Bla bla bla

[guyome]

1) I've already heard of many northern Basques who move to the south to continue with their studies. As there is only one highschool in all of Iparralde that offers Basque education and no university that offers tertiary Basque education, some choose to continue their education in Basque universities in the South, where they can study their career through the medium of Basque.

In your experience, can these people retain a northern Basque dialect (if they spoke one to start with) or do they shift to a southern variety? I remember asking myself this question when I realized that bertsolaris Amets and Maddalen Arzallus were from Iparralde.

[nooj]

In your experience, can these people retain a northern Basque dialect (if they spoke one to start with) or do they shift to a southern variety? I remember asking myself this question when I realized that bertsolaris Amets and Maddalen Arzallus were from Iparralde.

It's a complicated question, which I won't answer today, needs more reflexion in order to give you a deserving answer, but I will say something about the siblings.

Amets and Maddalen are not from a typical Northern Basque family. Although they were born in and live in Hendaia, their dad fled there to escape political persecution in Hegoalde, and so the siblings' natural dialect is a Gipuzkoan one.

In the bertsoak of both siblings, for metrical reasons but also just as a reflection of their life history, they use different dialectical forms for different bertsoak and as you'll see in their interviews, both written and spoken, they change how they speak. They're linguistic chameleons. But never crudely, never slapping things together willy nilly, because an audience and their peers would find that grotesque.

From a 2008 interview with Amets Arzallus:

G. nolako euskaraz kantatuko duzu ? Lapurteraz ? Batuan ? Eneko

E. aupa eneko, nere euskaran kantatuko dut. Nik etxean gipuzkeraz egiten dut, baina lagunartean iparraldeko mazedonia bat baliatzen dugu, Hendaian sortzen den euskara. Eta horretan kantatuko dut. Hori da gure euskara, Lapurdin herri guzietan ez da berdin hitz egiten, Gizpukoan ere ez, Bizkaian ere ez, Nafarroan ere ez... eta... Zer da hori lapurtera? Batua? Baina lasai, zuberotarrek ere konprenituko nute eta.

Question: what kind of Basque do you sing bertsoak in? In the Lapurdi dialect? In Batua? - Eneko

Answer: Hey Eneko, I sing in my Basque. At home I speak in Gipuzkoan dialect, but with my friends we use a North Basque fruit salad (of dialects), the Basque that arises in Hendaia. And I sing in that kind of Basque, that's our Basque, we don't speak the same in every town in Lapurdi, same in Gipuzkoa, same in Bizkaia, same in Nafarroa and...what IS Lapurdi dialect anyway? What is Batua? But don't worry, the Zuberoans as well will understand me.

Here is the first part of a bertso that Amets did in the national championship in 2013. Which he won by the way. You can hear the full bertso (three strophas) here, at minute 13:00. The prompt is: Itzultzeko garaia da 'it is time to return'.

Gaztea nintzen garaian
kalean beti mobida
ta poliziak eraman
ninduen presondegira
ta gero handik ihesi
berriro ere argira
nire bizitza guzian
izkriba eta izkriba.
Liburuak untziak lez
joan litezke urrutira
lehen liburuen baitan
itzultzen nintzen herrira
orain nere liburuak
nerekin joanen dira.

In my younger days
There was always trouble in the street
The police took me to prison
Then I escaped from there
And fled to the light
All my life,
I have written and written.
Books like boats
Can travel far
In the books I wrote
I would return to my country
Now my books
Shall travel with me.

Joanen - en is marker of future tense, accepted in Batua and sometimes used by Southern authors and singers, but accepted in Batua BECAUSE it is a a morphological feature of Northern (and south Navarran) dialects. Elsewhere in the Southern Basque provinces, it is -ko, so joan-go, with usual voicing assimilation.

Lez - contraction of legez, which is a typical Bizkaian word for 'like, as'. In other dialects, bezala or gisa. Legez is sometimes used in Batua which took it from Bizkaian, but lez definitely can't be explained that way, it's visibly Bizkaian. The monosyllabic form of lez is very useful for metrical purposes.

