king alan r. (1997) introduction to basque [66 pp]

7/30/2019 KING Alan R. (1997) Introduction to Basque [66 Pp]

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Introduction to

Basque

by

Alan R. King

Alan King, 1997All Rights Reserved


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Preface

The idea of publishing thisIntroduction came from several directions simultaneously, and itis hoped that it will fill a certain void in a useful manner. I have not set out to write thiscollection of materials from scratch, but have been content to draw from, and even reproduce,selected passages and resources most of which I have published elsewhere previously in avariety of places. I have endeavoured to make it clear in each case where I am recycling thematerial from, and the interested reader is encouraged to refer to the original sources for fullerinformation. Evidently, such a collection neednt be read from one end to the other in theorder presented, and no chapter is a prerequisite for reading any other.

Chapter 1 (Frequently Asked Questions) has been newly written, and a similar itemis simultaneously being added to my website. The questions are authentic ones representativeof frequent queries I receive about the Basque language from a variety of people: how can Ilearn Basque? where does Basque come from? and so on. While in principle I am happy tohear from anyone with an interest in the subject, the same questions do tend to get askedagain and again, and since my time, like everyone elses, is limited, these FAQ may help to

cut corners in the future.Chapter 2 (The Basque Language Today) is a compilation of some general facts

and information about present-day social aspects of the languages existence, ranging fromthe countrys geography and recent political background to Basque-language media and thecontemporary music and fiesta scene. You can also find out what Basques think of foreignerswho try to speak their language, and there is a brief sketch of the present sociolinguisticsituation. This material derives from information given in Colloquial Basque, a languagecourse recently published by Begotxu Olaizola and myself, except for the sociolinguisticsection which was originally an appendix in my Ph.D. dissertation.

Chapter 3 (Getting Started) will lead you by the hand while allowing you toconfront your first Basque dialogue. The point here is not to learn to speak Basque in half anhour, but just to provide a first foretaste of what this language is like. This is actually an

excerpt from my larger-scale Basque course, called The Basque Language: A PracticalIntroduction.

Chapter 4 (Grammatical Sketch) will be the meals main course for those with astrong stomach for such fare, while others may well prefer to save it for reference use or justskip it altogether. It doesnt contain everything there is to be known about Basque grammar,since that wouldnt fit into twenty pages (and wouldnt be very readable if it did!), but I daresay it will serve to put those interested in the picture regarding the languages overallgrammatical ground pattern. Those looking for more detailed information than can be offeredhere will be ready to dive into something more substantial afterwards. The better part of thischapter is actually a very abbreviated version of a section ofThe Basque Language.

Chapter 5 (Communicative Basque) gives another view of the language, to be taken

on its own or in conjunction with the grammatical sketch. It consists of some verycommonplace conversational Basque sentence patterns organized according to thecommunicative functions they are typically used to realize; both the organization and theexamples have been culled from my Basque Threshold Level book,Atalase Maila. Naturally,there is some variation between Basque dialects regarding the precise form of the mostcommon phrases. Since such variation could not be accommodated within the present modestscope, I have opted for a bias towards one dialect, the Gipuzkoan, which is in any case verywidely understood in most places these days.

Chapter 6 (Basic Vocabulary) is arranged by subject and has also been derived fromthe Basque Threshold Level.

There is nothing like a good old piece of text with its translation and, if possible,accompanying notes to provide the weathered field linguist with a rough-and-ready first

picture of an unfamiliar language, and I have catered to this need, within the limited spaceavailable, in Chapter 7 (Sample Texts). I have opted for two brief passages of Biblical


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narrative, using the recent and excellently translated Basque Bible. There are of coursearguments for and against using biblical passages for such purposes; while aware of both, itseems to me that this remains a useful exercise; besides, I can vouch for the idiomatic, well-written nature of this particular translation, which reflects the best of modern literary Basquestyle at the present time. For the first passage I have chosen a personal favourite, theForbidden Fruit story at the beginning of Genesis. Following a hallowed tradition, I include asthe second and last passage part of the Prodigal Son parable from Luke.

In Chapter 8 (Further Reading) I end with a few pointers for those who do not wishto stop here. It is not my objective to offer a heavyweight bibliography, so please do notexpect to find one! This is, after all, merely an Introduction.

May many appetites be whetted! For those which are, I remain open to furtherdiscussion, comments and queries via my email address ([email protected]) or website(http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/). On egin!

Alan R. King

Zarautz, 1997


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1. Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 2. The Basque Language Today

Chapter 3. Getting Started

Chapter 4. Grammatical Sketch

Chapter 5. Communicative Basque

Chapter 6. Basic Vocabulary

Chapter 7. Sample Texts

Chapter 8. Further Reading


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Chapter 1

Frequently Asked Questions*

Questions about learning Basque

Is Basque grammar difficult? Is it unlike anything else?

Sound like simple questions, dont they? Yet actually a conscientious linguist cangive no simple answer.

Define difficult. Have you successfully learnt a foreign language before, and ifso, would you say it was difficult? My own opinion is that really learning anylanguage is hard work. Some people nevertheless enjoy the adventure.

But is Basque more difficult than other languages to learn? That againdepends on which other languages youre comparing with, and what you know beforeyou learn them. Generalizing, learning any Indo-European language of Europe (i.e.almost any European language except for Basque, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian,Maltese or Turkish etc., depending on how were defining Europe, of course) iseasy if you already know another European language, as you probably do if yourereading this, and even easier still if you know more than one, as compared to learning,say, a language from another continent. This is because European languages are prettysimilar to each other, in global terms, and also because they have a great many words,

phrases, and even grammatical devices in common.Basque is an exception in this sense, at least to some extent. The reason is that

it is not related to all those other European languages, which unlike Basque belong to

a single language family called Indo-European. Basque is different, and different isusually harder to learn.

So how different is Basque? Well actually, once we accept the basic fact thatit is a completely different kind of language from its Indo-European neighbours, it hasto be said that it does sharesome things with these. Not surprising, given that theyhave been in close contact for millennia. But still, if you want a short answer: yes, its

pretty different.

Could you please advise me on a good beginning textbook and where to buy it

and a good source for tapes for pronunciation?

This is slightly embarassing, but the only books I can recommend at present were allwritten by me. There are two to choose between: (a)A Basque Course: A Practical

Introduction by Alan R.. King, published by the University of Nevada Press (Reno,Las Vegas and London), 1994; (b) Colloquial Basque: A Complete Language Course

by Alan R. King & Begotxu Olaizola Elordi, published by Routledge (London andNew York), 1996. Colloquial Basque can be bought on its own or with twoaccompanying 60-minute cassettes. There are no tapes to accompanyA BasqueCourse.

Where you can buy them will depend on where you are. It would be nice tosay available in all good bookshops (if your British, or bookstores if American).

Colloquialis the better distributed of the two. Ridiculously (not my fault, Im only the


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author), both are very hard to get hold of in the Basque Country itself, so yourestrongly advised to buy your copy before coming over here!!

Prices change over time and are not my responsibility, but the last time Ilooked The Basque Language was in the region of $60 in the U.S. and 45 in theU.K., and Colloquial Basque, which is a much smaller book, roughly half that

(without the cassettes). Please do contact a bookshop/store or the publishers for moreaccurate information. The publishers addresses are as follows:

University of Nevada Press/MS 166 (forThe Basque Language)University of Nevada, RenoReno, Nevada 89557-0076USATel. (702) 784 6573Fax: (702) 784 6200

Routledge (UK) (forColloquial Basque)11 New Fetter LaneLondon EC4P 4EEUnited KingdomTel. 0171-583 9855Fax: 0171-842 2306

or for USA and Canada:

Routledge Inc.29 West 35th Street

New York NY 10001

Tel. 244 3336Fax: 563 2269

Some of the materials in thisIntroduction to Basque are drawn from or basedon one or the other of these books, as I have indicated where appropriate, so you canget your first foretaste right here. You can also see almost the whole of the first unitofColloquial Basque on my website at: http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/.

Which one do you recommend? The Basque Language or Colloquial Basque?

What's the difference between the two?

As indicated by the titles, Colloquial Basque aims to give an idea of informal spokenBasque; The Basque Language is more comprehensive, yet is also a practicalintroduction. Either book can be used by absolute beginners, although non-beginnerswill no doubt find them useful too. The Basque Language covers (in university terms)elementary and intermediate levels, whereas Colloquial Basque is less ambitious,

but will provide an elementary introduction. If anyone wants to be very thorough andwork through both books, Colloquial Basque is the best one to start with; then thefirst part ofThe Basque Language could serve as a review, before getting into somemore advanced things not found in Colloquial Basque.

Both books can be used for self-study, and either can also be adapted for

classroom use. In the latter case the decision would depend on the objectives of theclass and also on preferences in teaching style; teachers with more conservative ideas


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will probably find The Basque Language more to their liking, whereas ColloquialBasque has a more clearly communicative orientation.

