Politics and Onomastics in the Basque Country. Historical and Current Situation

Politics and onomastics in the Basque Country. Historical and current situation

Patxi SALABERRI

0. Introduction First of all, I would like to provide a brief explanation of the geo- graphical, historical and linguistic situation of what we Basque speakers call Euskal Herria1 in Euskara or Basque. This toponym has been translated as Vasconia in Spanish, since the words País Vasco (or Euskadi) have become terms which often designate only the three provinces (Álava or Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) that nowadays con- stitute an autonomous region situated in the north of Spain, in the Bay of Biscay. Its neighbouring region is Navarre, in the Pyrenees, named Nafarroa or Nafarroa Garaia (High Navarre) in Basque. On the other side of the border, in south-western France, there are three other small regions called Lapurdi (Labourd), Nafarroa Beherea (Basse-Navarre or Lower Navarre) and Zuberoa (Soule), which make up the so-called Pays Basque, the French Basque Country, the remnant of the much broader land where our language was in use 2.000 years ago. The specificity of Gascon is considered by Rohlfs (1977) to be due to the Basque substrate (cf. the evolution of the name Vasconia > Wasconia > Gascuña, Gascogne…; ibid., 18), something that Luchaire had seen a hundred years before (1877, 377-390). The Basque language or Euskara is spoken today by about 665.000 people aged 16 and over, and there are, also, around 400.000 passive bilinguals of the same age. It is worthwhile pointing out that under Franco’s dictatorship, for almost forty years, the use of Basque was forbidden in the Spanish Basque Country, although the systematic attacks on the language are much older, as we will see. In Franco’s time speaking Basque was completely prohibited and the only language allowed was Spanish; a common practice at school was the following: when the teacher heard a child speak Basque he or she

1 The first attestation dates back to c. 1564.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 217217 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 218 PATXI SALABERRI

gave him / her a ring and the child had to pass it to the next classmate who dared to employ his or her own language. At the end of the week the student who carried the ring was severely punished. The consequence of the hard repression was the loss of the language in a big area. This punishing custom was not new, as we can see by Kardaberatz’s eighteenth- century testimony (author’s translation; p. 30): “In a trip to Araba, a friend of mine, a courageous captain of the King’s guard, said this to me: «Father, how can children in the Basque countries have a good education and the sound doctrine if all efforts are made to damage Basque, and if speaking Basque is forbidden to our boys or children through frightening and lashing them?»” Punishing children for using Euskara has been a common practice in southern Vasconia, at least from the eighteenth century to our days, and there is good reason to believe that it also happened before. We know for sure that in the Middle Ages a great part of the Navarrese monarchy spoke Romance, no matter which variety it was, on the one hand because many kings and queens were born abroad and had a Romance language as their mother tongue, and, on the other hand, because Basque was not written and was probably considered the language of the lower social class. Starting at the end of the eleventh century, Navarrese sovereigns gave a large number of privileges to the so-called «francos» (the immigrants who came to Navarre in the Middle Ages, mainly from the south of France), in order to foment and promote commerce, along the way to Santiago de Compostela. In towns, some areas inhabited by francos were granted fueros (charters), which gave them privileges that Navarrese people did not have. This situation created tensions and led sometimes to war between locals and foreigners. There is every reason to believe that the Occitan koiné or lingua franca that was born from the contact between speakers of close but different dialects was protected by Euskara, which encircled and isolated it from Castilian, and that when the influence of this language increased, Occitan disappeared like a sugar lump in water. The same thing happened to Navar- rese Romance (see González Ollé 1969, 1970 and Michelena 1971) used side by side with Latin and Occitan in medieval documents, and commonly in the southern part of Navarre.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 218218 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 219

Apart from the monarchy, many nobles and members of the upper classes spoke Romance, although there were, as Jimeno (1997, 63-66, 99-101) proved, some exceptions, some Basque monolingual nobles. Nevertheless, there was, undoubtedly, a great degree of bilin- gualism among the members of the upper social classes, since ordi- nary people spoke, as a general rule, only Basque. On the other hand, along the border between the romanized and the unromanized Navarre and Araba, the presence of bilingual speakers is certain, and the same thing can be said about cities and towns all over the Basque Country, in which immigrant francos, civil servants, priests, soldiers, etc., were undoubtedly numerous. The conquest of Araba and Gipuzkoa by Castile happened early, in 1200, and the incorporation of most of Bizkaia took place even earlier, but Navarre remained a realm apart until Castile and Aragón, united after the marriage of their king and queen, conquered it in 1512, or at least conquered the part placed to the south of the actual border between France and Spain. The territory situated to the north, the present Basse-Navarre and Béarn, continued to be independent until 1790, at least on paper, because from the year 1589 onwards the king of France was also king of Navarre.

