Bla bla bla

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lingzz_langzz
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby lingzz_langzz » Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:17 am

That's amazing, thank you!
Are you reading in whatever dialect you find materials in or you try to stick to one?
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nooj
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:50 pm

Taking a detour from my route, I went down to the Val d'Aran. On the advice of a Catalan man I met (thanks Josep!) that very morning who said that it was possible to later link up with the Transpirineic route.
Otherwise, if I had followed my normal route, because the Val d'Aran is so small, I would have been in and out of the territory in just two days, all of that period staying high up in the mountains with no contact with locals.

So I went down but through a series of fortuitous events I ended up, not in Vielha (the capital city), but visiting three Aranese towns, Escunhau, Salardú and Tredòs. I met a Catalan couple who was there in the Val d'Aran for vacations, it was their penultimate day, Andreu and Sonia. Andreu's parents owned a house in Escunhau, because his father, although a Catalan from Reus, was the town doctor for decades and had also lived and worked in Vielha's hospital. Every summer they came to the Val d'Aran and as a result they're good connaisseurs of the Val d'Aran.

In fact along the entire street, it was full of people from Reus - retirees and such. I've been in Reus before, with my climber friends from Mexico, because the famous climbing destination of Siurana is close to there, and we spent Christmas climbing and getting drunk in an apartment there.

Interesting story there, some of them were passive speakers of Nahautl because their nannies when they were little spoke to them in Nahuatl, apparently something that happens in reasonably well off families.

Anyway, this Catalan couple and I climbed up to the Tuc deth Pòrt de Vielha (2605 m), and they invited me to their house to have a shower and food. I guess I was in a pitiable state.

I can't explain how nice it was to disconnect from the mountain mindset and live like a normal person. Corn on the cob, roasted chicken...a nice dinner in Catalan with Catalans (in Occitania), with interesting licor d'arròs, distilled from rice and made in the Delta de L'Ebre. In the back patio shared with the entire neighbourhood they spent everyday sharing food and just talking. That's a nice retirement.



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Linguistic matters, in all three towns and even a bit beyond in the Parc Nacionau d'Aigüestòrtes e Estanh de Sant Maurici, I spoke Aranese (save for the Catalan couple I mentioned who were the sole exception). Given that there are 5,000 speakers of Aranese and the intense touristic industry to which the Aranese economy is dedicated, I was very surprised by how well I could communicate in Aranese. And I don't mean just in official settings where it should be taken for granted. For example in the tourist office of Salardú with the young teenager who was working there, who continued to speak to me in Aranese, but also the grocery lady of the same town who was Catalan (from Lleida) but whose husband was Aranese, and who had learned Aranese, the language of the land, or the lady I stopped in the middle of the road who was in a hurry but who gave me lengthy directions in Aranese to the next town, or the two middle aged men who work at the front office at the hotel in Salardù who talked to me in Aranese for a long time (ignoring a couple of Catalan speaking clients!).

In the end I didn't end up sleeping there, but they were equally nice to me anyway, or the lady making me a hamburger in Tredòs who explained to me all the ingredients in Aranese, who talked to me about why I learned Aranese, how I learned it (via internet!), where I came from, corrected my mistakes and when I was away, I also heard her talking to her fellow worker in Aranese and also an elderly client in Aranese.

I went to the hotel Eth Saueth in the morning to order a coffee and there too, the hotel owner spoke to me in Aranese (see the interesting mix of the barn on the left where the farmer was storing his straw vs the lovely hotel where well-off tourists were staying):

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All in all, I talked to a dozen Aranese speakers in what, two days?

I've said before here that although the Val d'Aran is extremely touristic, oriented towards being a winter wonderland for skiers and snowboarders, that money has perhaps also allowed them to resist and invest money into their language in a way that perhaps they might not have been able to if they had remained a 'bucolic' economy based around agriculture like people imagine Occitan speakers are fated to be. Finally, in the National Park, as a result of saying hello in Aranese over and over again, I also met an Aranese speaking walker, who stopped and talked to me in Aranese, adding disappointedly that in the refuge I was going to, they didn't speak Aranese, only Catalan and Spanish, to which I replied "que aprenen aranès!". Despite that when I went up there I still ordered my food in Aranese and I was happy to see that the official signs about security measures against coronavirus were in Aranese.

Yesterday I crossed into Pallars Sobirà, the next comarca over from the Val d'Aran.

