LANGUAGE THAT REFUSES TO DIE

By Peter Strafford

The Basque language is a very old one, almost certainly the oldest surviving in Europe. Only the most tenuous links have been made with languages elsewhere, and the assumption is that it has been spoken since prehistoric times in what are now northern Spain and southwest France. The Basques went on speaking their own language as Celts, Romans, Visigoths, Franks and Arabs in turn dominated the area.

Over the past century, knowledge of the language, known either as Euskara or Euskera depending on the area, has shrunk, partly as a result of immigration as the Basque-speaking areas have become industrialised and less remote.

A further blow was dealt by General Franco who, after his victory in 1939 in the Spanish Civil War, tried to stamp out the language altogether.

Today, in the three provinces of the Basque Country, Vizcaya, Guipuzeoa and Alava, barely 25 per cent of the population understand and speak the language well, while in Navarre, also considered by nationalists to be Basque, the figure is only 10 per cent.

The language is still very much alive, however, and since the Basque Country was granted its statute of autonomy in 1979, the regional government has set out to reverse the decline. The language is now in use everywhere, as is the once-banned Basque flag. Basque is taught extensively in the schools, and efforts are under way to make its use general in the various public services.

There is Basque-language radio and a Basque-language television channel, ETB 1, in Durango. In Bilbao, the Academy of the Basque Language, started in 1919, has set out to establish rules for a unified language, in place of the differing versions spoken in Spain and France.

There is already greater knowledge of the language among children of school age, and many adults have been keen to learn it.

In the schools, pupils have three options: A, in which teaching is in Spanish, but time is spent learning Basque; B, in which the two languages are used more or less equally, often with cultural subjects in Basque and scientific ones in Spanish; and D (there is no С in Basque), in which

teaching is in Basque, and Spanish is taught separately. Alongside the publicly run schools there are also the ikastolas, the schools first set up in resistance to Franco as a way of preserving the language, where option D is offered.

The system has caught on, says Fernando Buesa, the councillor in charge of education in the government, and there has been an increase in those opting for В and D.

There are also differences of emphasis within the government coalition. As a nationalist party, the Partido Nacionalista VascO (PNV), the dominant partner, sees the language as central to the national identity and something that should draw the Basques together:

The other main party, the Partido Socialista de Euskadi (PSE), takes a less urgent view and Senor Buesa, a member of the PSE, argues for not trying to move so fast. The party is in favour of promoting the use of the language, he says, but it believes that personal choice must be respected, and Basque cannot be imposed.

Revival of the language is a long-term process. It is not possible to go to 100 per cent knowledge in a generation.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1258