Izkriba(tu) - the word in Northern dialects for 'to write'. In Southern dialects idatzi.

So as you can see, in this strophe Amets mixes some Northern and Southern features.

If you listen to him talk with people from Iparralde however, he talks in his Gipuzkoan dialect, such as in this lovely interview with Aitor Servier who comes from Azkaine, in Lapurdi (and Etxepare alumnus!)

Or in the presentation to this song that he and his sister sing before a Hendaian, hometown audience :

[guyome]

That's a great post, many thanks!

[nooj]

In the Basque city of Tolosa, in the province of Gipuzkoa, not to be confused with Occitan Tolosa (Toulouse) after which it was named, a 2019 sociolinguistic survey finds that there's more Basque spoken in the city today than Spanish. This hasn't happened in the last one hundred years.



The use of Basque in the streets - 49.1%
The use of Spanish in the streets - 48.5%

In 1985, that figure for Basque was 29%. In other words a jump of 20 points in 34 years.

Tolosa is a relatively small city of 20,000 people. It's no Bilbo or Gasteiz or Donostia or Baiona or Iruña, capitals of their respective Basque provinces. But it is/was an industrial city, and it is an important one economically in the region.

They conducted 3,246 interviews and collected data from 8,647 people. An impressive sample size for the city.



What's interesting about the results is how it breaks down according to age groups. 70% of kids between 2 and 14 years old use Basque in the street, among youth between 15-24, that's 63%. Among people over 65 years, only 29%.

In other words, every successive generation speaks more Basque than the last.

A large part of this must have to do with the fact that in the city, all schools are model D, meaning full Basque immersion, save for one subject in Spanish (the Spanish class, logically).

But technically that only equips the kids with Basque within the framework of a school. There's nothing that stops a model D kid from going out with his/her friends and speaking in Spanish when they're together. Which is why it's nice to see them speaking in Basque whenever they are not attended by teachers or parents.

So the school is important, but not only. Basque is an official language in the South Basque Country: the administration is available in Basque, the health-care services, the post office, the cultural events (festivals, concerts, talks), the library, the museums, the sports teams, at the work place. Classes for adults at the euskaltegi. A society that encourages the use of Basque. I was in Tolosa earlier this year for the inauteriak festival, the Carnival. Tolosa is widely known for its wild festivities. I was happy to see/hear/use Basque from one end of the city to the other, in the street parties, in the youth concert, from dusk to dawn. Especially among youth.

I am curious to think what the Spanish only speaking older generation think about all this. In several generations the tendency has reversed, and their grandchildren now possibly know and definitely speak more Basque than their own generation. Do they feel 'alienated' living in a city where a lot of stuff is now bilingual? Do they regret going to the library and because of their monolinguism, only being able to read the Spanish books...? Are they happy to see the language come back that they themselves were not given the chance to learn...?

The goal, however distant that is, is for Bilbo, Donostia, Gasteiz, Iruña, Baiona, Maule to showcase the same figures. If we check back on these metropolitan areas in 30 years, what will we see? What do we want to see? 'Basque' capitals where people speak more Spanish and French than Basque?

[guyome]

That's good news for Basque! (And since people can be bilingual, I don't think this bad news for Spanish.)
In all cases I've read about (Breton, Welsh, Occitan, Irish), the problem after having created schools using the language is to get the pupils to speak the language outside of school. It seems the people in Tolosa have found a way to do things right.

[nooj]

Reading about this news, a speaker of a French language (Gascon) told me: great for them, but there's nothing we can learn from it. They have institutional support, and we don't. Until we change that, we're blocked.

I find that quite accurate but also quite negative.

If officiality and the enormous societal change that can bring (with the right application of said officiality, looking at you Ireland) is imprescindible for minoritised languages to be spoken in public, then there's no hope for French languages, including Basque in Iparralde, because the political alignment of France will not change.

Basically, for this speaker, the only lesson that can be drawn is 'don't live in France'.

To an exterior observer Ireland is baffling, because as a sovereign state for a century, they technically have capabilities, that they don't use, that Basque nationalists would crawl over broken glass to be able to possess. And yet they do things so much worse than the Basque Country which is 'only' an autonomous community.

