Basque is a language that does not belong to any known language family, i.e. it is a genetically isolated language It is spoken in Euskal Herria, the European territory on both sides of the Pyrenees where Basque is spoken.

It is one of the official languages of Spain and is regulated by the Royal Academy of the Basque Language , an institution that researches, formulates grammatical laws and watches over the rights of the Basque language.

The origin of this language has always been a mystery that has given rise to various theories. The Etxepare Euskal Institutua argues that the only possible hypothesis is that Basque is related to Aquitanian, a language spoken in south-western France.

However, the Complutense University of Madrid carried out a study on the Basque language and reached several conclusions. Among these conclusions, it was deduced that Basque was the oldest language in Europe and that this language came from the African country of Mali, where Dogon was spoken. More than 70 % of coincidences were found by making a lexical contrast between the two languages.

LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF BASQUE

Basque is an ergative and agglutinative language. The nominal syntagm in Basque is structured differently from the nominal syntagms of Indo-European languages. In these syntagms, certain articles, demonstratives and some quantifiers are placed after the noun they determine or quantify. However, other determiners, quantifiers, interrogatives and numerals can be placed before or after the noun depending on the dialect.

Adjectives follow the noun while preceding any article, determiner or quantifier. In Basque there are 12 grammatical cases and pronouns can be declined in any of these cases.

Furthermore, as far as syntax is concerned, it is important to know that the main information of the sentence immediately precedes the verb, so the topic is emphasised by placing it at the beginning of the sentence.

Basque has 5 dialects: Western, Central, Navarrese, Navarrese-Labortian and Souletin. There used to be two other dialects, Alavic and Roncalese, but these have been extinct for years. Unlike other languages such as Estonian, the dialects of Basque have their own grammar, lexicon and phonetics, so they are not mutually intelligible.

IMPORTANCE OF BASQUE

Due to its small size, the importance of Basque is more national than international. However, Basque has influenced Castilian, especially in its phonology and vocabulary, and has therefore had an international impact.

Likewise, Basque plays a fundamental role in the cultural identity of the Basque people, especially in relation to Basque nationalism. Basque nationalism emerged after the defeat of the Carlists in the Third Carlist War at the end of the 19th century. It is a set of political ideologies that defend the national character of the Basques of Euskal Herria as a political subject with the right to self-determination, sometimes independence from Spain and France.

One of the basic pillars of Basque nationalism is the language, Basque. Therefore, this element is not only a means of communication, but it is also considered as a means of representation of a people that may or may not feel part of a larger one, such as the Spanish or the French.

Although the importance of Basque is above all national, the mystery of its origins means that interest in researching this language reaches all corners of the planet. According to UNESCO, although research on the language is progressing, this research does not have an impact on its use, but it does help its promulgation.