1. Basque names through history

1.1. Antiquity The first attestations of Basque names (anthroponyms and theonyms) are found in Aquitanian inscriptions, around the third century AD. (see Michelena 1954 and Gorrochategui 1984, 1993, 1993b). Those inscriptions and the one found in Lerga (Navarre) dating from the same period (Michelena 1958, Gorrochategui 2006) were in Latin, since Basque was unwritten. Scholars believe that the presence of the graph is decisive when examining the origin of a certain name: if that letter appears, the name can be considered as Basque or as having been used by Basque people, even though its etymon is not clear, since the aspiration was not present in any of the languages living around Euskara (Gaulish, Iberian and Celtiberian; see Michelena 1958, J. Gorrochategui 1984b and 2006, and also Bähr 1948, 41). Obviously, establishing the correspondences between the names in the inscriptions and historical Euskara words, and also the morphophonological

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 219219 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 220 PATXI SALABERRI

structure of those names, are fundamental for taking a name as Basque (Gorrochategui 1995, 2002, 2006). Among the Aquitanian anthroponyms the following ones can be mentioned: Andere, Anderexo, Anderexso, from Andere, still alive as andere, andre ‘woman, lady’, the last two forms with the suffix –xso, that can be compared to the actual diminutive and hypocoristic suf- fixes –txo and –tto; Cison which seemingly must be read [kison] and be identified with current gizon ‘man’ (cf. Latin causa > Basque gauza, Spanish cosa), especially since Gisondoni too, from the same stem, is attested. The personal name Gizon, Gixon appears several times in medieval documents. Other anthroponyms are, for example, Halscotarris (genitive), derived from the name Halsco- attested as well as Halsconis, by means of the still employed –tar suffix that indicates origin (for instance Eibar a town in Gipuzkoa / eibartar ‘the native of Eibar’), Lohisi, Lohixsi (genitives), Lohitton, from lohi ‘mud’ normally, but also ‘body’ in some old texts, and the obscure Narhonsus (nominative) related probably to Narhvngesi (genitive) in Lerga. In this Navarrese village we have also Vmmesahar (VM.ME.SA.HAR), composed of the name Umme (current ume ‘child, baby’, from a previous ombe) and Sahar, that is to say, zahar ‘old’, perhaps referring to the child born first. With regard to theonyms, we have among many others Aherbel- ste, composed of aher, a likely but not certain variant of aker, akher ‘he-goat’, and belex, current beltz ‘black’ plus a suffix; Baicoriso, Baigorixo, Bvaigorixe related, according to the majority of authors, to the present village name Baigorri (Basse-Navarre), composed perhaps of ibai ‘river’ and gorri ‘red’, ‘Fluss-roter’, ‘Rotbach’ (Schuchardt 1909, 240)2. Aside from the anthroponyms and theonyms, there are some place names attested in classical geographers’ works: Dhoúa, present Deba in Gipuzkoa (of Celtic origin); Ilu(m)berritani, the inhabitants of Irunberri (< Ilunberri) or Lumbier; Lapurdum, called Lapurdi nowadays, although at Roman times it designated Baiona (Bayonne), the capital of the mentioned region; OíassÉ, current Oiartzun, etc.

2 This etymology could probably not be approved if we accepted the explanation i- (< ur ‘water’) + *ban-i ‘cut’ proposed few years ago by Lakarra (2002, 432, 434). Otherwise we ought to accept that the loss of the initial i- is very old.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 220220 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 221

The names mentioned so far prove that the Basque language was used, north to the present Spanish-French border, in a triangle extending from Bordeaux to the Aran valley (haran means ‘valley’ in Basque) in the Pyrenees to the East, and the sea to the West (Rohlfs 1977), and that the theories that consider Euskara as being imported from Spain are baseless. Likewise, the inscription from Lerga and others from Argiñaritz – Lerate – Zirauki (Losa, Loxa), Andion (Lar- rahi) (Velaza 1995, 213), Barbarin (Selatse or Stelaitse, Velaza 1992), Iruxo (Larahe, Tobalina & Jimeno 1998) found in the middle part of Navarre or in Álava (Helasse in Miñao; Gorrochategui 1984b) prove that Basque was used there at Roman times and was not imported from Aquitaine or any other place, as it has been suggested. Obvi- ously, the presence of personal names and theonyms of Basque origin does not entail the impossibility of finding names coming from other languages, as, for example, and according to Tovar (1968), the Indo- European theonym Peremusta found in Eslaba (Navarre), the neigh- bour village of the already-mentioned Lerga (see also Velaza 1995, 212-214).

1.2. The Middle Ages After the inscriptions of the Roman period, Basque names can be found again in the Middle Ages, especially in the documents kept in the monasteries and cathedrals of the Basque Country, but also in the official documentation of the villages founded, often over a former existing inhabited place, mainly from the twelfth century onwards. A big effort is being made in our days so that the mentioned documents see the light of day, especially in the collection named Fuentes docu- mentales medievales del País Vasco3 of the Society of Basque Studies. It should be noted, at this point, that all the documents of Vasco- nia are written in what is called in Basque Erdara, that is to say, in any language different from Euskara (Latin, Occitan, Navarrese Romance, Spanish). That means that all the Basque names we find in those documents have passed necessarily through the filter of the other language. By way of an example, when a Basque name (or a name of any other origin) appears in a document written in Latin it is often adapted to the orthographic and morphological customs and requirements of that

