Basque or Bust - Dominic Brunaccioni
So this is my first blog post!
At first, I had no idea what I was going to write about each week, and I even skipped the first week to still think about it. Conveniently, a few days ago, my itinerary for my annual trip was released. Its tradition for a few members of my family to go somewhere in the summer. Last year, we ventured to Paris, and then several towns in Turkey (Which was the best part of my trip, ask me for my photos, and how I almost lost my passport!) and then ended the trip in Lindos, Greece. It was an amazing time! Truth be told, though, is that up until a few days ago, my sister and I had literally no idea where we were going this upcoming summer.
Well, I’ll spill the beans. We are landing in Bilbao, in the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. I’ve been to Bilbao personally myself when I went to Spain to study Spanish. I landed there at Bilbao International Airport, and drove to my favorite town in the whole entire world, San Sebastian (In Euskara, its called Donostia). So, we are going there as well. Next, we will fly to Lisbon, Portugal, and then four towns in Morocco (Fez, Marrakesh, Essaouria, and Casablanca). I’m very excited.
Now to the language part. I’ve taken 8-9 years of Spanish (Middle school and High school classes, private tutoring, and lessons in Spain) but I’m still not very good. Spanish, of course, isn’t a minority language so I can’t apply that here. Morocco-wise, they speak Arabic, and that isn’t a minority language either. I take Arabic here at AU so that would just be extra homework for me--not fun!
What they speak in the Basque Country, though, is what I’ve decided to learn. Euskara, as it is called in their language, is really an interesting case. It has no known relatives, it’s as old as Latin, and it has survived the widespread oppression from Fransisco Franco during his regime. Euskara is only spoken by 750,000 people and has just started various movements to increase its frequency and popularity in its own community, and in Spain as a whole. I must also add that the Basque diaspora ranges into France and not just Spain. I have been to French Basque areas, in the towns of Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. They are magical towns, I heavily advise you to visit them.
So this semester, I am preparing to dive into the Basque language and come in swinging when I visit Bilbao and Donostia. To do this, I am utilizing the aptly-named website <ilovelanguages.org>, which supports language learning for minority languages. Rosetta Stone and Babble do not offer support for Euskara, sadly. Here are some basic starter words I learned today:
Hopefully this leads me down a good path and prepares me for when I visit!
I'm interested to know how Euskara developed to become a completely distinct language despite having much more dominant languages such as Spanish in the area.
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