Of course, Corsican nationalists look at the Basque Country's self governance and competencies over their language policy and tear their hair apart in jealousy!

[nooj]

I realise that I've never really shown visually what it means to live in a place where a minoritised language is official. I'll go posting stuff here.

Photos taken by me this morning.

Here are some bilingual notices in the front of a pharmacy.



Bilingual notices at the post office.





Advertisement in the street



I can enter the pharmacy and buy my masks in Basque. I can go to the post office and send mail in Basque.

If (some) children speak Basque outside of school, it is because they also have the opportunity to speak Basque outside of school.

It's a right that we take for granted here, but only a few kilometres north in the North Basque Country, something they lack.

Revitalising a language has as much to do with architecture, graphic design, urban planning, public relations, advertising etc as it has to do with just education. To bring a minoritised language to the forefront of public space. Built upon a legal foundation wherein Basque is official. Without the officiality, and only relying on private enterprise, I don't know where Basque would be. Invisible in the public space, I imagine.

I will add that the bilingual signs are not mere carbon copies of each other, which shows that they didn't just start with a Spanish text and then plugged it into Google Translate.

For example in the Post Office sign, there was written:

Encuentra más de lo que crees - Find more than what you think
Uste baino gehiago aurkituko duzu - You will find more than what you think

Llegamos hasta donde tú quieras - We go wherever you want
Zuk nahi duzun lekura helduko gara - We will go to the place that you want

The meaning is fundamentally the same, but it shows that whoever did the bilingual signs was also bilingual.

[nooj]

A quote I extracted from an interview with the Basque nationalist Jean-Louis Davant Iratzabal, from Zuberoa, who was instrumental in the creation of the Basque nationalist newspaper Enbata, which also become an inspiration for the early North Basque nationalist movement of the same name.

Aberria eta euskara, eskuz-esku.

Aberria euskalduna zela argi eta garbi genuen, gure praktika ez beti egonarren araberakoa. Badakigu Enbata Euskaltzaleen Biltzarraren hegalpetik jaio zela, txita oilo kolokaren arroltzetik bezala, ama horren bide apolitikoak ez zuelakoan euskararen geroa segurtatzen. Orain euskara-aberria binomio hori hain klar ote da –bereziki eskuin ala ezkerreko politikari abertzale batzuen artean–? Euskara barik ez da euskaldunik, ezta Euskal Herririk. Euskara gabe zertarako autonomia? Zertarako independentzia? Espainia txiki baten eraikitzeko handiaren alboan? Besteak baino aberatsago izateko? Hori ote dugu bizitzako ideala? Ideal humanista? Gainera, kristaua edota sozialista? Hainbeste bizitza horretarako emanez? Ez dut uste merezi lukeen.

(You affirm that) Nation and Basque, hand in hand.

It was crystal clear for us that the Basque nation was a Basque speaking one, even if in practice our actions were not always in accordance with that ideology. We know that Enbata was born under the auspices of the Euskaltzaleen Biltzar (the Congress of Basque Nationalists), like a chick from the egg of a brooding hen because the non-political pathway of that mother did not secure the future of the language.

Is that Language-Nation pairing now as clear as it was then, especially among certain Basque nationalists, whatever their leftist or rightist orientation?

Without the Basque language, there is no Basque person, nor the Basque Country. Without the language, what's the point of autonomy? What's the point of independence? Is it to build a small version of Spain next to the big version of Spain? To have one version that is richer than the other version? Is that our life goal? Is it the humanist goal, or is it the Christian or socialist goal that we have as our life goal? Did we expend so much life for that? I don't think it would be worth it.




But then in the next breath, he admits that a huge contradiction lies in the Basque nationalist movement. In the North and in the South. The contradiction is this. For all of the language's rhetorical and strategic importance for Basque nationalists, they use little Basque in their actual publications and meetings. The Enbata magazine exemplies this, most of the articles are written in French.

And yet, the Basque nationalists are primarily motivated for the language. Not for racial superiority, not for socialism, not even to maintain their fiscal independence. Similarly, contrary to popular opinion, Catalan nationalists I've talked to are willing to live in a poorer independent Catalan Republic so long as Catalan is safe in the new country.