3 Here the term País Vasco designates the whole Euskal Herria or Vasconia.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 221221 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 222 PATXI SALABERRI

language (Latin). For that reason, the Basque personal name Azeari or Azari (from Latin asinarius) is generally attested as Açenari, Azenari, Acenar; Basque Orti or Urti (< Fortuni) is latinized as Fortunius, Fortunio, Fortun, Fertunio, although its patronymic Orti(t)z is much more frequent than Fortunionis, Fortuniones, Fortunions, Fortuñons… and it is the only one that has survived as a family name, even in Span- ish. In the same way, Garzia is attested as Gartia; Xemen, Semen(o), Semero (seemingly from seme < senbe ‘son’) appears in the documents as Exemerus, Eximino, Exemeno, Exemen, Semerus… and San(t)so (< Latin Sanctu) is written Sanzius, Santius, Sancio, Santio, etc. Frequently, names of Latin, Romance or Germanic origin have given rise to some Basque equivalents. It is important to explain here that personal names of Basque origin are scarce and that it is much more usual for anthroponyms from other sources to have been adapted to Euskara, following its rules. Some examples: An(t)so (and San(t) so, from Sanctu), with sibilant dissimilation s – (t)s → ø – (t)s; Balkoe (Falcon), in which the Romance initial f- is represented by b- in Basque; Bazkoare, Bazkoara (Pascoale), Betri (Petri), Gardele (Cardel(l)us, Cardelle), Gendule (Centullus > *Centul > Zentol) where the initial Latin voiceless stop becomes voiced; Domiku, Domeka (Dominicu, Dominica), which retain the voiceless plosives in intervocalic position (the opposite happens in Castilian Spanish). In few cases Basque given names are the ones that were adapted to Romance; the most conspicuous examples are represented by Eneko (written generally Enneco in the medieval documents, with a geminate that stands for a fortis nasal) which gave Enego, Eniego, Eñego, Ieñego, Iñego, nowadays Íñigo; its feminine variant Oneka resulted in Onega and Uenega. Lastly, the very frequent Garzea (presumably from *garzea ‘young’, gaztea in modern Basque, became Garsia, Gaissia, Gassie…, depending on the language it was used in. The history of Basque language and Basque naming has always been a fight for survival. In the Middle Ages, from the ninth century onwards, a new identification system was developed in the Iberian Peninsula (the exception seems to be Catalunya): the patronymic system, according to which the name of the father was picked up in the identifier (the member corresponding to the actual surname or family name) of his son or daughter, to which a suffix containing a sibilant and deriving from Latin genitive was added (Salaberri 2008). This system was alive, not without exceptions, until the sixteenth century,

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 222222 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 223

and gave rise to the typical Spanish surnames in –ez: González, López, Martínez, Pérez, Rodríguez, etc. In the south of Vasconia this kind of family names is frequent as well, even in common compounds with two elements, a patronymic and a toponym (Díaz de Cerio, Martínez de Irujo, Ruiz de Elejalde…), but the situation is a bit more compli- cated than in Spanish, since patronymics as Enekoitz (from Eneko), Mikeleitz (from Mikel or Mikele ‘Michael’) are also known. Together with this system, we believe that Basque began to develop its own model based on the genitive –(r)en (it has an allomorph –(r)e) present, for example, in the medieval denomination Lope iaun Ortire Semea ‘Lope mister Orti’s son’, similar to Lope Orti(t)z, a pattern that produced some appellations as Sancho Ansoseme (‘Sancho son of Anso’), Bortaseme (‘Bort’s or Borte’s son’, the equivalent to the mainstream patronymics Borteiz, Bortetz), Bernatseme (‘Bernat’s son’), Petriseme (‘Peter’s son’, similar to Petriz and Peritz, Perez), etc. We have attested also Maria Arcetume, which possibly means ‘Mary Arcet’s child’, Arcet being a variant of Garzet, an hypocoristic of Garze(a), as consequence of the occasional loss of the voiced fricative in intervocalic position. This system was aborted presumably by the general and omni- present Romance model with vowel + sibilant (-ez, -iz…) based on Latin forms, since surnames such as Karlosena, Mikelena, Petrirena, composed of the names Carlos (Charles), Mikel(e) (Michael), Petri (Peter) plus the genitive ending –en and the article –a, are almost never patronymic but oikonymic, that is to say, they originally mean in most cases ‘Charles’ house’, ‘Michael’s house’ and ‘Peter’s house’, even though expressions as Pedro Luisena ‘Peter Louis’ son’ are common in normal speech. In medieval documents there are many denominations composed of first name + patronymic + place name + the relational suffix -ko (de in Spanish and French, van, von in the Germanic languages) or first name + place name + -ko which express the birthplace of the name bearer, mainly a house, a village or a valley: Garcie Ortiz done Miqueleco (‘Garzia Fortun’s son born in Saint-Michael’), Johan Periz Gambaraco (‘John Peter’s son born in the house named The cham- ber’), Ochoa Martinez Larrequo (‘Otxoa Martin’s son from the village called Larrea’), Dota Obanosco (‘Dota born in the village named Oba- nos’), Semero Erassungo (‘Semero born in the village of Eratsun’), etc. This system is alive in our literature and, for instance, our first author writes his name Bernard Echeparecoa (‘Bernard from the

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 223223 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 224 PATXI SALABERRI

house called Etxeparea’) in 1545, and the model is still alive, mainly used with house names, but not only with them. Nevertheless, this pattern disappears quite early in the official documents and is replaced by the Romance pattern that we have mentioned above: Díaz de Cerio, Martínez de Irujo in the compound denominations, María de Obanos, Miguel de Erasun first in the simple ones, later converted in María Obanos, Miguel Erasun, after the loss of the Spanish preposition de.