Both books are based on sound learning/teaching methods, although TheBasque Language is mainly structurally based and Colloquial Basque follows acommunicative approach; but the distinction is not black-or-white. Both consist of

units containing realistic dialogues and texts, explanations and notes and exercises.Both include a key to exercises and vocabulary lists. In The Basque Language there isa substantial grammar reference section towards the end, while the grammar contentofColloquial Basque is more streamlined.

Questions about where Basque came from

I have read that Basque is one of the so-called language isolates. Is that correct,

and what does it mean?

Languages are traditionally grouped into families of genetically related language

groups. Genetically is used metaphorically here, of course, to indicate that thelanguages so related are descended from a common ancestor language. Following amethodology developed in the nineteenth century and still commonly accepted asvalid, even where the precise history (or prehistory) of languages is not known forsure as is normally the case linguists are able to reconstruct a theoretical historyand posit hypothetical ancestors on the basis of detailed comparison of the knownlanguages, and family groupings are proposed accordingly. Naturally, this kind ofstudy has progressed much further with some languages than with others dependingon the amount of information available and the extent to which this information has

been studied by specialists; consequently some proposed family groupings are morefirmly established while others have a more tentative status. Most Europeanlanguages belong, together with numerous languages of southern Asia, to onelanguage family that goes under the name of Indo-European. Proto-Indo-European(Proto-IE or PIE in linguists jargon) is a theoretical construct representing thereconstructed, hypothetical language from which the various know Indo-Europeanlanguages are imagined to have descended. As a matter of fact, we dont know a greatdeal about this proto-language, if it ever existed at all as such, and there is no proofthat it did.

Comparative linguistics, the discipline in which historical reconstruction isrooted, needs to follow systematic methodological principles, requiring academictraining, if its results are to be meaningful. Amateurish, undisciplined speculation

based on isolated observations and imaginative pet theories may make for a funpastime but do not help us become better informed and sometimes fuel popularconfusions. The only reasonable opinions worth respecting on this subject are those ofthe top authorities in the comparative study of the languages that we want to knowabout. Obviously the best scholars in the field can also make mistakes, and newevidence can come to light requiring that older theories be corrected, modified ordiscarded, in linguistics as in other serious disciplines. A good linguist will be carefulin her or his use of hedges such aspossibly,probably, it is not impossible and the like;the rest of the world, and even some lesser scholars, are often tempted by impatienceto discard those qualifications and convert guarded opinion into categorical assertion.The popular press are consummate experts at doing just this, and frequently end up

publishing absolute gibberish in consequence. So, caveat emptor.


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Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I myself am nota specialist in comparativelinguistics. I consider myself sufficiently informed of the current state of the art ofBasque historical lingistics for a linguist whose main interests lie in other areas, andam reporting here on the basis of that information, for the simple reason that I keepgetting asked questions like these.Non mea culpa!

Not all languages in the world can be incorporated into one or another of theaccepted language families, although most can, once enough information can becollected to form a reliable opinion. Remember that the limit of our ability toconstruct language families is not an absolute limit but one imposed by the extent ofour knowledge and the power of the theoretical tools of which we dispose to interpretthe data and draw sound conclusions therefrom. But there is such a limit. This meansthat even if all human languages are ultimately, in the very distant past, geneticallyrelated as they may or may not be there is a very good chance our ability toreconstruct will never take us back that far. It follows that a language family is onlyone insofar as our available information allows us to demonstrate its existence.

A language isolate is one of those left-over languages for which no geneticaffiliation to any other language, group or family can, at present, be shown to exist: alanguage with no known relatives. And it is the consensus of respected scholarly andacademic opinion at the present time that Basque is one such isolate. It is the onlyisolate in Europe, but there are other isolates on other continents, although their totalnumber is not very great.

What is the latest research about the Basque language revealing about its

origins?

Despite much speculation over this in the past and continuing up to the present,

including several particular theories attempting to show that the Basques came from...well, from just about everywhere imaginable, none of those theories has beendemonstrated successfully and the speculations have not developed, nor show signs of

being about to develop into, a solid account of the Basques having come fromanywhere other than where they are at present, plus no doubt a few additionalkilometres in most directions, if we go back far enough. Every so often a journalisteager for a story digs up one of the academically outdated speculations and(re-)invents some new breakthrough involving proof that the Basques wanderedover here from somewhere in Asia or Africa or are one of the lost tribes of Israel, orelse that Basque was once the universal language of, oh, say, the whole of Europe.The truth is that even the much more conservative, and on the face of it plausible,

theory that Basque was spoken throughout much of the Iberian Peninsula before theRomans took over, which was in vogue some years ago, doesnt seem to hold upunder careful scrutiny and is no longer held by serious scholars.

What these ideas have in common is that they feed on the unknown. Since wedont know what language the Iberians spoke before the imposition of Latin, whythen they obviously spoke Basque! Ditto for the Etruscans, the Picts, and so on. Eventhe inability to disprove such notions through a lack of information would not amountto a serious corroboration of the theory. In fact, the counter-evidence often is clearlythere, but the romantics choose to ignore that, or dont bother to ask. The Celts, forexample, are surrounded by mystery, not to say fantasy, in the popular mind, yet we

know perfectly well that their languages are Indo-European; hence emphatically notgenetically related to Basque. That is not to deny that there are loanwords from earlier


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Celtic languages into Basque, some of them well-established as such, unsurprisinglygiven the historical fact of pre-Roman contact between speakers of these languages.The vaguely nostalgic idea in the popular mind that Basque and Celtic are related,however, seems practically impossible to shake off.

There are also some linguists intent on demonstrating the existence of much

larger genetic groupings of languages across the world than those widely acceptedtoday, using techniques which conservative comparativists find highly unorthodoxand questionable. This activity has given rise to new theories relating Basques to theAmerican Indians intera variety ofalia. It is one thing for such an academic debate toremain open, and no doubt a good thing at that. All well and good, but it is only fair toinform the public, whose imagination is so easily enticed, that the academiccommunity at large, by a great majority, has its reasons, whatever they are, for havingchosen, so far at least, to give little or no credence to the aforementioned theory, nomatter whether it makes for a good headline or not.

So what do I think? Well basically, I think that the Basques and their languageare fascinating subjects for a great many reasons, of which this speculation aboutwhere they came from is only a single thread of research and not, in my opinion, themost exciting or important, especially given that we dont know the truth and maynever find out. Besides, is it ultimately any less fascinating to think that perhaps and this has not been disproved either the Basques, as far back as our perceptioncan reach, never came from anywhere else but were always right where they still are,in their country, a little island of millennial immobility amidst a world in incessantflux; a country with deeper anthropological roots, perhaps, than any other in Europe,reaching straight down vertically for a long, long way? Now hows that for a story!

STOP PRESS!

Ernest McCarus recently posted a question on the LINGUIST List, a professionalforum of prestige, about the linguistic affinities of Basque", and summarised the

numerous replies he received in a second posting to the list dated 15 Nov, 1997. To

quote from his summary: The majority of the respondents agreed [...] with the

consensus that Basque has no known linguistic relatives.

*A related version of these questions and answers is to be found on my website at

http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/.


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Chapter 2

The Basque Language Today*

Introduction

As one of Europe's most exotic minority languages, probably unrelated genetically toany other language in the world, Basque has long fascinated linguists and non-specialists alike. According to our present knowledge, assuming that the Indo-European languages ultimately originated from outside Europe, Basque is the onlytruly indigenous European tongue to survive today, the remnant of a bygone age.

Basque is spoken by two thirds of a million people who constitute almost 20% ofthe Basque Country's present population of three-and-a-half million. The proportionwas much higher in the past, the sharpest drop having occurred in the last hundredyears or so. While this may sound discouraging, there is an extensive band covering

much of the northern half of the country, including most of the coastal and highlandregions, where Basque, though endangered, is still the native language for most of thelocal population.

For long, official Spanish policy has been highly unsympathetic to Basque. Thelanguage, forced into a kind of underground existence during the Franco years(193975), was forbidden in schools and public places and banned from officialservices and the media. According to state propaganda at the time, it was unpatrioticto speak it, and even those who continued to use Basque in private lived in real fear of

being arrested or otherwise punished. Despite these adverse circumstances, asignificant proportion of Basque families remained loyal to their ancestral tongue and

helped to keep it alive.After the end of the dictatorial rgime, the new Spanish Constitution granted tothe regions some degree of self-rule, known as autonomy. Under the democraticrgime, three Spanish provinces of the Basque Country (Araba, Bizkaia andGipuzkoa) constituted the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, alsoknown asEuskadi; a fourth province (the largest) has a separate administration as theAutonomous Community of Navarre. Since the early 80s these communities havehad elected autonomous governments exercising whatever powers Madrid hastransferred as a result of political negotiations. Powers transferred to thegovernment of theEuskadiko Autonomi Elkartea, seated in Vitoria/Gasteiz, includeinternal revenue, administration of schools, mass media, health services, and a Basque

police force. The status of the Basque language in this area has improvedprogressively during recent decades, thanks to widespread popular sentiment, grass-roots campaigning, and the Basque Governments official language policies, althoughthe latter are subject to oscillations depending on wavering political influences.Roughly comparable conditions exist in the Navarrese autonomous community,

polarized between the north, largely Basque-speaking and pro-Basque, and the south,whose Basque tradition is weak.