This morning, absurdly, after more than 400 km walking through some quite rough terrain in the Pyrenees, I tripped over a pothole in an asphalted street and sprained my ankle - which very likely will end my Transpirineic attempt, even though I'm only a few weeks from the Mediterranean Sea. I went to the doctor in the town of Esterri d'Àneu (apparently the toponomy, like many other things in the Pyrenees, comes from Basque or a Basque-related language) and she said it would take weeks to fully recover. I'm happy at least it happened close to a town and not in the mountains which might have required rescue.

Speaking of which, coming to Catalonia... this part of Catalonia anyway, it's kind of a relief. Don't think that I don't know Catalan is minoritised in Catalonia. But it's a different order of minoritisation than that of Aragonese! And even better than Basque. I think Catalan is in a better state than Basque.

I feel... comfortable, despite my obvious physical discomfort, because when I'm on Catalan speaking soil it's like slipping back into an old skin that I left behind in the Balearic Islands. It's been far too long since I've spoken Catalan, and it feels nice. Talking with the doctor, doing my shopping, talking with a nice businessman who lived in Miami for six years and who raised his children there only as Catalan speakers (they ended up learning Spanish because of their friends in Miami) and who came back to Catalonia so that his kids could grow in a small town, and who drove me to the doctor's and invited me to a dinner with his friends...
Last edited by nooj on Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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DaveAgain
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby DaveAgain » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:13 pm

Sorry to hear about your mishap Nooj, but I'm glad you've met so many nice people. :-)
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:59 am

I got my results back from the Basque certification test that I did with HABE (Helduen Alfabetatze eta Berreuskalduntzerako Erakundea), the organisation that does this kind of thing.

I passed B2 (speaking, writing, reading, listening). Next year I'll think about going for C1.
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Wed Jul 21, 2021 7:07 pm

I'm staying at a Catalan friend's place in Barcelona. It's been years since I've been here. I remember the first time I came to Barcelona.

7 in the morning or abouts. The city waking up slowly, bitterly cold, walking into a café - the first in the block to open and shakily using the little Catalan I knew. Looking through the bus window like a little kid. Wow, so this is Barcelona!

To the then me, who knew nothing of Catalonia, Barcelona was Catalonia (hah!). If you had talked to me of cities like Manresa, Girona or Figueres, I would have had no clue.

And now years later when I return for the fifth time, in the middle of a hot summer day turning into a warm summer night, I'm sad to discover that those days of heady discovery are just a memory.

Is the Barcelona of the ignorant but eager to learn tourist different from the Barcelona of the still ignorant but more jaded tourist? Has the city changed or have I?

The language goes with the place and the place goes with the people. Catalan to me was the first discovery of Catalan literature, visiting old bookstores to rifle through Catalan books from the 70s and 80s...it was botellons in the streets, house parties in narrow apartments with narrow stairwells and narrow elevators, progressively slurring my Catalan as the alcohol content went up, in discussions I can't remember anymore.

The relation I have with Catalan now is more mature, less idealistic, more functional than romantic. I suppose that's a good thing, and I suppose it's something everyone goes through with their languages. I just get nostalgic.
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:05 pm

I'm in Tutera (Tudela).

To my mind 'the south of Navarra' by autonomasia. Despite its peripheral geographical location in Navarra, it is an extremely important city.

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In fact, Tutera was the biggest city in Navarra in the Middle Ages: bigger than the capital city of the kingdom in Iruñea (Pamplona), and the centre of several transcendental historical events. The centre for the kingdom of the dynasty of the Banu Qasi, a Visigoth (in origin) lineage who converted to Islam. Under their leadership, the fertile lands irrigated by the Ebro were dominated by this kingdom for several centuries. Tutera was the last Navarran city to capitulate to Spanish forces in their invasion of Navarra in 1512.

And also, to my surprise, it was one of the most important (if not the most important) home of the Jewish population in the Iberian Peninsula. Fundamental figures in the history of medieval Jewry like Yehuda Halevi, or Ibn Ezra, or Benjamin of Tutera come from this city. My eyes surely had passed over the mention of their hometown in books. But it's different when you're reading a book and when your feet are touching the same streets of a city that gave birth to them. Then it has real meaning. The Jewish population was finally forcibly converted or expelled from Navarra by the royal decree of Catherine I in 1498, following a route already undertaken several years earlier in Castille and Aragon by the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabella.