1.3. Modern and Contemporary Ages First names also experienced a big change from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. Many of them, common in the 16th and 17th centuries, disappeared or were replaced by the Spanish forms in southern Vas- conia: Andreo → Andrés; An(t)so, An(t)sa → Sancho, Sancha; Baz- koare, Bazkoara → Pascual, Pascuala; Bernart → Bernardo; Domiku, Domeka → Domingo, Dominga; Eneko → Íñigo, Eztebe → Esteban, Fran(t)zes → Francisco, Joanes → Juan, Nabarra → Ø; Petri, Betri → Pedro, etc. North of the border some of the old Basque names have survived: Betiri, Eztebe, Joanes… Many hypocoristic forms survived as well, but due to the diglos- sic situation Basque has gone through, they have been identified not with the Spanish or French hypocorisms, but with the neutral or basic names. For instance, as consequence of the above-mentioned loss of names as Domiku (Domingo in Spanish), Fran(t)zes (Francisco) or Martie (Martín), it has been thought that their equivalents were Txomin, Patxi and Matxin, without realizing that this is not correct, since the latter are hypocoristics, similar to Spanish Dominguito, Paquito and Martinico. Some recent name books have contributed to the diffusion of such hypocoristica as basic names, giving rise to some difficulties, as a result, to the subsequent creation of hypocoristic forms based on hypocoristics. On the other hand, many Basque family names have been dis- torted, sometimes because of the phonetic and graphic evolution of the official languages, Spanish and French4: Jorajuría pronounced [x] ora[x]uría in Spanish, from Basque [Ò]ora[Ò]uria, Elissalt in the French Basque Country, from Elizalde. Some other times the deforma-

4 A similar mispronunciation of Basque surnames can be observed in the USA. See White (2000).

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 224224 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 225

tion is due to folk etymology, as in Nagore (a Navarrese village) → Noguera (‘forest of walnut trees’). In many cases surnames that sounded strange to Spanish or French ears have been translated: Juanes Dorreco → Joanes de La Torre (‘John from the house named The tower’), Jauregi → Palacios (‘palace’ → ‘palaces’), Larrea → Lalanne (approximately ‘the meadow’), Sagasti → Manzanares (‘for- ests of apple trees’), Hirigoien → Hauteville, etc. In the 19th century, nationalisms arose in Spain, following the trends of other countries in Europe, and also in Vasconia, where Sabin Arana, a native of Abando (Bilbao now), created the so-called Partido Nacionalista Vasco or Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea and gave birth to the nationalist movement that was going to have such a big influence on the life of the Basque Country. In addition to being a politician, Sabin Arana also wrote some works about Basque onomastics, the best known among them being Deun-ixendegi Euzkotarra (‘Book of Basque saints’ names’), published by Koldo Eleizalde in 1910, after Arana’s death. In this book, Arana tries to obliterate the former name situation, applying some phonetic rules to the Latin etyma and produc- ing a very strange set of names, rather different from everything that had been used in Basque so far. It is important to notice that some of the mentioned rules were invented by Arana himself, perhaps because at that time the study of Basque phonology was in its infancy and was, therefore, quite unknown to scholars. One of the main features of Arana’s renewal lies in the use of the endings –e, -ne, –ñe for female names and –a for male ones, following Astarloa’s previous naturalistic5 assumptions. This means that all the former tradition is pushed into the background, since until that moment, as in Romance, female names carried mainly –a, while male ones ended in any other vowel or in a consonant. As a result of the book, and thanks to Arana’s political influence, in plenty of Basque nationalist families children were given new names, and, in the case of little boys, even names ending in –a, something unthinkable and unimaginable before. The consequence was that, for instance, Begoña, a typical girl’s name, became a boy’s name, but, since the established Spanish tradition was well alive, Begoña could be a girl or a boy, something impossible previously.

5 This vasconist priest writes (1883, 43-47) that, in baptism, little girls cry with the vowel e and little boys with the a.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 225225 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 226 PATXI SALABERRI

2. Current situation

2.1. The 20th century In the politically effervescent years before the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) Arana’s names had great success among Basque nationalists, so great indeed that the names given to children were not only the ones included in Arana’s name book but also many others inspired in one way or another by it or by the political atmosphere created: Iruña (a variant of Iruñea, the Basque name of the Navarrese capital Pam- plona), Kepa Mirena (Pedro María in Spanish), Miren Abertzale (‘Mary Patriot’), Oldargi (‘renaissance’, ‘revival’), Ume Josuren Ter- esetxu (‘Teresita del Niño Jesús’), Usune (uso ‘dove’ plus Arana’s –ne feminine ending), etc. Sometimes, when one of the parents was «red», a communist, and the other a Basque nationalist, the child’s name could be a compound as Amapola Gaizkane, where the first name (amapola ‘poppy’) was due to the red colour of the flower, and the second was one of Arana’s creations. Then the Civil War broke out and after Franco’s victory anything that looked Basque (nationalist) or recalled it in the slightest way was totally forbidden. A good demonstration of the atmosphere of the moment is the decree that Franco’s Government passed in 1938 in Bilbao, referring to Basque names (Gorrotxategi 2006, 323-324):

“The morbid exaltation in some provinces of regional sentiment, which brought to the registry offices a good deal of names that were not only in a different language from official Spanish, but also carried a meaning opposed to the unity of the mother country, must also be pointed out as a source of anomalies. It is so in the Basque provinces, for instance, in names like Iñaki, Kepa, Koldobika and others that prove doubtless separatist meaning […]. Franco’s Spain cannot tolerate aggression against the unity of its language, as she cannot tolerate the meddling of names that compete against her new political establishment […]. In any case, it being the case of Spanish citizens, the names must be stated in Spanish.”