These four provinces are referred to collectively by Basques as the South; theNorth comprises the three small provinces of the French Basque Country: Lapurdi,Low Navarre, and Zuberoa. This region has no self-rule in the French state, despitecampaigns to achieve at least a limited degree of autonomy. Apart from the urbanized

Bayonne-Biarritz area, most of the rural North conserves a strong Basque traditionand flavour, notwithstanding heavy French influence among the younger generation.


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Spoken Basque has a number of dialects that are mutually intelligible in normalcircumstances and may be thought of as belonging to three rough types that mergeinto each other: western, central and eastern.

The first Basque books were published in the sixteenth century. The languagepossesses no very imposing literary history, and the standardized writing system that

now exists, known asEuskara Batua (Unified Basque), is a product of recent yearsstill subject to occasional readjustments. The media and the schools have contributedto the progressive consolidation of a spoken version of the standard which hasdistanced itself somewhat from colloquial speech. While most native speakers todayare familiar with what we might call television Basque, they do not really speak it.

Basque-Language Media

Until 1980 the Basque mass media consisted of a couple of weekly magazines and

the odd programme on local radio stations. Today there is a full-fledged nationaltelevision, a choice of full-time radio stations, a daily newspaper and variousmagazines, as well as more specialized or local media, all in Basque.

Euskadi Irratia can be heard all over the Basque Country and offers a staple ofmusic, news bulletins, current affairs programmes, quizzes, serials etc. in Basque.

Euskadi Gaztea, also in Basque, plays popular music aimed at a younger audience.There are also local Basque-language stations serving each region. Euskal Telebista'sBasque-language service,ETB1, can be received throughout the country.

Argia is a long-standing Basque-language weekly magazine of current affairsand general interest. HABE publishes a monthly magazine for Basque learners, alsocalledHABE. There is also a growing number of local magazines, either in Basque or

bilingual. The youngest member of the Basque-language media is the newspaperEuskaldunon Egunkaria.

Music and Fiestas

In centuries past, Basque folk traditions, like those of other cultures throughout theworld, included a lively oral literature, now in decline and already partly lost to us.However, some surviving elements of those traditions have been taken up withrenewed enthusiasm by recent generations of Basques and given a new lease on life.

Some forms of traditional verse recital are still practised, such as the koplazaharraksung on Santa Ageda day and other festivals. Bertsolaritza, improvisedverse singing, also survived into the twentieth century and has undergone arenaissance in the post-Franco period, with the organization of local and nationalcompetitions and courses to train young potential bertsolariakin the art of making upbertsoak.

Traditional Basque musical instruments include the txistu (a high-pitchedwooden wind instrument played with one hand), the dultzaina (a conical windinstrument popular in Navarre), the alboka (a distant relative of the clarinet made upof two horns), and txalaparta (rousing rhythmic music produced by hitting variously-

pitched planks of wood with wooden sticks). Trikitixa is played on a tambourine and

a small accordeon, sometimes with singing and usually danceable; introduced byLombard immigrants in the nineteenth century, both the music and the dancing have


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undergone a recent revival with frequent competitions and many amateur andprofessional groups (trikitilariak). Some of the latter, such as Tapia eta Leturia, haveexperimented mixing trikitixa rhythms and sounds with various modern musicalstyles.

Modern Basque folk, pop and rock music has flourished since the 1960s within a

broader cultural (and political) revival movement, the first wave of which producedimportant singer-authors including Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, Xabier Lete andLourdes Iriondo. These were followed in the seventies and eighties by folk-popsingers like Imanol and groups like Oskorri, and numerous more rock-oriented groupsincluding Egan, Akelarre, Itoiz and Niko Etchart, and hard-rock bands such asErtzainak, Delirium Tremens, Negu Gorriak and E.H. Sukarra.

Basques love social gatherings and the streets and plazas of a town, rather thanprivate homes, are considered the best place for it. This occurs on Friday andSaturday nights, and especially when there are popular musical events, ad hocfestivals or fund-raising events, or other happenings.

The majority of traditional fiestas orjaiakare peculiar to a particular villageor town. They generally commemorate a saint whose name they take, and most of the

popular ones take place in the summer months.In large towns thejaiaklast a full week; in small towns, two to three days. They

have an official programme, announced in printed leaflets or on posters placed in barsand public places. There may be a special children's day, a seniors' day, and so on.Programmed events taking place in the streets from dawn to dusk and beyond includetraditional sports events -- such as handball, chopping logs, weight-lifting, and tug-of-war -- processions, street bands, bertsolariak, kids' games, various types of concerts,contests and so on. There are also religious services. But most important of all is the

joyful gathering of people of all ages and whole families with all their noise, their

gaiety, and, they would no doubt feel, their Basqueness.

Speaking Basque

Badakizu euskaraz? Do you speak Basque?Euskalduna zara? Are you Basque/a Basque speaker?Nongoa zara? Where are you from?

A foreigner speaking even a little bit of Basque in the Basque Country will bebombarded constantly with these and similar questions, asked out of friendly interest,

surprise and fascination. There are several reasons for this. One is that Basquesmostly live in small towns or villages where newcomers are noticed and talked about.As a foreigner, making conversation with Basque-speaking people is very easy if onecan speak Basque. Although some English is now taught in the schools, most adultBasques speak no foreign languages. Basque thus truly opens the door tocommunication. Furthermore, they will be flattered, for by speaking some Basqueone will have shown, in the eyes of Basque speakers, a genuine interest in theircountry and their culture, thus helping to raise their own self-esteem as a distinct

people and nation.


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A Sociolinguistic Note

Basque is spoken today by under a million people concentrated in a continuous bandrunning across the northern half of the Basque Country (total populationapproximately three million). Of the larger Basque towns, only Donostia (San

Sebastian), capital of the province of Gipuzkoa, is situated within the present Basque-speaking area, which flanks both sides of the French-Spanish political bordercoinciding with the western end of the Pyrenees. Although Basques habitually speakof a southern and northern Basque Country, the northern or French dialects reallyoccupy the east of the linguistic territory, while the major dialect divisions range fromeast to west. Almost all Basque speakers today are able to speak Spanish or French,and often live side-by-side with monolingual Romance speakers. Since the 1960s, theBasque language has been undergoing an important resurgence affecting not only theexisting Basque-speaking area but other parts of the Basque Country too. This periodhas seen the consolidation of a new standard form of the language, called Batua.

The earliest written Basque texts of any importance date from the sixteenthcentury. Written Basque evolved unevenly in various parts of the country, resultingin the development of several local written standards. The modern spoken dialectsare usually numbered at between six and eight and designated by province names,althoughtheir distribution does not always coincide with provincial boundaries. Whileinterdialectal differences are popularly dwelt upon or exaggerated, scholarly opiniongenerally leans towards considering these fairly minor.

Until quite recently Basque was not employed in education and administrationand its use was relegated to rural settings. Spoken Basque possessed a high registerthanks in large part to the churchs commitment to the language, although oral folk

literature also played a part in the cultivation of the spoken language. A modern highregister associated with the written Batua norm is now spreading mainly due toschools and the mass media, thus primarily reaching younger speakers.

Present trends are towards acquisition and use of the language by a growingnumber of non-native speakers, and expansion of Basque into new communicativeand social domains, increased use of Basque in the larger towns, and the progressiveurbanization of the language. The focal points of the last-mentioned change areamong youngsters in the larger towns: for some of them, Basque is the mother tongue,forothers it has been learnt in or outside school, but they all have a new style of speakingBasque differing from both rural speech and literary norms.

A simple triangular diagramme is customarily used to represent relationsbetween social and regional dialect variation; the triangular shape reflects the fact thatregional variation diminishes as we progress from lower to higher registers. Totake account of the urban-rural contrast within present-day vernacular Basque, the

base line of this diagramme should be replaced by a two-dimensional grid, which isalso triangular in shape, given that, in the case of present-day Basque at least,increased urbanization correlates with diminished regional differentiation. The resultis a three-dimensional pyramid rather than a flat triangle.

The claim occasionally made that Basque is characterized by a limitedrepertoire of stylistic variations ought to be reconsidered with care in view of this

hypothesis. Although scholarly activity in the description of Basque has increasednotably of late, the literature still hardly contains a mention of urban Basque varieties,


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if we except sporadic prescriptivist condemnations of substandard and non-traditionalusages, in which urban colloquial Basque abounds.

* Most of this chapter has been compiled from selected passages, here slightly modified and abridged,which are included in Colloquial Basque: A Complete Course by Alan R. King and Begortxu Olaizola

Elordi, published by Routledge (London and New York), 1996. The section A Sociological Note hasbeen adapted from Alan R. King, Communicative Grammar of the Basque Verb (Selected Aspects),

Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1993 (Appendix G: A Sociolinguistic Note).