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Note the name of the street in Spanish, no Basque. That's because in the bottom third of Navarra, Spanish is the only official language. In Tutera the supremacy of Spanish is crushing: Basque speakers do exist, but in terms of legal protection they might as well be living in Madrid, i.e. none. Basque speakers constitute an underground resistance. There is an ikastola in Tutera for example, a friend of mine from Bizkaia worked there as a teacher. The kids who go to this school form the extreme minority who are lucky to learn Basque. Tensions in the city got so bad that there have been actual physical attacks on the school itself (by Spanish nationalists). Imagine being a kid and having to see this as you go to school.

Image "Fucking Basques"

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In 2002, a trilingual Basque-Hebrew-Spanish translation of some of Yehuda's poems was published under the name of Haizearen hegaletan (On the Wings of the Wind). Image It's a pale imitation of what multilingual medieval Tutera would have been like: not just Hebrew and Basque and Castillian, but Arabic and Navarro-Aragonese (this last one perhaps was one of the mother languages of Yehuda). At this point, the 11th century, Basque was still spoken as a community language far more south than today, including in Tutera, although it wouldn't have been the dominant spoken one there. Despite there being no indication that for example, Yehuda Halevi, spoke Basque, undoubtedly he would have heard it around him from neighbours and travellers.

I read an interesting Basque news article where a Basque literature professor proposed that these Jewish authors - who mostly wrote in Hebrew, Arabic or rarely Romance - should be studied in courses of Basque literature, not because they wrote in Basque, but because they formed part of the Basque cultural context. In which case, I would add, we should also add the Basque Muslims (much less well-known).

Some verses of Yehuda Halevi where he longs to travel to Jerusalem:

Ene bihotza ekialdean da eta ni, berriz, mendebalde muturrean./ Nola dastatuko dut jakien gozotasuna?/ Nola nitzake neure botoak, neure promesak, bete/ Sion edomdarrek zanpatua badago, eta ni arabiarren menpean?/ Ez litzaidake neke izanen Sefaradeko edertasun guztiari uko egitea,/ Tenpluko hondakinen hautsari begiratu ahal izatearen truke».

My heart is in the East, but I am in the farthest point of the West. How can I taste the sweetness of food? How can I fulfill my promises and vows, if Zion is crushed by the Edomites and I am under the thumb of the Arabs? I would not find it hard to reject all the beauty of Sefarad (= Iberia), in exchange for being able to merely gaze upon the dust of the ruins of the Temple.
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Wed Aug 04, 2021 7:54 pm

DaveAgain wrote:Sorry to hear about your mishap Nooj, but I'm glad you've met so many nice people. :-)


I met some interesting and super nice people who I otherwise would not have ever met, so it evens out.

The Catalan couple I mentioned, Andreu and Sonia, were fascinating people in and of themselves. Sonia works in animal husbandry in the agricultural industry. She worked in Canada in that capacity for like 8 years before coming home to Catalonia. Andreu, despite being a humans resources manager and so working in the office, was the most sporty person I've ever met, at his 49 years old he practices more sports than most people ever attempt in their entire lives... literally. For example, he's been free diving (diving without oxygen, and to catch octopuses) since he was like 9 years old...he does mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, marathons, kitesurfing etc. I say this because he is in the mountains a lot, knows a lot about them, and showed me something that he learned from a priest.

He pointed to a nondescript plant in the mountain. He uprooted it, brushed the dirt off the roots, gave me to chew. He said that if I needed a sudden boost of sugar, I could chew on the roots of this plant. The scientific name is Trifolium alpinum, in Catalan it's called regalèssia de muntanya. As the Catalan name suggests, it had a strong taste reminiscent of licorice and it was very sweet. I munched on several examples, but didn't swallow them.

Here's what it looks like:

Image

And in Aranese it's called blanheu. You can find information about this plant and other plants in the Val d'Aran in the 2019 book "Estudi etnobotanic ena Val d’Aran. Sabença populara e patrimòni naturau e culturau", which is written entirely in Aranese and collects ethnobotanical information from 20 Aranese informants about plants and what they use these plants for (food, medicine or other things). It's information that's unfortunately not being transmitted onto new generations who are no longer attached with an umbilical cord to the mountains. Ideally there would be no need for this kind of book because it would be general knowledge.