Euskaraz idazten duzu Enbata-n eta euskalgintzan zabiltza. Nola hartu zenuen Amets Arzallusek 2013an egindako kritika, euskarari aldizkariak zuzendu leku eskasaz?

Ametsek ez du ametsik egin, ez du gezurrik erran eta egia irentsi behar dugu garratza izanik ere. Azalpen bat hartzen du halere Enbata-ren hizkuntzarekiko joerak. Aldizkaria garatu zuten BAM Baiona-Angelu-Miarritzeko “hiritar deseuskaldundu batzuek”, des Basques débasquisés Pierre Charrittonen hitzetan. 30 bat urtetako plaza gizonak ziren, nortasun handikoak, ordukotz gizartean ongi errotuak eta lekutan zeuden giderren hartzeko. Gu aldiz euskaldun petoak, gazteagoak ginen, ez hain latinizatuak, uzkurragoak, gizartean ez oraino kokatuak, Euskal Herri barnean bizi... beraz bidea maiz etsai genuen. Haiek naturalki gaina zuten eta beti ukan dute. Denbora berean argudio hau ere nagusi egon da: aberriaren deia euskaldun ez direnei ere helarazi behar zaiela. Egia da gainera Enbata euskaldunon ahotsa dugula Euskal Herritik kanpora. Azken denboretan euskarak toki gehiago hartu du Enbata-n, nahiz ez aski. Orokorki euskarak ez du behar lukeen tokirik euskal politikan, ez Iparraldean, ez Hegoaldean. Etsenplu txarra politikarien aldetik dugu, ahalegin eskasa, koherentzia guti. Haatik besteen hutsek ezin dituzte gureak estali.

You write in Basque in Enbata, and you are active in the Basque cultural movement. How did you react to the critique made by Amets Arzallus in 2013, about the scanty space given to Basque by the magazine?

Amets was not dreaming (this is a play on words, on Amet's name. Amets means dream in Basque) and he spoke the truth, and we have to swallow the truth however bitter it is.

However the behaviour of Enbata vis a vis the language has an explanation. The newsletter was developed by certain urbanite, de-Basquified people from the Baiona-Angelu-Miarritz metropolitan area, 'des Basques débasquisés' in the words of Pierre Charritton. They were men involved in public affairs, of around 30 years old, with strong personalities, well rooted in society by that time, ready to take the wheels.

We however were 'pure' Basques, we were younger, not so Latinised (=Frenchified), more hesitant, still didn't have our place in society, we lived within the Basque Country...so we had more opponents in our path.

That other group always had the upper hand and still do. At the same time, this argument has always been prominent: the call of the Basque Nation also has to be spread to those who aren't Basque (speakers). It's true as well that Enbata is the voice of the Basques outside of the Basque Country. Lately Basque has taken up more space in the pages of Enbata, even if not enough. In general, Basque does not have the place it should have in Basque politics, not in the North nor in the South. We have the bad example of the politicians, scanty effort, little coherency. However, the errors of others cannot cover our own.





The aforementioned Amets Arzallus made a speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Enbat's foundation, in 2013. In the town of Itsasu in the province of Lapurdi, before an audience of Basque nationalists, on the eve of the Aberri Eguna (Day of the Fatherland), the most important day of the year for Basque nationalists. In other words, he had big balls to say what he said, to who he said it. Very probably, Jean-Louis Davant was in that audience and heard it in person.

Bertsolariak have always had a way to speak truth to power, they mince no words, and Arzallus says it plainly. Guyome, you will be interested to note that the following speech is delivered in Lapurdi dialect (what luck to be multidialectical!).

I'm not going to translate the whole speech, only the first half (recorded, see below), and then the second half some other time.

Erraiten da gazteak piskat transgresorea izan behar duela edo ez dut oraino errebeldia sobera apaldua. Beharbada trangresioa da eginen dudana, baina irakurriko ditudan gauza guziak pentsatzen ditut, beraz, ez dut pentsatzen ez dudan gauzarik botako.