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Chapter 3

Getting Started*(A Short Basque Lesson)

Meeting a Friend (a simple dialogue)

1. Epa! Hi!2. Egun on. Good morning.3. Baita zuri ere. Good morning.4. Zer moduz? How are you doing?5. Ongi, eta zu? Fine, and you?6. Ongi. Fine.7. Non dago zure laguna? Wheres your friend?8. Etxean dago. Hes/Shes at home.

9. Nora zoaz orain? Where are you going now?10. Etxera. Eta zu? Home. And you?11. Ni klasera noa. Im going to class.12. Non dago zure klasea? Where is your class?13. Grosen. In Gros.14. Zure etxea ere Grosen dago, ez? Your house is in Gros too, isnt it?15. Bai. Yes.16. Zurekin joango naiz. Ill go with you.17. Kotxearekin etorri zara? Did you come by car?18. Ez, oinez. No, on foot.19. Elkarrekin joango gara. Well go together.20. Ederki! Great!

Pronunciation

(a) The five vowels, a, e, i, o and u, must each be given their so-called European orcardinal values.

(b) The letterz is pronounced like an Englishs.

(c) The letters is similar but not identical to this (some Basques dont distinguish z

and s). The s is a little closer to the Englishsh sound. (However, the nearest

Basque equivalent to Englishsh is yet another consonant, spelled x!)

(d) Basque tx is pronounced like an English ch.(e) Basque r is pronounced with the tip of the tongue. When not between two vowels

it is trilled, as is a double rr.(f) Diphthongs are sounds formed by combining the two vowel sounds of which they

are composed, so for example ai sounds quite like the Englishy insky.

(g) Standard Basquej sounds like they inyes. But in some dialects a strong h soundis used instead.

Grammar

Compare lines 11 and 12 in the above dialogue, noticing that class is klasea in 11 butklasera in 12. Now compare lines 8, 10 and 14. Etxea, etxera and etxean mean


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house orhome. You have no doubt realised that the words forclass and house consist

of a part that remains the same, klase and etxe, to which different endings may be

added: -a, -ra, -an. Perhaps you can work out the functions of the various endings.Similarly, compare the Basque equivalents ofyou in lines 5 and 16, noticing that the

suffix -rekin means with.

Now look again at 16 and observe that in this sentencejoango naiz meansIllgo. The order of the Basque sentence, then, is With you Ill go. Likewise 19

containsjoango gara meaning Well go, and is literally Together well go.Furthermore, consider 17, literally With the car did you come? Evidently, the orderof elements in the sentence is different in Basque than in English; in these Basquesentences (and many others), the verb is at the end.

Finally one more point. Taking another look atjoango naizIll go,joango

garawell go, and etorri zara?Did you come?, we can surmise thatjoango and

etorri correspond approximately togo and come, while naiz, gara and zara? aresomehow equivalent toIll, welland did you? respectively. But once again, the order

is different:joango naiz

is literally go Ill, and so on.To sum up, here are three very important features of Basque grammar which

make it very different from English: (1) suffixes are added to nouns and pronouns toexpress relations such as to, at, with etc.; (2) the verb often comes at the end of thesentence; and (3) the verb is often made up of a main verb and an auxiliary, with theauxiliary coming afterthe main verb.

*This chapter has been abridged and adapted from a chapter ofThe Basque Language: A Practical

Introduction by Alan R. King, published by the University of Nevada Press (Reno, Las Vegas and

London), 1994.


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Chapter 4

Grammatical Sketch*

The Simple Sentence

Affirmative and Negative Sentences

The verb is frequently placed at the end of affirmative sentences: Hau Gros daThis

is Gros; Aita Californian bizi daFather lives in California. In negative sentences,

the finite verb or auxiliary preceded by ez usually precedes the object: Hau ez da

GrosThis is not Gros, and the nonfinite part of compound verbs: Aita ez da

Californian biziFather doesnt live in California.

Questions

Yes/no questions need not be formally marked: Hau Gros da?Is this Gros?

Questions words such as zerwhat, norwho, nonwhere, noizwhen etc. come

immediately in front of the verb: Zer da hau?What is this?; Nor bizi da Californian

Who lives in California?; Non bizi da aita?Where does father live?

Focus

Word order within the Basque sentence reflects the way the speaker wishes toorganize the information. The focused element is the principal component of

information contained in a sentence. In Basque the focused element is placed in frontof the verb. For example, in Aita Californian bizi daFather lives in California (the

normal word order), Californianin California is said to be in focus; but one can also

say Californian aita bizi da which emphasizes that it is father who lives inCalifornia.

Topic

Other elements may go near the beginning of the sentence (before the focused item)or near the end (after the verb); thus the verb does not necessarily come at the end.Placing such non-focus items at the beginning foregrounds them as topics. In

Californian aita bizi da, Californian is strongly topicalized; to de-emphasize thetopic while maintaining aita as focus, the order used is Aita bizi da Californian. Yet

another possibility, with California as focus and aita detopicalized, is Californian

bizi da aita.

Sentences without a Focused Element

An element preceding the verb is not necessarily focused: depending on intonation,

Autobusa etorriko daThe bus will come may either have autobusa focused (saying

whatwill come) or the action itself may be foregrounded with autobusa as topic(saying that the bus willcome). There is an exception when the finite verb consists of

a single word; the item preceding such a verb is invariably focused: Autobusa dator


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The bus is coming(says whatis coming).Such verb forms as these cannot besentence-initial.

Affirmative ba- and Negative ez

If, however, the affirmative particle ba- is prefixed to a single-word finite verb likedator, it can then either be preceded by a non-focused element or stand at the

beginning of the sentence: Autobusa badator orBadator autobusaThe bus iscoming.

When a finite verb is made negative by placing ez in front of it, the same is

true: Autobusa ez dator orEz dator autobusaThe bus is not coming. See also aboveconcerning negative sentences.

Determiners and Pronouns

Determiners

As a rule, a noun phrase is incomplete in Basque without a determiner. For thepurposes of this statement, we shall consider quantifiers (three, many, some etc.)to be determiners. Non-quantifying determiners include the demonstratives (this,that), questions words (which), and indefinites (any). Basque also has asemantically neutral determiner in constant use, called the article.

Placement of Determiners

Most determiners are placed at the end of the noun phrase, e.g. etxe hauthis house,but some go before the noun: hiru etxethree houses.

Singular and Plural

Grammatical number is not marked directly on the noun in Basque, but may beexpressed by the choice or form of determiner.

The Article

The article has no inherent meaning, but functions as an unmarked determiner; thus itis required in many noun phrases in the absence of a more specific determiner (see

above). It has the form of a suffix, with a singular form, -a, and a plural form, -ak.When a case suffix is present this combines with the article, whose form may change

as a result. The forms -a and -akare those of the zero or absolutive case.When the noun phrase consists of more than one word, the article is suffixed

to the last word only and the other items are unsuffixed, e.g. etxe means house but

this is not in most contexts a noun phrase; as a noun phrase, etxea is (a/the) house and

etxeakhouses; with an adjective (which follows the noun), etxe polita is (a/the)

pretty house and etxe politakpretty houses (with politpretty).


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The Partitive

Noun phrases may take the partitive suffix -(r)ikwhich corresponds approximately to

any in English: compare Ez dut ardoa nahiI dont want the wine; Ez dut ardorik

nahiI dont want (any) wine. Partitive noun phrases usually have no determiner,

unless the partitive suffix itself be considered one. Case suffixes also cannot becombined with the partitive, which can only occupy contexts where an absolutivenoun phrase could occur. Partitive noun phrases have negative polarity, i.e. theymostly occur in negative sentences and certain questions.

Noun Phrases with No Determiner

As exceptions to the general rule given above, sometimes a noun can occur in aphrase without a determiner. These include uses of the instrumental case, marked by

the suffix -(e)z: eskuzby hand, autobusezby bus, euskarazin Basque, etc., andcertain kinds of copular construction involving absolutive noun phrases, e.g.

Lehendakari izendatu zutenThey appointed him president.

Proper Nouns and Pronouns

The above statements refer only to common nouns. Proper names and pronouns donot take the article. Case suffixes are attached to such items directly.

The personal pronouns are niI, hiyou (familiar), guwe, zuyou (polite

singular), zuekyou (plural). There are also emphatic or intensive pronoun forms.There are no special third person pronouns; these may be suppleted by variousdemonstratives or emphatic deictics.

Personal pronouns in subject and object functions are regularly omitted fromthe Basque sentence; the person and number of such arguments are indicated by the

form of the finite verb, e.g. Californian bizi naizI live in California; Erakutsiko

dizkizuguWell show you them.

Adjectives

Predicate Adjectives

Predicate adjectives usually take the article in the singular or plural, in agreement

with the subject: California polita daCalifornia is pretty; Etxe hauek politak dira

These houses are pretty. There are some exceptions: Aita triste dagoFather is sad.

Attributive Adjectives

Attributive adjectives follow the noun. Determiners, including the article, follow the

last item, i.e. the adjective: etxe polit batone/a pretty house, etxe politakpretty

houses. A small group of adjectives precede the noun, e.g. azken etxeathe last house.The noun head may be omitted leaving an adjective together with the

determiner: azkenathe last one, politak(the) pretty ones.


