Subregional language policies in the basque country, catalonia and wales. In the area of education, it was based on the right to. The basque country is a small territory in the north of spain where, from time immemorial, a native nonindoeuropean language, basque, was spoken. Basques have emigrated from their homeland for over two centuries, establishing roots in chile, argentina, the philippines, mexico, the united states, australia, and more. Modern basque, a descendant or close relative of aquitanian and proto basque, is the only preindoeuropean language that is extant in western europe. The department combines the regulation of public and private education, directs the normalization in the use of euskera language and is. This is also evident in different regions of the basque country where the native language is used more frequently beck 1945.
Learn more about the basque people in this article. For many years the state, regional and local governments did not support the basque. Autonomous community of the basque country euskadi and the foral community of navarre navarra or nafarroa. Key building blocks of the science, technology and innovation policy in the basque country 34 figure 3. The french basque country is centred in the western region of the departement of pyreneesatlantiques. To the south it borders on the rioja and zaragoza, to the east bearne, huesca and zaragoza and to the west cantabria, burgos. Therefore, while the fate of minority language euskara is not immediately certain, and although only about one third of basque country is completely fluent, the historical outcome is not entirely unpredictable either. Basque country, france, ethnonationalism, language policy. An analysis of the basque independence movement and the. Bbc travel the mysterious origins of europes oldest language. The basques derived their selfname, euskaldunak, from euskara, the ethnonym for the language. The results are monitored by the vicecounsel office of language policy, formerly.
Jan 08, 2018 basque country, in northeastern spain, is one of europes most intriguing places. Pdf the basque countrylanguage, culture and politics. Started as a cultural movement to reclaim back the basque s right to keep and cultivate their original language and traditions. The most important basque city, bilbao, located in the bac, is also one 1. School statistics and the draft linguistic policy enables the state of the basque language in the coming years to be forecast.
May 28, 2019 the basque language is not indoeuropean. In basque, euskal herria is formed from four provinces in spain alava, vizcaya, guipuzkoa, and navarra and three in france. Basque country, in northeastern spain, is one of europes most intriguing places. The basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, the basque country. Learning english in the basque country, journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 433449. When discussing basquelanguage education, a number of features of the system must be taken into account. The basque country is found in the western pyrenees, a land within spanish borders to the west, and within french borders to the east. Language revitalization and the normalization of basque. In order to provide an overview of euskal herria, the basque country and of euskara, the basque language, during recent decades and today, some of the aspects that are going to be re. Introduction this paper focuses on the situation of basque language also called euskera in france. Soak in basque culture in boise, idaho, of all places cnn. Pdf bilingual education in the basque autonomous community.
Thus, in 20 years basque will be the first language for three out of ten basque citizens nowadays it is 23. The basque country is a cultural unit, not a political one, which straddles the western end of the francospanish border. Explore basque country holidays and discover the best time and places to visit. People also say basque country when they talk about the larger cultural region basque. The development of basque has been most significant in education where it is not only a school subject but. Started as a cultural movement to reclaim back the basques right to keep and cultivate their original language and traditions. It remarks the legislative aspects, the number of speakers, the language geographical distribution and the populations linguistic attitudes with the aim of presenting a sociolinguistic view which can explain language improvements in education. In this presentation before the iowa city foreign relations council, roslyn m. The areas where native basque speakers are most lik ely to be found covers totally or partially the seven lands of the basque country. Article 5 vol 1 1 2008 international clil research journal. Vitoriagasteiz is the city with the most land, with 277 km 2 107 sq mi, bilbao has the most people, with 353,187. Based on the findings, language policy recommendations are advanced.
Spanish only policy during fra ncos dictatorship 19391975 had im. Country, limits the focus of discussion to the basque. Basque country autonomous community simple english. It is spoken by 27% of basques in all territories 714,6 out of 2,648,998.
The movement was seriously repressedarmed activity. Ensuring relevance for policy makers and practitioners through indepth analyses and case. Pdf this paper focuses on bilingual and trilingual education in the basque. This paper examines issues related to the important impact of language policy in the basque country in recent decades. The high court of justice of the basque country is in bilbao. Basque diaspora in the united states smithsonian folklife. Interdependence among different processes is shown. Its northernmost borders are the landes and bearne regions of france and the bay of biscay.
Likewise, this court has opposed the ratification by the french state of the european charter for regional or minority languages in its ruling on june 15, 1999, even though the government had attached an interpretative declaration of that charter according to which the concept group is understood as a sum of individuals and not a specific entity, separated from the rest of the french nation. Towards a consistent language policy for the french basque country. However, there are other bodies within the basque government which promote and disseminate the basque language. Abstract the paper describes the present state of the basque language within the educational field in spanish state and french state. Sociolinguistic studies carried out by the deputy ministry.
Department of education, culture and language policy of the. The autonomous community is based on the statute of autonomy of the basque country, a foundational legal document providing the framework for the development of the basque people on spanish soil. Euskara is a language isolate ancestral to the basque people, who are indigenous to and mainly inhabit the basque country, a region spanning an area in northeastern spain and southwestern france. Autonomous community of the basque country euskadi and the foral. The origin of the basques and the basque language is a controversial topic that has given rise to numerous hypotheses. The language basque is written with the latin alphabet and the basques call their language euskara. Bilingual educational policy in higher education in the. Bilingual educational policy in higher education in the basque country. Meeting of the community council in which the decision was taken. Basque and spanish are spoken, and its largest city is bilbao although the capital is vitoriagasteiz. The second part will describe the language policy followed in the basque country in the 1980s and 1990s. Modern basque, a descendant or close relative of aquitanian and protobasque, is the only preindoeuropean language that is extant in western europe.
