Experiences in the Basque country

Almost every year we have visited the Basque Country in the north of Spain. The cities of San Sebastian and Bilbao are by now familiar cities for us. In the Basque language San Sebastian is called Donostia and Bilbao is Bilbo. We used to keep alert hoping to hear people speak Basque language. However, in the cities it is unusual to hear Basque. In Vitoria though you sometimes hear the language. Vitoria is the capital city of the Basque Country.

Whilst wandering around Vitoria’s old town, we struck up a conversation with a local couple. When the conversation turned to the Basque language, they told us that they were aware that some time in the past a theory existed that the Basque language and Finnish were related. There have been other attempts to link the Basque language to other supposedly related languages. However, the fact is that Basque language is the only remaining original European language.

In his book Ihmiskielen ihmeitä (The Wonders of the Human Language) by journalist colleague and linguist Hannu Reime, he writes: “The Basque language may be the only living memory of languages spoken in Western Europe before the Indo-European languages eventually replaced them in a process that began thousands of years ago. The number of people speaking Basque these days is 600 000 persons, most of them as their native language. Basque received the rights of regional language at the end of the 1970s, when Spain moved to parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy after the dictatorial decades following the civil war. Of the Iberian peninsula languages Basque is the only one which has historical roots all the way back to before the arrival of the Romans. All its neighbouring languages on the Iberian peninsula and South-Western France stem from Latin.”

In Vitoria we also had a chat with two Irish men who were interested in world languages and especially in three languages different from most other languages: Basque, Irish and Finnish. One of the men had even travelled around Finland. Irish for its part is the official language of the Republic of Ireland, even if the majority of the population speaks English. Irish is taught in schools and in some areas it is used as everyday language.

In his book, Reime says that even as a minority language, the Basque language is safe. It got its standard written language euskara batua during the last decades. Children learning Basque are naturally bilingual, speaking also Spanish. In these times the Basque language is being encouraged since it is, after all, a symbol of the Basque Country. During the Franco years speaking Basque was punishable. As a reminder of the oppressive past years is the continuing controversy with Spanish government about ETA prisoners who had fought against the government. Many Basque people want to have them transferred to prisons in their own areas.

But back to Vitoria. The old town is very different from San Sebastian ‘s old town. The old town in Donostia is very pleasant but very touristy, In Vitoria ‘s old town there are not many shops selling tourist bric-a-brac. The bars and restaurants still have a feeling of older times. Many buildings have big murals painted on their facades. The atmosphere is more bohemian than in San Sebastian and even Bilbao.

Having left the Basque country and heading towards Málaga via Madrid we stopped in Burgos. From the hotel window we could see the pride of Burgos inhabitants, their amazing cathedral. On our return to Málaga, on the terrace of Café Central we happened to sit next to a couple visiting from Burgos. They immediately asked if we had seen the Burgos cathedral and what we thought of it. There is no way of denying its gorgeousness. When in Burgos, on a terrace next to the cathedral, a local man came to ask what we thought´of the cathedral. We agreed that it is amazing, and then the conversation turned to religion. When we said that we were not religious, the man replied: “Don’t worry, I’m a communist.”

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