The Basque Country

Trevor McAllister-Day HONORS 211 C Country Report Labourd Lower Navarre Basque Country Soule The Basque Country Navarre Introduction The “Basque Country,” or in the Basque language, Euskal Herria, is a region in the western Pyrenees that spans the Spanish-French border. It comprises two Autonomous Communities in Spain – The Basque Country and Navarre – and three French provinces – Lower Navarre, Labourd, and Soule. The total area of the Basque Country is 20,947 sq. km. and is inhabited by roughly 3 Figure 1: The Basque Country million people across the border, 70% of which live in Spanish Basque Country. For clarity’s sake, the term The Basque Country - Euskal Herria “Basque Country” will be used to describe the trans- País Vasco - Pays Basque national region, and “Spanish Basque Country” (SBC) Names are given in English, Spanish/French, and then Basque. will describe the Spanish Autonomous Community Spain called “Basque Country.” Basque Country - País Vasco - Euskadi The three official languages spoken in the Basque Navarre - Navarra - Naforroa Country are Spanish (ISO 639-3 spa), French (ISO France 639-3 fra), and Basque. The Basque language, Eus- Lower Navarre - Basse-Navarre - kara, (ISO 639-3: eus) is spoken by 468,000 in Spain, Naforroa Beherea and by 545,872 people in total. Basque retains legal Labourd - Labourd - Lapurdi status in Spain, but not in France. It is an Institutional Soule - Soule - Zuberoa language, specifically EGIDS level 2 (provincial) Figure 2: Constituent Regions (Ethnologue). of Spanish-Basque bilinguals, which was highest in In the Spanish Basque Country, Basque monolin- the province of Gipzkoa, which is the north-central guals are virtually non-existent1. However, more than region indicated in Graph 1. High proportions of SBC half (54.8%) of the population is bilingual to some ex- society is fluent in Basque, as seen in Figure 4, where tent. The same report also noted the relative frequency the concentration of fluent speakers in notably cen- 1 A census of the Spanish Basque Country reported only bilin- tered around the northern area of the greater Basque guals, passive bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals. Country, in the SBC province2 of Gipzkoa, northern Navarre and Pyrenean France. 2 A subdivision of the Autonomous Community. Figure 3: Basque Fluency Graph 1: Bilinguals in Spanish Basque Country Background, Spain Background, France The Ethnologue lists 15 liv- The French Republic is listed as ing languages for the Kingdom of the home to 23 living languages Spain. The national language is and to two extinct languages. The Spanish, and there are three provin- national language is French, and cial languages: Basque, Catalan, and Galician. Fur- French Sign Language also has recognition. Spanish thermore, there are two developing languages1 (includ- and Portuguese are used for wider communication. ing Spanish Sign Language), four vigorous languages2, Catalan, Greek, and Italian are described as dispersed, four threatened languages3, and one shifting language4. and there are nine developing languages1, three vigor- Spain is, of course, the birthplace of the Spanish ous languages2, two threatened languages3, two shift- language, which is spoken by more than 38 million ing languages4, and one moribund language5. The people in Spain and by more than 414 million world- extinct languages of France are Shaudit and Zarphatic wide. Spanish is also one of the six official languages (Ethnologue). of the United Nations. Besides Spain, Spanish is also French is spoken by nearly 274 million people the national (or sometimes co-national) language of 19 worldwide, making it the fifth-most widely spoken nations in South America, as well as a co-official state language on the planet, and the only language besides language of New Mexico (Ethnologue). English to be spoken on all five continents. French is Spain’s language situation is recognized both in its also the fourth-most common language used on the 1978 constitution, which allows com- Internet. The countries that speak munities to declare regional languages French are known as “La Francopho- co-official with Castilian Spanish. Six nie,” which is represented by the In- communities are bilingual. They are ternational Organisation of La Franco- (clockwise from the northwest, Fig- phonie, based in Paris, Addis Ababa, ure 4): Galicia (Galician), the Basque Brussels, New York, and Geneva. La Country, Navarre, Catalonia (Cata- Francophonie consists of 80 states, lan), the Balearic Islands (Catalan), and account for a population of over and Valencia (Valencian). The Statues 890 million (Organisation). Figure 4: Bilingual of most of these Autonomous Communi- Autonomous The French has historically had very strict language ties maintain laws that allow for use of Communities policies, beginning with King François in 1539. Today, their minority language, and state that “No one will be modern authorities are more favorable to regional discriminated for reasons of language.” languages and immigrant languages. This remarkable