The place of language and the language of place in the. Euskera is one of the four nonindoeuropean languages found in europe along with finnish, estonian, and hungarian. The action plans set in motion by the deputy ministry for language policy during the 19951998 and 19992002 periods already recognised the need for a systematic assessment of language policy and anticipated the need to establish a national system of indicators. Furthermore, the province of gipuzkoa, within the basque country, has also developed its own gender equality act, which regulates in detail the gender impact assessment process. As for adult education, it is expected that 4,500 people will become. Euskadi and navarre, respectively two million and 500,000 inhabitants, have deployed different language policies reflected in a higher status of basque in the public sphere in euskadi compared to navarre. Zalbide and cenoz 2008, but the minority status of basque in society cannot completely counterbalance the work done by schools. Frank, professor emeritus of the department of spanish and portuguese at the university of iowa, shares her experiences in the basque country euskal herria where for the. Massively supported by basque people and gathered international support against franco. Euskal herria, the home of the basque people, which has the autonomous. Pdf english in bilingual programs in the basque country. Dec, 2011 there are special language policy plans for schools to promote the use of basque aldekoa and gardner 2002. That is, as long as basque language remains a keystone of basque identity, it will be preserved in the basque autonomous region.
Linguists have tried to connect basque with languages spoken in north africa and the caucasus mountains, but no direct links have been proven. Gender impact assessment was applied for the first time in 2007 by the basque government, when the assessment procedure was established. Bilingual education in the basque country springerlink. The relation between eta violence and language follows from the ideology that eta began with in the 1970s and the reinforcement of basque culture and how basqueness should be defined and thus protected. Language policy legal status the basque country can be found in the southeast of europe straddling part of france and spain. The land inhabited by the basques has a mild and damp climate and is largely hilly and wooded.
Normalization of basque in the public administration. Towards a consistent language policy for the french basque. The basque country or basque autonomous community was granted the status of nationality within spain, attributed by the spanish constitution of 1978. In iparralde the basque language is not coofficial with french and the language policy is comparatively weak. There are special language policy plans for schools to promote the use of basque aldekoa and gardner 2002. As a result, in 1996 the make up of the basque language advisory board was altered to. Towards an institutionalized language policy for the french. Now you can soak in basque culture in boise, idaho. The basque country, known as euskal herria in the basque language, consists of the seven historic provinces that are part of both france and spain. The use of basque as the language of instruction is widespread and.
The basque country is a fast growing region in recent decades, not only in economic terms, but also in innovation indicators. An estimated one million people comprise the overseas basque diaspora. Basque, member of a people who live in both spain and france in areas bordering the bay of biscay and encompassing the western foothills of the pyrenees mountains. Bilingualism, identity, and citizenship in the basque country. In this sense of geographical location, euskara is spoken mostly within the basque country or euskal herria in euskara. Towards an institutionalized language policy for the.
The importance gained by plurilingualism and the study of languages in general in basque society over the past decade is clear, not only the world of work, since today it is almost an essential requirement to secure a job in the administration, in multinational firms, in technology companies etc. Basque, a minority language that was not allowed in the public space until the late 1970s, is an official language along with spanish in the basque autonomous community. An idea of the central place the language has in cultural terms is given by the fact that basques identify themselves by the term euskaldun and their country as euskal herria, literally basque speaker and country of the basque language respectively. In the area of education, it was based on the right to choose the language of education, combined with generous aids for basque speaking schools. A colombian friend one mine, who now is fluent in basque, used these websites to start his journey. Northern basque country to fund occitan language policy. The place of language and the language of place in the basque. The foreign language teaching situation in spain is currently under change. In sum, the strong political institutions and social movements of the southern basque country partially compensated for the institutional weakness of french basque actors and contributed, along with endogenous factors, to the institutionalization of a specific language policy for euskera.
The autonomous community of the basque country has 7,234 km 2 2793 sq mi, and its population is about 2,000,000 about 5% of the total population of spain. In spain the basque country comprises the province of guipuzcoa, parts of vizcaya biscay and navarra navarre, and a corner of alava. The second part will describe the language policy followed in the basque country in the. To the south it borders on the rioja and zaragoza, to the east bearne, huesca and zaragoza and to the west cantabria, burgos and the rioja. Basque country european institute for gender equality. Mintzalagun aprende euskera facilmente learn basque p. In the area of education, it was based on the right to choose the language of education, combined with generous aids for basquespeaking schools. The legal status of the basque language in france basque. Pdf towards a consistent language policy for the french. Basque country greater region simple english wikipedia. Multilingual education for european minority languages. The deputy ministry for language policy, which is currently a part of the basque governments culture department, was created in 1983 shortly after the law for the promotion of basque 1982 was passed although the current version of this law dates from 1995 decree no. The language has been made a political issue by official spanish and french policies.
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