For the part about the blanheu, they say it can be used for several culinary as well as medicinal purposes, as you can see from these quotes. The leaves can be used as condiments in meals: "es huelhes se meten ena carn", the roots can be chewed and eaten: "entà minjar, era arraïtz se mastègue" or you can make an infusion from the dessecated roots to treat stomach ulcers: "se prenen tisanes dera arraïtz seca".
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:35 am

https://mobile.twitter.com/anerrro/stat ... 5165956101

In this video you see a man with Basque as his first language expressing himself in Spanish, poorly. This is in the town hall of the Bizkaian city of Eibar, often called one of the ugliest cities in the Basque Country because its industrial history has not been kind to it. I'm not gonna deny it's kinda ugly, BUT there are always things to compensate. The night life and community sentiment in Eibar is great. To take a word from Ireland, there's great craic.

You can take the video in several ways: "Wow, look! In the 21st century there are still Spanish people born and raised in Spain who can't speak Spanish!".

Or you can take it in the other, more interesting way, which is, "In the 21st century we still make Basque speakers speak in Spanish? Why don't they give translators to the people he is talking to, so that the man himself can speak freely in the language that he is clearly most comfortable in? What's the point of officiality if we don't use it?". The song Euskal Herrian Euskaraz explains it well: "Euskal herrian euskaraz Ez bada hitz egiterik, bota dezagun demokrazia xerri azkara": if we can't speak Basque in the Basque Country, let's throw democracy to the pigs trough.

Because when we now have what we couldn't have in the dictatorship, and we don't use it, living in the democratic Spain is worthless.
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Sun Aug 08, 2021 8:44 am

I'm in Oñati, a city in Gipuzkoa in the Debagoiena region, with a very interesting dialect of Basque (Western Basque, not Gipuzkoan). But anyway here are some murals I took a photo of yesterday.

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Here you can see various people dressed in the costumes that they wear in the iñauteriak (Carnaval), surrounding a police car. They're dressed in the costumes that are typical of Navarra, the joaldunak ("the ones who wear bells").

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Here a woman vomiting hearts, a criticism of the commerical nature of San Valentine's Day, I think. Hil means 'to die'. So San ValenDie.

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"Only the Revolution can save Basque."

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"Even wth a state maybe Basque will not be saved, but without a state, it's a certainty!" A quote by Txillardegi.

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The name of the street is Susana Arregi Maiztegi Kantoia, and the sign is in homage of Susana Arregi Maiztegi, a native of Oñati and member of the terrorist group ETA. She and a companion Juan María Lizarralde Urreta died following a shootout with police in 1990, apparently they killed themselves with a shot to the head in order to not be captured. She formed part of a cell of ETA working in Nafarroa.

"On the 25th of June 1990, killed in the canyons of Irunberri, fighting for the freedom of the Basque Country."

"The enemy is pitiless, but we are even more so."

"Don't worry, our way of thinking will never change."

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"The only body that is 'wrong' is the police body (the police corps). Disobey heteronormativity!"

"Work, mortgage, partner, kids...what is heteronormativity?"


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"Galindo (the Spanish state torturer) is gone, we're still here, victory is ours."

Written in the dialect of Oñati. For comparison I translated it into standard Basque:

Galindo fan zan, gu hemen gauz, guria da garaipena

Galindo joan zen, gu hemen gaude, gurea da garaipena


The change of /j/ into > [f] is super interesting and happens in a couple of other Basque dialects, geographically not connected to each other. For example in the Sakana valley in western Nafarroa, which I walked through (I must talk more about this later!). This happens when the consonant occurs next to /u o/ vowels, like joan > fan, as well as historically and more generally in Basque such as *gauhari > *auhari > afari (dinner).
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Re: Bla bla bla

Postby nooj » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:00 am

I'm not sure what impression I'm giving of the Basque language in the North/South Basque Country to someone who's never been. Does it sound defeatist? Overly pessimistic? Or contrariwise, positive and optimistic? Have I given the impression that it'll be easy for some foreigner like me and you to learn and use Basque in the Basque Country?

Personally, living in the Basque Country has made me more and more conscious of how profoundly lucky I am to live in a majoritarily Basque speaking town... places like these where the majority of people you meet are Basque speakers and regularly use Basque are - not a handful of places, that wouldn't be fair to the sociolinguistic situation - but two handfuls of places. And not more.

Anyway, you should come here and find out for yourself. Maybe you'll come away with a different picture.
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