that in 1468, a shepherd said that he had found a statue of the Virgin Mary hidden among thorns, and said 'Arantzan, zu!?' which would mean "You, in the thorns?' which supposedly gave the name to the location. That's obviously a folk etymological back formation, Arantzazu comes from arantza (thorn) + zu (abundance of). The site has developed in the centuries into a massive and important monastery.

Ay, she is going, I am lost
My life, I am lost forever

You swear to God, Pure Virgin
That you must not move from here
Whether it's fitting or not
You must stay
I am lost, ay, she is going
My life, I am lost forever


Galdunai - galdu naiz
Nerevivi Gucico Galdunai - nire bizi(tza) guztiko galdu naiz

Here in Bizkaia, you stay
Don't go my heart
And if you should go, we go together
We go.
I am lost
etc.


Bizkaia - She says Bizkaia but at the time Bizkaia was often used by metonomy for the whole Basque Country. Her family actually came from Bergara in Gipuzkoa
Nerevioza - nire bihotza
Vagoas - bagoaz

Let's go my beauty, with you
Let's go, my love
Because all of Bizkaia
Must enter heaven
I am lost, ay, she is going
My life, I am lost forever


Guafen Galanta - goazen galanta
Nere laftana - nire laztana
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Re: Euskara (berriro)

Postby nooj » Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:02 am

Song from 1971. The singer is Lupe, at the time of the recording 14 years old.

The lyrics were written by Begoña Bilbao, from the sea town of Bermeo, Bizkaia where Lupe is also from, and so the lyrics are in Bizkaian dialect.

Begoña wrote in 2004 a novel 'Palestina, zure mina' (Palestine, your pain) which has the Palestinian struggle as its backdrop. A book read in schools by Basque children.

I'm not going to point out all the dialectical differences from standard Basque, but only a few verb forms for people who are learning the standard Basque dialect and unfamiliar with other dialects.



Gogoraten naz beti
Itxas ertzean
Esan neutsun 'maitia'
Ta bihotza izartu zan
Ez, ez dot gura ahaztu
Ez, maitasun hau
Nigana etorri zana
Ta bihotzak itxi ezin dau
Gu barriro itzuliko gara
Gogoratzen ordu atseginenak
Eskuak lotuta
Itsas ertzean
Esango deutsut 'maite zaitut'


neutsun - nizun
dau - du
deutsut - dizut

I always remember
By the sea
I said to you 'my love'
And my heart awoke
No, I don't want to forget
No, this love
That came to me
And my heart can't abandon it
We will return again
Remembering the best hours
Hands linked
By the sea
I will say to you 'I love you'.



A contemporary of Lupe and my favourite musical discovery of last year was Estitxu, the daughter of South Basque politician Manu Robles-Arangiz and a musician mother, Luisa Bernaola, who fled to the North Basque Country after the Spanish Civil War.

Estitxu was born in the Lapurdi town of Beskoitze, whence her nickname, 'Beskoitzeko urretxindorra' (the nightingale of Beskoitze). In Beskoitze they speak a Nafar-Lapurtera dialect, as shown in the following song.

But at home they must have continued speaking a Bizkaian dialect, because she uses 'gura izan' here, which is something that is characteristic of Bizkaian dialect, and no other Basque dialect c.f. Lupe's ez dot gura ahaztu. In a song that is otherwise written in the normal dialect of her North Basque home, it must be a conscious wink to her origins.

She died in 1993, only 48 years old because of cancer.

She had an enormous impact on the Basque singer-songwriter community of the 70s, and it's not difficult to see why. Her voice is incredible.

Zutan dut pentsatzen
Ene maitea
Zuri eman dautzut nere bizia

Badakit zure maitasuna ez dela
Nik gura nukeen bezain azkarra
Joanen zira, negua heltzean

Bainan ez joan
zuhaitzetako azkenengo orriak
lurrerarte erori baino lehen
ordurarte zaude hemen
nerekin


dautzut - dizut

I think of you
My love
I have given you my life

I know your love is not
As fast as I'd like
You will go when winter comes

But don't leave
Before the last leaves of the trees fall
Stay here until then
With me
2 x


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