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Semideterminers

There are several items whose meanings suggest they should be determiners, butwhose syntactic behaviour resembles that described for adjectives, i.e. they arecompatible with, and require, the presence of the article or another true determiner,

e.g. etxe guztiakall the houses; beste ardo batanother wine. These items includeguztiall, every, bakoitz each and besteother.

Adjectivals

The term adjectival is proposed to refer, in the context of Basque grammar, tomorphologically complex items which function to qualify nouns in much the sameway as adjectives, but which are not lexical adjectives. All adjectivals end in a suffixwhich converts some lexical or syntactic item from something else into an adjectival.Adjectivals in Basque share the properties ofprecedingthe head noun (when usedattributively) and requiring that the matrix noun phrase be determined in the usualway.

The class of adjectivals, thus defined, includes genitive noun phrases, e.g.

aitaren etxeafathers house (possessive-genitive suffix -(r)en), Californiako ardo

hauthis wine from California (local-genitive suffix -(e)ko); adjectivalized adverbs,

e.g. oraingo lehendakariathe present president, literally the president of now

(adjectival suffix -ko/-go); finite relative clauses, e.g. etorriko den autobusathe bus

that will come (relative suffix -(e)n); and nonfinite relative (participial) clauses, e.g.

izendatutako lehendakariathe appointed president, the president who has beenappointed.

Comparison

Intensification

Adjectives and adverbs may be intensified by a preceding degree modifier, e.g. oso or

bizikivery, pixka bat orapur bata little, hainso etc.: California oso polita daCalifornia is very pretty. An alternative way to intensify an adjective or adverb is by

repetition, e.g. California polit-polita daCalifornia is really pretty.

The Comparative

The comparative suffix is -ago, e.g. California politagoa daCalifornia is prettier.

The main irregular comparatives are hobebetter(cf. ongood) and gehiagomore (cf.

asko oranitzmuch, many).

A than phrase or clause is expressed by bainopostposed to the standard of

comparison: Nevada bainothan Nevada, zurekin bainothan with you, uste nuen

bainothan I thought. The than phrase/clause may either precede or follow the

comparative: California Nevada baino politagoa da orCalifornia politagoa da

Nevada bainoCalifornia is prettier than Nevada.


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The Superlative

The superlative suffix is -en. Superlatives usually take the article: Nire etxea da

politenaMy house is the prettiest.

Comparisons of Equality

To express equal degrees of an adjective or adverb, bezain follows the standard of

comparison, followed in turn by the adjective or adverb: Euskal Herria California

bezain polita daThe Basque Country is as pretty as California. In comparisons of

quantity, adina follows the standard and is followed by the undetermined noun phrase

being quantified, e.g. Californian badago Euskal Herrian adina ardoIn Californiathere is as much wine as in the Basque Country.

The Excessive

Too as a degree modifier is expressed by the suffix -egi, e.g. Ardo hau onegia da

orain edatekoThis wine is too good to drink now.

The Case System

Basic Case Suffixes

The simplest and most basic forms of the case suffixes are those used with propernames:

NAME OF CASE AFTER VOWELS AFTER CONSONANTS MEANING

Absolutive

Ergative -k -ek Dative -ri -i to, for

Possessive-Genitive -ren -en of, s

Benefactive -rentzat -entzat for

Comitative -rekin -ekin with

Instrumental -z -ez by, aboutInessive -n -en in, at

Allative -ra -a/-era to

Ablative -tik -tik, -dik from, through

Local-Genitive -ko -ko, -go of, from

The last four cases, known as the local cases, are not normally suffixed to nounphrases denoting animate beings.

Placement and Forms of Case Endings

Case endings in Basque are always added to the last element in the noun phrase. Withcommon nouns, they have three different sets of forms: (a) incorporating the singular

article -a (henceforth the singular case forms); (b) incorporating the plural article


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-ak(henceforth the plural case forms); and (c) not incorporating the article(traditionally called indefinite case forms).

Most case suffixes have the same forms when indefinite as are used withproper names (see above); but the local cases are exceptions. The indefinite forms aresuffixed to pronouns, determiners other than the article, and nouns or adjectives used

with a preposed determiner: nikI(ergative), aita bateka father(erg.), etxe askoritomany houses, zein ardorekin?with which wine? etc.

The absolutive forms of the article were given in the sectionDeterminers and

Pronouns/The Article, namely singular-a, plural -ak. The singular forms of the

remaining non-local cases consist of-a- followed by the appropriate form of the basic

case suffix (see above), e.g. ergative -ak, dative -ari, etc. The corresponding pluralforms for these cases are similar to the basic suffixes used after consonants(regardless of what sound the plural noun phrase ends in), except that the dative plural

is -ei: thus ergative -ek, dative -ei, possessive-genitive -en, etc.

The instrumental suffix has an alternative longer form -taz whose use is moreacceptable in some contexts than in others; the details are too complicated to discusshere.

The forms of the local case suffixes are more complicated:

After vowels: SINGULAR PLURAL INDEFINITE

Inessive -an -etan -tanAllative -ra -etara -taraAblative -tik -etatik -tatikLocal-Genitive -ko -etako -tako

After consonants: SINGULAR PLURAL INDEFINITE

Inessive -ean -etan -etan

Allative -era -etara -etaraAblative -etik -etatik -etatikLocal-Genitive -eko -etako -etako

Two additional rules must be applied when adding suffixes to a noun phrase:

(a) when endings beginning with a vowel are added to a stem ending in the letterr,

this is nearly always doubled in writing: txakurdog, txakurra, txakurrak,

txakurreketc.; (b) when endings beginning with a vowel are added to a stem ending

in the lettera, this is dropped: aitafather, aita, aitak, aiteketc.

Irregularly Declined Determiners and Pronouns

The three demonstratives, hauthis, horithatand hurathat in the distance, show thegreatest irregularity. Except in the absolutive, these have alternative stem forms in the

singular to which the indefinite case suffixes are added: hon-this, horr-that, har-

that in the distance, e.g. ergative honek, horrek, hark. Note that in the ergative and

the local cases, the third demonstrative takes the suffixes without -e-: hark, hartan,

hartara etc. In the plural the stems are hau-these, hori-those, hai-those in thedistance to which the plural case suffixes are added, except in the absolutive, where

-ekis added. The first plural demonstrative, for example, is hauek(absolutive),

hauek(ergative), hauei, hauen etc., and so on.

The personal pronouns (except forzuek) are irregular in the genitive andbenefactive cases, which lack the usual n: niremy, niretzatfor me, gureouretc. The


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first person singular pronoun has alternative forms in these cases: nere(tzat) or

ene(tzat).

The pronouns and determiners zerwhat, norwho, batone and batzueksome

show minor irregularities; note the ergative forms zerk?what? and nork?who?, and

the inessive forms zertan?in what? at what? doing what?, batean orbatetanin one,

in a and similarly in the other local cases.

Uses of the Non-Local Cases

The absolutive case or zero case (no special suffix) is the neutral form for a nounphrase, found in the subjects of intransitive verbs, direct objects, complements ofbeand other copular verbs, vocatives, headings, and for citation.

The ergative case (suffix -k) marks the subject of transitive verbs: Aitak

ardoa nahi duFather wants wine.

The dative (suffix -i) marks indirect objects, sometimes equivalent to English

to orfor: Aitari etxea erakutsiko diotIll show father the house. It is not used formotion to a place (see the allative below).

The possessive-genitive (suffix -en) is a basic genitive: aitaren etxeafathers

house. It is also used with postpositions, e.g. etxearen atzeanbehind the house.

The benefactive case (suffix -entzat) expressesforin several but not all of the

meanings of the English preposition: Ardo hau aitarentzat daThis wine is forfather.

The comitative case (suffix -ekin) is equivalent to English with in nearly all its

uses: Aitarekin bizi naizI live with father.

The instrumental case (in -z or-taz) has a variety of functions. It may be

equivalent to about, concerning: Californiaz hitz egingo duguWell talk about

California. It also marks the complements of certain verbs: Aitaz gogoratzen naizIremember father. Despite the cases name, its use to express an instrument is more

restricted, and occurs mostly with plain undertermined nouns, e.g. Eskuz idazten duHe writes by hand.

Uses of the Local Cases

The inessive case (suffix -n or-an) expresses place where (in, on, at) and also time

when: Californianin California, etxeanat home, igandeanon Sunday etc.

The allative case (suffix -ra) expresses where to: Aita Californiara doaFather is going to California. It is not to be confused with the dative.

The ablative case (suffix -tik) expresses where from, which way, and

since when: Aita Californiatik datorFather is coming from California; Leihotik

atera naizI came out through the window; Aita igandetik Californian dagoFatherhas been (lit. is) in California since Sunday.

The local-genitive case (suffix -ko) is another genitive case which is preferredto the possessive-genitive in certain contexts, including the meanings pertaining to

where and pertaining to when: Californiako ardoathe wine of California,

igandeko mezaSunday mass.