support for these regional languag- In France, linguistic unity is paramount. To this day, es arose under dictator Francisco Franco’s forty-year France refuses to sign the European Charter for Re- regime. His rule was hostile to languages other than gional and Minority Languages (ECRML). Regional Castilian, and use of these minority languages sprung languages have no status and no recognition in France. up in protest against the oppressive dictatorship. In The reasons for this prejudice dates to the French defiance of Franco, the use of these languages snow- Revolution. France stated the ECRML was incompat- balled and led to the ideological breakup of his regime ible with its constitution. However, in 2008, a change (Siguán). was made to the constitution, recognizing that “region- Despite Spain’s status as the homeland of Spanish, al languages belong to the heritage of France.” a powerful language worldwide, its unique history has While mainland linguistic diversity is low, France led to powerful and emotional support for its minority retains a number of colonial territories. Languages languages, and for many strong legal protections for spoken in these territories include Amerindian lan- Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian. guages, French creoles, and Austronesian languages. 1 Basque, Caló, Corsican, French SL, Ligurian, Luxembourgish, Picard, Sinte Romani, Vlax Romani. 1 Caló, Spanish SL 2 Alsatian, Lyons SL, Balkan Romani 2 Catalan SL, Fala, Quinqui, Valencian SL 3 Erromintxela, Occitan 3 Aragonese, Asturian, Erromintxela, Aranese Gascon 4 Breton, Vlaams 4 Extremadruan 5 Arpitan Basque Education A B D X/G Total Spain Public 46,445 20,540 102,344 29,973 196,302 The situation of Basque in Spain is comparable to another minority language - Catalan (ISO 639-3 cat). Private 56,205 47,429 61,306 24,474 189,414 The revival of Catalan has been more successful, with Total 102,650 67,969 163,650 51,477 385,716 a total of 4 million native speakers and over 5 million Table 1: Enrollment by Model L2 users (Ethnologue). Much like Catalan, Basque received official recognition after the death of Francisco Franco and Spain’s transition to democracy (Basque Language). After many years of “neglect and outright repression,” Spain adopted a more friendly attitude toward its minority languages in the 1978 constiution. Basque-language schools are known as ikastola schools. Graph 2: Enrollment by Model The 1982 Law for the Normalisation of the Use of France Basque established a number of basic standards for Fewer French speak Basque than Spaniards. the Basque language. These standards include (Basque 468,000 of the total 545,872 (86%) Basque speakers Language, Spain): live in Spain (Ethnologue). In France, the Northern • The right of students or their parents to choose Basque country is also known as Iparralde. Iparralde is the medium of instruction. a part of the département Pyrénées-Atlantiques. • Pre-university students must receive classes in Although 54.8% of Spanish Basque Country resi- the offical language not used as the medium of dents are familiar with Basque to some extent, only instruction. 36.3% (2001) of Iparralde residents are familiar with • The Basque Government will define bilingual Basque, and that number is only decreasing. teaching models for parents. In 2005, the Filon Law made it possible for regional • the Basque Government will take measures with languages to be learned, but only in an optional set- regard to teachers’ language competence, plans ting, never as a “modern language.” Instruction in of study and teacher training colleges in order to minority languages is at the will of the teacher. be able to satisfy parental demand for Basque- However, ikastola do exist in France. At the pri- medium and language teaching. mary level, 26.8% of students are exposed to Basque Today, more than 90% of the Basque population is in some capacity. Secondary education in France is enrolled in Basque Immersion Programs. (The Basque divided into two levels, collège and lycée, taught in Education System). They are able to choose from three public schools and Catholic schools. methods of education: The distribution of students in shown in Table 2. • Model A: Spanish is used as the teaching me- It is clear that Basque education is lacking in France, dium, Basque is taught as a subject. compared to its success in Spain. • Model D: Basque is used as the teaching me- The inter-university department of Basque Studies1 dium, Spanish is taught as a subject. of Bayonne is the only place in France that offers the • Model B: Both Spanish and Basque are used as Basque Studies License, a form of bachelor’s degree. subject and medium. A master’s program is available for continuing study • Model X/G: Spanish only. in France (Basque Language, France). Both public and private schools follow these models. Approximately 60% of students attend state schools. Distribution of students by model is given in 1 Départment interuniversitaire d’étude Basque Table 1 and Graph 2.

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