The following year a new decree was promulgated in which the parents were given sixty days to change their «separatist», «exotic» and «extravagant» children’s names; otherwise the judge would change the name as he wanted. It must be said that, very often, the mentioned period of time was not respected and the names were changed without

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 226226 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 227

letting the bearers know about it. As Gorrotxategi notices (2006), frequently the inscriptions «Viva Franco» (‘hail Franco!’), «Viva España» (‘hail Spain!’) were printed on the Basque name that appeared in the document with a rubber-stamp, at the same time as it was translated into Spanish. With regard to translation, it is worth noting that in the birth certificate priests used to write down, enclosed in parentheses, the Spanish equivalent of the new Basque name bestowed on a child, in prewar years. During the Civil War and in its aftermath, authorities and governors put in place by Franco used this information for the rendering of Basque names in most cases: Abarne Miren Itziar → Ramos María Iciar, Agurtzane → Rosario (‘rosary’), Andoni Joseba → Antonio José, Ane Elixabete → Ana Isabel, Domeka Mirena → Domingo José, Gaizkane → Salvadora (the female variant of Salvador ‘saviour’, ‘the Lord’), Imanol → Manuel, Jon Mirena Imanol Gotzon → Juan María Manuel Ángel, etc. At times the translation made by military authorities was accu- rate: Amaia → Fin (‘end’), but at other times, apparently, they did not know how to render the names and cut them down to the first member, when compounded: Miren Abertzale (‘Mary Patriot’) → María (Mary), or made a rather bad translation (Gorrotxategi 2006): Iziar (a Guipuzcoan village and Our Lady’s famous church) → Estrella (‘star’), Libe (Libia, Libbie, a woman name) → Liberata (a Roman- Spanish saint), Eguskiñe (from eguzki ‘sun’) → Agustina (Augustine) and Soledad (‘solitude’); Jasone (‘assumption’) → Concepción (‘con- ception’), etc. The relentlessness of Franco’s commanders and governors extended, as well, to names related, one way or another, to leftist ide- ology and communism: Armonía (‘harmony’) → Basilisa (a name of Greek origin meaning ‘queen’), Estalin → Fabián, Fraternidad (‘fraternity’) → María Luisa, Libertad (‘freedom’) → Alejandra, Apolonia; Lenin → José Antonio (the founder of the so-called «Falange», briefly summarized, a right-wing party integrated into Franco’s «movement»6) or Alejandro, Ezequiel, Fernando (Ferdi- nand) and Gregorio; Marx → Timoteo, Progreso (‘progress’) → Benito (Benedict), Esteban (Stephan)… The name Bélgica ‘Belgium’, occupied by the Germans in World War I and apparently a symbol of freedom at the time, was bestowed upon children as well, although

6 «El movimiento nacional» ‘the national movement’ in Spanish.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 227227 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 228 PATXI SALABERRI

only sporadically; in one case at least it was rendered as Cirila (Cyril). The mentioned relentlessness also spread to names in other languages, as the translation of Hermann Ludwig Heinrich (the boy’s parents were both German) to Germán Luis Enrique in Barakaldo (Bizkaia) proves. Needless to say, all Basque place names were forbidden and toponyms in road-signs were written only in Spanish. Since many of the names are Basque in origin and have no Spanish variant, the only difference was that they were written following the rules of Spanish orthography. Franco’s dictatorship lasted almost forty years, until his death in 1975, but it did not end completely, and his influence still extended for some years during the so-called «transición». The first ikastolas or private (they could not be public) Basque schools created by popular initiative, although with many problems and prohibitions, started in the sixties and gained strength in the seventies. At the same time the need for a standard Basque increased, as it was necessary for pre- paring texts, maps and other didactic material used at school, and it was achieved, to a certain extent, in the meeting which took place in Arantzazu (Gipuzkoa) in 1968, in which the bases for the euskara batua or standardized Basque were established, despite the problems that the state of siege declared by Franco at the time caused to those who took part at the meeting.