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Postpositions

Use of Postpositions

Postpositions are mostly written as separate words and are used to express

relationships not covered by a case marker or when we wish to specify a relationshipmore precisely. For example, there is a special case to express with, the comitative

(-ekin), but none to express without; for this the postposition gabe is employed.

Postpositions follow the noun or noun phrase: aita gabewithout father.

Cases Governed by Postpositions

Most postpositions are preceded by a noun in the possessive-genitive case, e.g.

etxearen atzeanbehind the house, ardoaren barruaninside the wine,

lehendakariaren aurkaagainst the president, gerraren ondorenafter the war.

It is also possible for some postpositions to follow a noun directly, with nodeterminer or case marking, e.g. etxe atzeanbehind the house, gerra ondorenafterthe war.

A smaller number of postpositions govern the absolutive, dative, instrumental,inessive or ablative.

The common postposition -gatikbecause of, forgoverns either thepossessive-genitive or the absolutive and is customarily written attached to the

preceding word: ardoarengatikorardoagatikbecause of the wine.

Animate Local Postpositions

The local case suffixes (i.e. the inessive, allative, ablative and local-genitive) are notnormally used with animate noun phrases. To express such notions with animates,

special postpositions are available. Like -gatik, these are customarily written attachedto the preceding word and govern either the possessive-genitive or the absolutive.

They are -ganin, -ganato, towards, -gandikfrom: Aita(ren)gana joango naizI willgo to father. There is no equivalent of the local-genitive for use with animates.

Simple Verb Forms

Use of Simple Verb Forms

The most basic of Basque finite verb forms are those consisting of a single word, such

as dais, naizI am, datoris coming, noaI am going, etc. The number of such simple,or synthetic, verb forms in Basque is very limited indeed. Mostly, then, Basque usescompound or periphrastic verb forms which consist of more than one word. Simplefinite forms can be in a number of different tenses, but by far the most frequent ofthese are the Simple Present, the Simple Past and the Simple Imperative. Only a

handful of verbs possess truly synthetic forms in these tenses, including izan and

egon (both meaning be), etorricome,joango, izan and eduki (both have),jakin

know, and esansay.


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The Simple Tenses

The Simple Present in Basque is a general or continuous present, and the Simple Pastis likewise a general or continuous past tense. The imperative is one of several waysof expressing instructions or orders.

Intransitive Tense Paradigms

The most commonly used simple tense forms ofintransitive verbs are shown in thefollowing table. Included are the forms corresponding to a subject in the following

persons, numbers and degrees of politeness: 1s (I), 3s (he, she, it), 1p (we), 2s (politesingularyou), 2p (pluralyou), 3p (they). The familiar singularyou forms are notincluded because they involve a range of other phenomena too complicated todescribe here (consult a more advanced Basque grammar). The 2s forms are placed

below the 1p ones because they resemble these most closely.

Intransitive Simple Tense Formsizanbe egonbe etorricome joango

Simple Present

1s naiz nago nator noa3s da dago dator doa1p gara gaude gatoz goaz2s zara zaude zatoz zoaz2p zarete zaudete zatozte zoazte3p dira daude datoz doaz

Simple Past

1s nintzen nengoen nentorren nindoan3s zen zegoen zetorren zihoan1p ginen geunden gentozen gindoazen2s zinen zeunden zentozen zindoazen2p zineten zeundeten zentozten zindoazten3p ziren zeuden zetozen zihoazen

Simple Imperative

2s zaude zatoz zoaz2p zaudete zatozte zoazte

Transitive Tense Paradigms (Third Person Singular Objects)

Transitive verbs in Basque agree with both the subject and the direct object. The nexttable shows the most common transitive simple tense forms used for the samesubjects as above when the direct object is third person singular:


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Transitive Simple Tense Forms(third person singular direct object)

izanhave edukihave jakin know esansaySimple Present

1s dut daukat dakit diot

3s du dauka daki dio1p dugu daukagu dakigu diogu2s duzu daukazu dakizu diozu2p duzue daukazue dakizue diozue3p dute daukate dakite diote

Simple Past

1s nuen neukan nekien nioen3s zuen zeukan zekien zioen1p genuen geneukan genekien genioen2s zenuen zeneukan zenekien zenioen

2p zenuten zeneukaten zenekiten zenioten3p zuten zeukaten zekiten zioten

Transitive Tense Paradigms (Third Person Plural Objects)

Because of their meaning, the verbs know andsay lack the full range of direct objects,but sense permitting, other synthetic transitive verbs have distinct forms for eachperson and number of the object. Here we shall only give one further set of forms,those for third person plural objects, which are in constant use. When we turn toauxiliary verbs, however, further forms will be given.

Transitive Simple Tense

Forms(third person plural direct object)

izanhave edukihaveSimple Present

1s ditut dauzkat3s ditu dauzka1p ditugu dauzkagu2s dituzu dauzkazu

2p dituzue dauzkazue3p dituzte dauzkate

Simple Past

1s nituen neuzkan3s zituen zeuzkan1p genituen geneuzkan2s zenituen zeneuzkan2p zenituzten zeneuzkaten3p zituzten zeuzkaten


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Auxiliary Verbs

The Auxiliaries

As explained earlier, there is a set of compound tenses in Basque which are almost

more important than the simple tenses because their use is more generalized. Thesecompound tenses are built from a small number of auxiliary verbs in conjunction witha small number of nonfinite verb forms for the main verb. The four auxiliaries are

izanbe, izanhave, and two other auxiliaries with no nonfinite form by which

properly to cite them; for these we shall use the made-up names edin and ezan. Two

of these, izanbe and edin, are intransitive; the other two, izanhave and ezan, aretransitive. The first two are used with intransitive main verbs, and the last two withtransitive ones.

Each of these auxiliaries has, like any synthetic verb, a range of simple tenses,which can be used to form compound tenses. It is beyond our scope here to explore

the full range of tenses, some of which are used far less frequently than others.

Present and Past ofizan

The most important of all are the present and past tenses of the auxiliaries, and the

most important auxiliaries are izanbe and izanhave. The present and past ofizanbewas given above, together with that of other intransitive verbs. The present and past

ofizanhave was also given but only for third person direct objects. Since the formsof this verb for the other person objects occur mostly as auxiliaries, we shall givethem here:

Transitive Auxiliary Forms: Present and Past(izan have, with non-third person direct objects)

1s dir.obj. 1p dir. obj. 2s dir. obj. 2p dir. obj.Present

1s zaitut zaituztet3s nau gaitu zaitu zaituzte1p zaitugu zaituztegu2s nauzu gaituzu 2p nauzue gaituzue 3p naute gaituzte zaituzte zaituzte

Past1s zintudan zintuztedan3s ninduen gintuen zintuen zintuzten1p zintugun zintuztegun2s ninduzun gintuzun 2p ninduzuen gintuzuen 3p ninduten gintuzten zintuzten zintuzten

Conditional ofizan

Both izanbe and izanhave possess a Conditional tense which, in a main verb use,may mean would be and would have respectively, and which are furthermore often


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used as Conditional auxiliaries. Here and in the other tables following, only the

most frequent forms ofizanhave are given, i.e. those for third person objects.

Conditional ofizanizanbe izanhave

Third person singular object1s nintzateke 1s nuke3s litzateke 3s luke1p ginateke 1p genuke2s zinateke 2s zenuke2p zinatekete 2p zenukete3p lirateke 3p lukete

Third person plural object

1s nituzke3s lituzke

1p genituzke2s zenituzke2p zenituzkete3p lituzkete

Hypothetic ofizan

The Hypothetic tense presented next is used in the first part of conditionalsentences, in the hypothetical if-clause: if (I) were, if (I) hadetc. The prefix ba-meaning ifis attached to these forms. Again, the following forms may be used as

main verbs meaning be and have or as intransitive and transitive auxiliaries:

Hypothetic ofizanizanbe izanhave

Third person singular object

1s banintz 1s banu3s balitz 3s balu1p bagina 1p bagenu2s bazina 2s bazenu2p bazinate 2p bazenute

3p balira 3p baluteThird person plural object

1s banitu3s balitu1p bagenitu2s bazenitu2p bazenituzte3p balituzte


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Imperative Auxiliaries

In modern Basque the verb izan does not possess synthetic imperative forms, but

there are imperative forms of the auxiliaries edin and ezan which combine with a

main verb to make up a finite imperative. Forms of the transitive auxiliary ezan are

given for third and first person objects, singular and plural. For the use of theseauxiliaries, see the later section Compound Tenses.

Imperative AuxiliariesIntransitive Transitive

Third person

singular objectFirst person

singular object

2s zaitez 2s ezazu 2s nazazu2p zaitezte 2p ezazue 2p nazazue

Third person pluralobject First person pluralobject

2s itzazu 2s gaitzazu2p itzazue 2p gaitzazue

Potential Auxiliaries

Finally, the following forms ofedin and ezan constitute Potential auxiliaries thatcombine with a main verb to express ability or possibility. Two such tenses will begiven here, the Present Potential which translates can, may and the Hypothetic (or

Conditional) Potential which expresses could, might. Only the third person objectforms are given here for the transitive auxiliary.