Badira, egia erran, gauzak ulertzen ez ditugunak edo, bederen, nik sobera ulertzen ez ditudanak. Itsasuko herrian, hemen, Enbataren oinarrian, ez da frantsesezko hitzik ikusten. Hartu dut azken Enbata aldizkaria eta aski lan izan dut hitz bat atzematen euskarazkoa. Min eginen die batzuri, eni ere mingarri zait. Iruditzen zait 50 urtetan abertzaletasunak ez duela beti euskararen gaia serioski hartu. Militante abertzale engaiatu ainitz entzun izan dut ene inguruan, bai eta politikariak, frantsesez.

Ez dut sekula ulertuko nola hizkuntza bat transmititzeko bideak zabaltzen hainbeste eman duen jendeak hain indar guti duen gero erabilpenerako. Nola gizarteko diglosia bat uzkaltzeko dena emateko prest den jende bera,gero, ezgai den bere baitako diglosiak iraultzeko. Nola euskara hain gartsuki aldarrikatzen duen jendea gero frantsesez mintzo den. Euskaldunak izan nahi dugu frantsesez biziz. Errezago zaigu ainitzez.

Kontra egiteko prest gara suprefet harro bati, hezkuntza eredu frantsez bati, hizkuntza politika jakobino bati, poliziari, intelektualen teoria txobinistei, lege arrotzei, burokrazia administratibo amaigabeari, gure poltsiko hutsei, estatu bati, biri... kontra. Gure buruari izan ezik.

Gure baitako karriketan ez dugu manifestatuko. Ministroekin hitz egitera eseriko gira, presidentearekin behar baldin bada, baina gure buruarekin ez dugu aurrez aurre jarri nahi. Ez gara hainbestetaraino apalduko. Alta, hizkuntzak ardazten du ene izaitea, eta ene herria ardatza hautsita daraman gurdi bat da. Okerrena da ez dudala beti nik konpontzeko borondate handirik ikusten bazterretan.

It's said that youth need to be a bit transgressive, or I still don't have my rebellious stage moderated. Maybe what I'm about to do is transgressive, but everything that I will read out, I do think, so I'm not throwing anything out there that I don't believe.

There are things, to be honest, that we don't understand, or at least, I especially don't understand. In the town of Itsasu, here, at the base of Enbata, there's not a word of French to be seen. But I read the latest issue of Enbata, and I had my work cut out for me, to find a single word in Basque. It will hurt some people: it's painful to me too. It seems to me that the Basque nationalist movement hasn't always taken seriously the matter of the Basque language. I have heard many committed nationalist militants around me, including politicians, speaking in French.

I will never understand how people who have given so much in order to open pathways to transmitting a language, have so little strength to later use it.

How the same people that are ready to give everything to overthrow a society's diglossia, later, are incapable of revolutionising the diglossias within themselves. How people who so passionately advocate for the Basque language, later speak in French.

We want to be Basques, while living in French. It's a lot easier for us that way.

We are prepared to fight against an arrogant subprefect, against an educational model in French, against a Jacobine educational policy, against the police, against the chauvinist theories of the intellectuals, against foreign laws, against the never ending administrative bureaucracy, against our empty pockets, against a state, against two even...we are prepared to fight all these things, except against ourselves.

We won't publically protest in the streets within ourselves. We will sit down to speak with the ministers, with the president himself if need be but we won't confront ourselves. We won't lower ourselves to such a level. And yet, the language is the axis of my being, and my nation is the cart that has its axis broken. The worst thing however is that I don't always see around me much desire to fix it.

[nooj]

Euskaldunak izan nahi dugu frantsesez biziz

We want to be Basque speakers/Basques, all the while living in French.

Replace French with Spanish and the phrase remains equally devastating, because it points to the hypocrisy of wanting to have the shiny badge of 'Basque speaker' whilst living one's life in the language of foreigners (when they are not directly enemies that want to kill your language).

[guyome]

Thanks, nooj. A lot could be said about your last couple of posts but I fear that would lead us far way from the forum's boundaries. Still, wanted to let know I appreciate you taking the time to transcribe and post these.