2.2. The last forty years Most parents who sent their children to ikastolas wanted Basque names for them, and in order to respond to this increasing demand, the Basque Language Academy (Euskaltzaindia) asked J. M. Satrustegi, a fellow academic, to create a name book, task that was implemented in 1972, in which year the mentioned author published a little book of 700 names, composed mainly of Our Lady’s epithets and others that did not have an equivalent in Spanish, since according to the law there were no other possibilities; research on documents and popular sources too was done by Satrustegi, and many of Arana’s previous names were included in the work. The booklet was a great success and was published again twice, in 1977, after Franco’s death and in 1982, five years later. In 1977 a new law was passed, according to which children’s names could be registered in any of the Spanish languages, including

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 228228 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 229

Basque. This made Satrustegi’s task much easier and he enhanced and enriched his little book with 500 new names, taken principally from history, literature, mythology and «popular customs». Three years later, in 1980, a new law was passed according to which parents could choose historical, mythological, geographic and abstract names for their children, provided they were not offensive and did not lead to gender confusion. Satrustegi, taking advantage of the situation, com- pleted the book in 1983 with about 400 new names, adding two lists, Spanish – Basque and French – Basque, so that parents could use the work more easily. In the year 2000, Gorrotxategi published a very interesting paper about the evolution of Christian given names in the south of Vasconia during the 20th century. In it, the author analyses the bestowing of the most frequently used male and female first names upon children in nine culturally, socially and linguistically different regions of the Spanish Basque Country in the following five periods: 1929-1939, 1945-1955, 1965-1975, 1975-1985 and 1985-1995. One of the conclu- sions that the author draws from his research is that, in percentage terms, out of the twenty most frequently given names in the last ten years fifteen are clearly Basque among boys and eleven among girls. He also notices that most of them are short names of two or three syl- lables and that compound names have almost disappeared. Regarding the different regions examined, Basque names have completely dis- placed Spanish names in the areas where Euskara is dominant or lives side by side with Spanish, and in others in which it is a minority language but most inhabitants are Basque nationalists. As Gorrotx- ategi points out, the use of Basque names in these areas is not limited to any particular political trend; it is a social phenomenon. The areas where Basque names are used the least are the so- called «Rioja alavesa» (Álava) with a 50% share and the Navarrese «Ribera», with a much less significant 2%. It must be remembered that the first area is part of Euskadi where Euskara is promoted by the Basque Government, but the second is the southernmost part of Nav- arre, an autonomous region in which the local Government does not meet the recommendations of the expert committee of the Council of Europe regarding the protection of the Basque language7. Its teaching is restricted by law, at public schools, to the so-called «A model»,

7 The reports about this subject can be read on the following sites: http://www. defensora-navarra.com and http://www.euskarakultur.org

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 229229 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 230 PATXI SALABERRI

according to which Basque can be learnt as a subject during three hours per week, if the parents want so, but cannot be used as a tool for teaching any other subject. At this point, it is worth noting that Basque is, with Spanish, official in the whole Euskadi or Basque Autonomous Region, but that Navarre is divided by a law passed in 1986 into three zones, the Basque language being official together with Spanish only in one of them, in the «Basque zone» (9,35% of the population). In the «mixed zone» (54,49% of the inhabitants of Navarre) where the capital Pam- plona is situated, Euskara is not co-official, even though Basque speakers have some rights and children can, if their parents want it and if the necessary number of students is achieved, study in Basque at public schools. However, the place-names are written on every kind of sign almost exclusively in their Castilian version, even when they are Basque in origin, a clear attempt at marginalizing the language and at preventing foreigners passing through from relating Navarre with the Basque culture. Finally, and as we have already pointed out, in the «no-Basque zone» (36,16% of the population) children cannot study in Euskara and the place names which appear in road signs are almost exclusively written in their Romance version8. A good sign of the low esteem in which the Navarrese Govern- ment holds Basque is the fact that from about 1990 to 2003 its name was bilingual in all the signs and inscriptions in vehicles, facilities, journals, etc. that it owned (Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gob- ernua). However, in the last ten years or so, the Basque version of the inscription has disappeared and the name has been reduced, in the mixed and no-Basque zones, to Gobierno de Navarra. In the same vein, the reception of the only Basque channel that we Navarrese Basque speakers have9, the so-called Euskal Telebista (‘Basque television’, owned by the Basque Government of Euskadi), is in danger, because the Government of Navarre does not want to pay the costs that the passing from analogical to digital television entails. Another good indication of the little regard for Euskara is the fact that, when a village located in the «mixed zone» has requested

8 See the sites given in the previous footnote. 9 The Navarrese Government has never allowed, officially, its reception, but it has not created another Basque channel in Navarre. If we can still watch television in Euskara it is, again, by popular initiative, not because the authorities have done anything for it.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 230230 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 231

that the official name be the Basque version, the Government has rejected it in most cases, even when the change was minimal, orthographic (Orcoyen → Orkoien, Vera de Bidasoa → Bera, for example). In the same way, the mayor of Pamplona, member of the same political party as the Government and a native of Burgos (Spain), has been avoiding the use of the bilingual designation of the capital for years. Nevertheless, during the last two years or so she has been obliged, by political reasons, to accept it and now the Basque name of Pamplona can be seen printed in signs, vehicles, etc. belonging to the City Hall, or in local policemen’s jackets, but with a much lighter colour (a pale grey) and a much smaller size than the Spanish name (written in bold), so fair and small indeed that it is often difficult for people to see it properly.