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Present Potential Auxiliariesintransitive transitive


1s naiteke 1s dezaket

3s daiteke 3s dezake1p gaitezke 1p dezakegu2s zaitezke 2s dezakezu2p zaitezkete 2p dezakezue3p daitezke 3p dezakete


1s ditzaket3s ditzake1p ditzakegu2s ditzakezu

2p ditzakezue3p ditzakete

Hypothetic Potential Auxiliariesintransitive transitive


1s ninteke 1s nezake3s liteke 3s lezake1p gintezke 1p genezake2s zintezke 2s zenezake2p zintezkete 2p zenezakete3p litezke 3p lezakete


1s nitzake3s litzake1p genitzake2s zenitzake2p zenitzakete3p litzakete

Morphological Analysis

It is not necessary for the average student to learn the morphological analysis of thevarious synthetic finite verb paradigms that we have seen; moreover, the ordinaryBasque speaker is hardly aware of any such analysis. Since, however, the Basque verbsystem, due to its considerable intricacy, arouses the curiosity of many a casualobserver, a few rough notes on the subject are inserted here before moving on. Forreferences for a fuller account of the points merely touched on here, see the chapter

Further Reading.In principle at least, synthetically conjugated verbs have a Present Tense, a

Past Tense, and a Hypothetic. Taking the intransitive verb etorricome and the

transitive verbjakinknow as examples, the Present and Past of these were given in

the section Simple Verb Forms; the Hypothetic, with the prefix ba-if, is as follows:


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Hypothetic Tenseetorricome jakinknow

1s banentor 1s baneki3s baletor 3s baleki1p bagentoz 1p bageneki

2s bazentoz 2s bazeneki2p bazentozte 2p bazenekitte3p beletoz 3p balekite

Semantically there is a mood distinction between the indicative Present and Past onthe one hand and the Hypothetic on the other, which means if I were to come/knowetc.; but the latter is neither present nor past in meaning, and for effects of Basquemorphology it is convenient to see the Hypothetic as a third value for the formalcategory of (primary) Tense, making up a three-way system:

The Primary TensesPresent nator I am comingPast nentorren I was coming

Hypothetic (ba-)nentor (if) I were to come

There is also an imperative, described above, e.g. zatoz!come! In addition, the three

primary Tenses just given may be modified by a morpheme whose usual form is -keand which can be called Potential; the full paradigm thus includes a Present Potential,

a Past Potential and a Hypothetic Potential (without ba-). In synthetically conjugated

verbs the meaning of-ke is modal and varies between can (could have, could), may(might have, might), andprobably:

Potential Imperative

Present natorI am coming

natorkeI may come

zatoz!come!

Past nentorrenI was coming

nentorkeenI might have come

Hypothetic ba-nentorif I were to come

nentorke

I might come

This is the basic synthetic Tense paradigm of the Basque verb representing the

maximal set of forms available for a given verb. It does not follow that allthepotential forms generated by this theoretical paradigm occur in use with any greatfrequency; hence it is not necessary for the ordinary language learner to master thewhole system in practice for the various verbs and the variety of personal forms thatare possible in principle.

The verbs that are used as auxiliaries (izanbe, izanhave, edin and ezan) each

have this Tense paradigm (except that in the modern language izan lacks a syntheticimperative). While the choice between intransitive and transitive auxiliaries isdetermined by agreement with the transitivity of the main verb (and also by certainintransitivization operations), the further opposition between the two pairs of

auxiliaries (izan/izan versus edin/ezan) is exploited in a rather complicated manner

to achieve mood oppositions not available within the synthetic system. For example:(a) the non-potential tenses ofedin/ezan (nadin/dezadan, nendin/nezan) function as


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subjunctive auxiliaries (not included in the preceding summary); (b) the Potential

tenses ofedin/ezan (naiteke/dezaket, ninteke(en) and nezake(en)) are used to

express possibility and ability, whereas the Potential tenses ofizan (naizateke/duketetc.) express, in eastern dialects, epistemic possibility or probability; and (c) in the

Hypothetic auxiliary forms (which correspond to banentor, nentorke in the table

above), there is in western dialects a specialization of the izan forms (banintz/banu,nintzateke/nuke) as general exponents of hypothetical mood.

Dative Verb Forms

Verbs in Basque agree with an indirect object (represented by an explicit or implieddative noun phrase), in addition to agreeing with the subject and direct object.Intransitive verbs may thus agree with a maximum of two arguments, the subject andthe indirect object; while transitive verbs may agree with three; subject, direct objectand indirect object.

The elements in the verb that shows agreement with the person and number ofthe indirect object follows the verbs stem and resembles the person markers forsubjects of transitive verbs in the present tense, except in the third person:

Indirect Object Indices

1s -t, -da- 1p -gu2s -zu2p -zue

3s -o 3p -e

The first person singular marker has two forms: -t occurs at the end of the word, and

-da- when another affix follows.For example, here are the forms of the Present ofizan (be and have) when

there is an indirect object.

izan be with Indirect Objects (Present)1s ind. obj. 3s ind. obj. 1p ind. obj. 2s ind. obj. 2p ind. obj. 3p ind. obj.

1s natzaio natzaizu natzaizue natzaie3s zait zaio zaigu zaizu zaizue zaie1p gatzaizkio gatzaizkizu gatzaizkizue gatzaizkie2s zatzaizkit zatzaizkio zatzaizkigu zatzaizkie2p zatzaizkidate zatzaizkiote zaitzaizkigue zatzaizkiete3p zaizkit zaizkio zaizkigu zaizkizu zaizkizue zaizkie

izan have with Indirect Objects (Present)Third Person SingularDirect Object

1s ind. obj. 3s ind. obj. 1p ind. obj. 2s ind.obj.

2p ind. obj. 3p ind.obj.

1s diot dizut dizuet diet3s dit dio digu dizu dizue die1p diogu dizugu dizuegu diegu2s didazu diozu diguzu diezu2p didazue diozue diguzue diezue

3p didate diote digute dizute dizuete dieteThird PersonPluralDirect Object


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1s ind. obj. 3s ind. obj. 1p ind. obj. 2s ind.obj.

2p ind. obj. 3p ind.obj.

1s dizkiot dizkizut dizkizuet dizkiet3s dizkit dizkio dizkigu dizkizu dizkizue dizkie1p dizkiogu dizkizugu dizkizuegu dizkiegu

2s dizkidazu dizkiozu dizkiguzu dizkiezu2p dizkidazue dizkiozue dizkiguzue dizkiezue3p dizkidate dizkiote dizkigute dizkizute dizkizuete dizkiete

Similar paradigms exist in each of the other Tenses.

Compound Tenses

Formation of Compound Tenses

Each of the Basque compound tenses is made up of a particular Tense of one pair of

auxiliaries (eitherizan/izan oredin/ezan) which combines with (and usually follows)a particular kind of nonfinite form of the main verb. There are four options as regardsthe nonfinite form: the tu-form; the tzen-form; the tuko-form; and the stem form.

The tu-form is a verbs citation form, given in dictionaries etc. In most verbs

this form ends in -tu (or-du), but in certain verbs the ending is -i or-n, and in a few

there is no ending at all. Examples are bukatufinish, saldusell, etorricome,joan

go, aterago outortake out. The correct tu-form of each verb thus has to be learnt.Compound tenses formed with this form refer to the past or to a completed action orstate (perfect).

The tzen-form ends in either-tzen or-ten, e.g. bukatzen, saltzen, etortzen,joaten, ateratzen. In compound tenses its meaning is imperfective or simultaneous.

The tuko-form consists of the tu-form with the addition of-ko (or aftern, -go),

e.g. bukatuko, salduko, etorriko,joango, aterako.The stem form usually consists of the citation form minus its ending, unless

this is n, which is retained in the stem form: buka, sal, etor,joan, atera.Colloquially, western dialects do not make systematic use of the stem form, which is

replaced by the tu-form (citation form): bukatu instead ofbuka, and so on.Compound tenses may be divided into two groups depending on whether the

auxiliary is izan oredin/ezan. Those in the first group can have the main verb in the

tu-form, the tzen-form or the tuko-form, but not in the stem form. Those in the secondgroup, on the contrary, only take the stem form, except in western dialects, where thisis colloquially replaced by the tu-form.

The choice of an intransitive or transitive auxiliary will in each case reflect the

transitivity of the main verb. Thus etortzen naizI come with the intransitive auxiliary

naizI am, but saltzen dutI sell (it) with the transitive auxiliary dutI have (it); andsimilarly in all other tenses. Certain verbs can have intransitive and transitive

meanings, and will take different auxiliaries accordingly, e.g. ateratzen naizI go out

versus ateratzen dutI take (him/her/it) out.The auxiliary must agree in person and number with the subject and, where

applicable, object or objects of the main verb. Thus not only etortzen naizI come

versus etortzen zarayou come, and saltzen dutI sell (it) versus saltzen duzuyou


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sell (it); but furthermore, the last two contrast with saltzen ditutI sell (them) and

saltzen dituzuyou sell (them).

Present Habitual, Near Past and Future

Three compound tenses can be formed with the Present ofizan, depending on thechoice of nonfinite form (see above): the Present Habitual, as in etortzen naizI come,

saltzen dutI sell (it); the Near Past, as in etorri naizI came, saldu dutI sold (it);

and the Future, as in etorriko naizI will come, salduko dutI will sell (it). These areamong the most frequently used tenses in Basque. The Present Habitual oftenexpresses habitual action, but can also express a general present with stative verbs

such as ezagutuknow. The Near Past expresses two notions: a definite (perfective)past occurrence within the day of speaking (as in I saw him this morning), and acompleted (perfect) event having occurred at some time before the present (as in Ihave read that book).

Past Habitual, Remote Past and Future-in-the-Past

A parallel set of three more tenses are formed similarly with the Past ofizan. Theirmeanings approximately parallel those of the three tenses with the present auxiliary.

Thus the Past Habitual, e.g. etortzen nintzenI used to come, saltzen nuenI used tosell, is used for habitual activity in the past and also as a general past of statives. The

Remote Past, e.g. etorri nintzenI came, saldu nuenI sold, most often expresses a

definite past event earlier than the day of speaking. The Future-in-the-Past, etorriko

nintzen, salduko nuen, may express a future action within a past time frame ofreference, mostly in indirect speech: (she said) she would come. It has another

common use expressing unfulfilled conditional statements, i.e. she would havecome.

Hypothetical and Unfulfilled Conditionals

A hypothetical but possible conditional statement is usually expressed by the

combination of the Conditional ofizan with the tuko-form of the main verb, e.g.

etorriko nintzatekeI would come, salduko nukeI would sell (it). As just observed,an unfulfilled conditional is usually expressed by the Future-in-the-Past tense:

etorriko nintzenI would have come, salduko nuenI would have sold (it).In the if-clauses corresponding to these conditional types, the Hypothetic of

izan is used as auxiliary. For possible but hypothetical conditions this is combined

with the tuko-form: etorriko banintzif I came, salduko banuif I sold (it). For

unfulfilled conditions, the tu-form is empoyed: etorri banintzif I had come, saldu

banuif I had sold (it).

Imperative

The periphrastic imperative is formed with the imperative of the second pair of

auxiliaries, edin/ezan. These, it will be remembered, always combine with the stem

form of the main verb in standard Basque: etor zaitez!come!, sal ezazu!sell (it)!

Verbs also have a nonfinite imperative which is identical in form to the verbsstem form (or in western Basque, to the tu-form): Etor!/Etorri!Come!


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Potential Tenses

The compound potential tenses expressing ability and possibility, i.e. can ormay

(could, mightetc.), are formed with the various Potential tenses ofedin orezan and

the verbs stem form: etor naitekeI can come, sal dezaketI can sell (it); etornintekeI could come (i.e.I would/might be able to come), sal nezakeI could sell (it).

Further Periphrastic Patterns

The Continuous

The continuous or progressive aspect, to be doing something, is usually expressedby the intransitive compound verb (see the section Other Verb-Related Features

below) ari izan in conjunction with a tzen-form: Euskara ikasten ari naizI amlearning Basque.

Want to and must

Want to and mustare expressed in Basque by the transitive compound verbs nahi

izan and behar izan respectively. These may be used with noun objects, meaning

wantand need: Etxe bat behar dutI need a house. When they take a clause

complement, the verb is in the tu-form: Euskara ikasi behar dut. While usuallyretaining their intrinsic transitivity, these matrix verbs agree with the main verbs

direct and indirect objects if there are any; compare: Euskara eta frantsesa ikasi

nahi ditut.

Can

There are several ways to express ability and possibility. Those involving the

potential morpheme -ke have been mentioned earlier; another element with a similar

meaning is ahal. The details of this items syntax are somewhat complex. One use,

very common in eastern Basque, is illustrated by this example: Euskara ikasten ahal

dutI can learn Basque. Here ahal dut combines with the tzen-form of the main verb;in western Basque it can only take the tu-form, but in those varieties the scope of use

ofahal is generally more limited, with overall preference for the inflected forms.

Unlike nahi izan and behar izan, ahal izan always assimilates its transitivity to thatof the main verb; thus with an intransitive complement clause, we will have

California joan behar dutI must go to California but California joaten ahal naizI

can go to California. (California joan behar naiz is also heard, but this westernusage is colloquial and deemed substandard.)

Cannot

Any of the expressions for ability or possibility described may, in standard Basque, be

negated in the regular manner with eznot, but in western usage in particular these

formations are largely avoided in favour of a particular construction with ezincannot,


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whose syntax is illustrated by these examples: Ezin dut euskara ikasiI cannot learn

Basque; Ezin naiz Californiara joanI cannot go to California.

Other Verb-Related Features

Compound Verbs

Compound verbs are verbs composed of two lexical items, one of which (usuallyplaced first) is not itself verbal in nature. The second element is a normal Basqueverb, which may or may not possess a synthetic conjugation, and usually belonging to

a very small set of common verbs such as izanbe orhave, egindo, make, etc.

Some examples of the many compound verbs formed with egin are lan egin

work, hitz eginspeak, lo eginsleep, orbarre eginlaugh: Aitarekin hitz egin nahi

dutI want to speak to father. There are also many compound verbs with either

intransitive or transitive izan, such as bizi izanlive (intransitive) and maite izanlove(transitive).

Modal Particles

There exists a small set of particles which may immediately precede the finite verbform (i.e. the auxiliary in compound tenses, or the main verb in synthetic ones), called

modal particles. The main particles are ote, used with interrogative sentences to

express doubt (cf. EnglishI wonder...), omen which indicates that the information

asserted is a matter of hearsay, and (in some western dialects only) al which marks a

yes-no question as such. Examples are Aitarekin hitz egin ote du?Has he ote

spoken to father?, i.e.I wonder whether he has spoken to father?; Etxea polita omendaThe house is omen pretty, i.e.I have heard that the house is pretty (but I

havent seen it myself...); and Autobusa ba al datorIs the bus coming? (versus

Autobusa badatorThe bus is coming). Other dialects do not use al in quite this way,

but in eastern dialects -a is suffixed to the finite verb form with the same function:

Joan nahi duzua?Do you want to go? (versus Joan nahi duzuYou want to go).

Subordination Markers

In subordinate clauses the finite verb form takes one of four affixes which can be

termed subordinators or subordination markers: -en, -ela, ba- and bai-. Except for

ba-, which is simply prefixed in a straightforward way, there are certain minormorphophonemic rules involved when the subordinators are added.

The meaning ofba- as a subordinator is if; this must be distinguished from the

homophonous affirmative markerba- (see the first section of the chapter), whose

function is quite different: Autobusa badator joango naizIf the bus comes I will go.

The most common meaning ofbai- is weakly causal (since, for, as) as in Ulertuko

du, euskara ederki ikasi baitu [= bai- + du] She orHe will understand, for (s)he haslearnt Basque well.

The two suffixes -en and -ela each has a variety of functions as subordinationmarkers; the former is used in relative clauses, indirect questions, and other contexts,

while the latter occurs in indirect statements and circumstantial clauses. Examples:Bilbora doan [= doa + -en] autobusa hartuko dutIll take the bus that goes to


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Bilbao (relative clause); Ez dakit nora doan autobus horiI dont know where that

bus goes to (indirect question); Zuk esaten duzun [= duzu + -en] bezala egingo

duguWell do as you say (complement ofbezalaas); Esaten dute etxea polita dela

[= da + -ela] They say that the house is nice (indirect statement).

Other kinds of finite subordinate clause take -en or-ela with another suffix

following, e.g. -eneanwhen, -enezas, -elakobecause, etc. But there is also amplescope for nonfinite subordinate clauses (see the sectionNonfinite Verb Forms).

Nonfinite Verb Forms

Principal Parts

Nonfinite verb forms are used in many kinds of subordinate clauses, in verbcomplements, and also to form the compound tenses, as alrelady seen. All nonfinite

forms can be derived with ease from three basic forms or principal parts: the citationform ortu-form (e.g. bukatufinish); the stem form (e.g. buka); and the verbal noun

ortze-form (e.g. bukatze). Because of its very frequent use it may be found practical

to memorize the tzen-form (bukatzen) rather than the tze-form, which is more basic;this practice has been followed in some dictionaries, for example. On the formation ofthese basic forms, see above in the section Compound Tenses: Formation ofCompound Tenses.

The uses of the stem form are quite limited; its use in compound tenses wascovered above. This form is also limited dialectally, as it occurs only sporadically inwestern Basque dialects.

The Verbal Noun and its Derivatives

The tze-form (ending in eithertze- orte-) is a verbal noun, i.e. it acts rather like anoun expressing an action. It constitutes a noun phrase which, as such, must have a

determiner, normally the singular article -a, e.g. from saldusellwe have the verbal

noun saltzea(the act of) selling. Unlike a plain noun, however, a verbal noun

king alan r. (1997) introduction to basque [66 pp]

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