2.3. Northern Vasconia Finally, I would like to say some words on the situation in the French Basque Country. Arana’s political and onomastic movement had, at the time, very little influence to the north of the border, where some of the traditional Basque names had survived. Literary tradition too was better protected in the north and the linguistic abuses that took place in many works and books written and published in the south were avoided there. On the other hand, after World War II democracy was restored, as everybody knows, and French people did not have to endure anything similar to Franco’s long dictatorship. France, nevertheless, has always been a centralist State, and minority languages have suffered and still suffer a great deal as a consequence of the attempt at extending French as the only language in the Country, at expense of the others. The result has been, in our case, that Euskara is nowadays in a critical situation in many places in the northern Basque Country, and its survival is far from being certain. However, Basque nationalism is on the rise there, and thanks especially to the net of private Basque schools or ikastolas created by popular initiative, we can still hope that Euskara will survive. As expected, students of these ikastolas are frequently given Basque names similar to the ones used on this other side of the border. Like- wise, and apparently due to the mentioned rise of nationalism, the Basque names of towns and villages appear now written next to the French forms in the road-signs of the Country. Hopefully not everything is lost.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 231231 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 232 PATXI SALABERRI

References Arana, Sabin. 1910. Deun-ixendegi euzkotarra. [Repertoire of Basque saints’ names.] Bilbao. Astarloa, Pedro P. 1883. Discursos filosóficos sobre la lengua primi- tiva ó gramática y análisis razonada de la euskara ó bascuence. [Philosophical discourses on the primitive language or grammar and reasoned analysis of Euskara or Basque.] Bilbao: P. Velasco. Bähr, Gerhard. 1948. Baskisch und Iberisch. Eusko-Jakintza 2, Bayonne. González Ollé, Fernando. 1969. La lengua occitana en Navarra. [The Occitan language in Navarre.] Revista de dialectología y tradi- ciones populares 25 (3/4), 285-300. González Ollé, Fernando. 1970. El romance navarro. [The Navarrese romance.] Revista de Filología Española 53, 45-93. Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 1984a. Onomástica Indígena de Aquitania. [Indigenous onomastics of Aquitaine.] Bilbao: University of the Basque Country. Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 1984b. Acerca de Helasse teónimo indígena atestiguado en Miñano Mayor (Álava). [On the indigenous theonym Helasse attested in Miñano Mayor (Álava).] Veleia 1, 261-265. Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 1993a. La onomástica aquitana y su relación con la ibérica. [Aquitanian onomastics and its relation with Iberian onomastics.] In: Jürgen Untermann and Francisco Villar (eds.), Lengua y Cultura en la Hispania Prerromana. Actas del V Coloquio sobre Lenguas y Culturas Prerromanas de la Penín- sula Ibérica (Colonia, 25-28 de noviembre de 1989), 609-634. Salamanca: University of Salamanca. Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 1993b. The Basque Language and its neigh- bors in Antiquity. In: José I. Hualde, Joseba A. Lakarra and Robert L. Trask (eds.), Towards a History of the Basque Lan- guage, 31-63. Amsterdam – Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub- lishing Company. Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 1995. Basque names. In: Ernst Eichler, Gerold Hilty, Heinrich Löffler, Hugo Steger, Ladislav Zgusta (eds.), Namenforschung. Name Studies. Les noms propres. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. An International Handbook of Onomastics. Manuel international d’onomastique, vol. 1, 747-756. Berlin - New York: Walter de Gruyter.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 232232 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 233

Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 2002. Las lenguas de los Pirineos en la Anti- güedad. [The Pyrenean languages in antiquity.] In: Els substrats de la llengua catalana: una visió actual, 75-101. Barcelona: Societat Catalana de Llengua y Literatura. Gorrochategui, Joaquín. 2006. Onomástica vasca y aquitana: elemen- tos para el conocimiento de la Historia Antigua de Navarra. [Basque and Aquitanian onomastics: foundations for the under- standing of Navarrese ancient history.] In: Javier A. Pintado (coord.), Navarra en la Antigüedad. Propuesta de Actualización, 111-136. Pamplona: Government of Navarre. Gorrotxategi, Mikel. 2000. Evolución del nombre de pila en el País Vasco peninsular. [Evolution of the first name in the peninsular Basque Country.] Fontes Linguae Vasconum 83, 151-168. Gorrotxategi, Mikel. 2006. Errepublika garaiko izenak eta 1939ko dekretua. [The names of the republican period and the decree of 1939.] Fontes Linguae Vasconum 102, 321-352. Jimeno, José M. 1997. Navarra. Historia del Euskera. [Navarre. History of Basque.] Tafalla: Txalaparta. Kardaberatz, Agustín. 2004 (1761). Euskeraren berri onak (edizio kri- tikoa). [Good news about Basque (critical edition).] Patxi Altuna and Esther Zulaika (eds.). Bilbao: Basque Language Academy. Lakarra, Joseba A. 2002. Etimologiae (proto)uasconicae LXV. In: Xabier Artiagoitia, Patxi Goenaga and Joseba A. Lakarra (eds.), Erramu Boneta: Festschrift for Rudolf P. G. de Rijk, 425-442. Bilbao: Supplements of the Seminario de Filología Vasca «Julio Urquijo» 44, University of the Basque Country. Luchaire, Achille. 1877. Les Origines Linguistiques de l’Aquitaine. Pau: Bulletin de la Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Pau, second series, vol. 6. Michelena, Luis. 1954. De onomástica aquitana. [On Aquitanian onomastics.] Pirineos 10, 409-455. Michelena, Luis. 1958. Los nombres indígenas de la inscripción hispano-romana de Lerga (Navarra). [The indigenous names of the Hispano-Roman inscription of Lerga (Navarre).] Príncipe de Viana 82-83, 65-74. Michelena, Luis. 1971. Notas sobre las lenguas de la Navarra medieval. [Notes on the languages of medieval Navarre.] In: Jose Mari Satrustegi (ed.), Homenaje a Don José Esteban Uranga, 201- 214. Pamplona: Editorial Aranzadi.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 233233 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 234 PATXI SALABERRI

Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1977. Le Gascon. Études de Philologie Pyréneénne. Tübingen – Pau: Max Niemeyer - Marrimpouey, third edition. Salaberri, Patxi. 2008. La patronimia vasca y su relación con la romance vecina. [Basque patronymy and its relationship to neighbouring Romance patronymy.] Rivista Italiana di Onomastica 14, 389-401. Satrustegi, Jose M. 1972. Euskal izendegia / Nomenclátor onomástico vasco. [Book of Basque names.] Pamplona: Basque Language Academy. The second edition appeared in 1977 and the third one in 1983. Schuchardt, Hugo. 1908. Die iberische Deklination. Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 157, 1-89, Wien. Tobalina, Eva, Jimeno, Roldan. 1998. Ara romana de Irujo (Guesálaz). [Altar stone of Irujo (Guesálaz).] Príncipe de Viana 215, 617-623. Tovar, Antonio. 1968. Eine indogermanische Gottheit aus Spanien: Peremusta. Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft und Kulturkunde, 161-163, Innsbruck. Velaza, Javier. 1992. El teónimo de las inscripciones de Barbarin (Navarra): problemas epigráficos y de interpretación. [The theonym of the inscriptions of Barbarin (Navarre): problems of epigraphy and interpretation.] Principe de Viana 196, 365-369. Velaza, Javier. 1995. Epigrafía y dominios lingüísticos en territorio de los vascones. [Epigraphy and linguistic domains in the territory of the Vascones.] In: Francisco Beltrán (ed.), Coloquio sobre Roma y el Nacimiento de la cultura epigráfica en Occidente, 209-218. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico. White, Linda. 2000. La americanización del apellido vasco en el Oeste de los Estados Unidos. [The Americanization of Basque surnames in the western United States.] Euskera 45, 249-262.

Patxi Salaberri Department of Philology and Language Teaching Public University of Navarre – Basque Language Academy Campus de Arrosadia 31006 Pamplona / Iruñea, Spain [email protected]

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 234234 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50 POLITICS AND ONOMASTICS IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY 235

Summary: Politics and onomastics in the Basque Country. Historical and current situation This paper examines the historical relationship between politics and onomastics in the Basque Country or Euskal Herria from Roman times to the present. It focuses especially on the damaging influence that powerful Latin and Romance languages had on the development of Basque onomastics. Sabino Arana’s renewal of the Basque naming system in the late nineteenth century is also mentioned, as well as the devastating effect the Spanish Civil War and subsequent Franco’s long dictatorship had on Basque language (Euskara) and Basque names, in a period when everything related to Euskara was forbidden and severely punished. During the last ten years or so, in Navarre, the autonomous Government and the Municipality of Pamplona / Iruñea have done little to improve the situation of the language and its onomastics.

Résumé: Politique et onomastique au Pays Basque: historique et situation actuelle Cet article examine les relations existantes historiquement entre politique et onomastique au Pays Basque ou Euskal Herria, de l’époque romaine à nos jours. Il souligne tout particulièrement l’influence préjudiciable qu’eurent sur le développement de l’onomastique basque des langues puissantes comme le latin ou les langues romanes. On y analyse également le renouveau du système nominal basque que mena à bien Sabino Arana à la fin du XIXe et l’effet dévastateur que la guerre civile espagnole et la longue dictature postérieure sous Franco eurent sur l’ euskara (langue basque) et les noms basques, à une époque où tout ce qui y faisait référence était durement réprimé. Au cours des dix dernières années environ, en Navarre, le gouvernement autonome et la mairie de Pampelune / Iruñea ont fait peu pour améliorer la situation de la langue et son onomastique.

Zusammenfassung: Politik und Onomastik im Baskenland: Geschichte und heutige Situation Dieser Beitrag untersucht die geschichtlichen Beziehungen zwischen Politik und Onomastik im Baskenland (Euskal Herria) von der römischen Epoche bis zur Gegenwart. Er konzentriert sich insbesondere auf den schädlichen Einfluss des Lateinischen und der mächtigen romanischen Sprachen auf die Entwick- lung der baskischen Onomastik. Die Erneueung des baskischen Namensystems im späten neunzehnten Jahrhundert durch Sabino Arana wird gleichfalls beleuchtet, wie auch die verheerende Wirkung des Spanischen Bürgerkriegs und der nachfolgenden langen Franco-Diktatur auf die baskischen Sprache (Euskara) und die baskischen Namen, eine Zeit in der alles, was mit dem Euskara zu tun hatte, verboten war und hart bestraft wurde. Ungefähr während der letzten zehn Jahre haben die Autonome Regierung von Navarra und die Stadtverwaltung von Pamplona/Iruñea wenig zur Verbesserung der sprach- lichen und onomastischen Situation beigetragen.

995191_ONOMA_45_11.indd5191_ONOMA_45_11.indd 235235 229/11/129/11/12 14:5014:50