“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog.”
“Bikoitza, bikoitza, lan eta arazo; Sua piztu eta kazola irakin
Sugearen xerra, kazolan egosi;
Uhandrearen begia eta igelaren behatza, Satorren artilia eta txakurraren mihia.”
Who would guess that this spell, from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, would help establish the legitimacy of a repressed language? When dictator Franco took over Spain in 1939, the Spanish language was enforced, and all other languages, including Basque, were forbidden.
Translation is used to prove that all languages are equal, which is why exiled Basque intellectual Bingen Ametzaga translated Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream into Euskara (The name for Basque in Basque). This also helped to create a standard for the outlawed Basque language.
Here are some interesting facts about Basque:
- Language isolate: Basque is not part of the Indo-European or another language family. However, it includes words from all prehistoric European languages, such as Celtic and Latin.
- Ergativity-absolutive alignment: Basque treats the subject of an intransitive verb the same as the object of a transitive verb, rather than the subject of a transitive verb.
- Diglossia: This is when a person knows two languages, but they do not use them for the same purpose. E.g., speaking Spanish publicly and Basque privately in the home.
- Euskaldun: This term literally means a person who possesses the Basque. So, if you speak Basque, but do not live in Basque, you can still be Euskaldun!
- Hand of Irulegi: The origin of Basque is a mystery in linguistics. In 2021, archeologists found a bronze hand with words. The writing may be related to modern Basque.
- 100 names for butterflies: Basque includes one hundred unique names for butterflies including pinpilinpauxa, tximeleta, aitamatatxi, falfala, and mitxeleta.
The Basque language should bask in the glory of overcoming the forces trying to repress this survivor!
Read More:
Porzucki, N. & Cox, P. (Hosts). (2024, April 16). How Basque speakers saved their language (No. 69) [Audio podcast episode]. In Subtitle. How Basque speakers saved their language – Subtitle
Kuta, S. (2022, November 18). Words etched into an ancient bronze hand hint at the mysterious origins of the Basque language. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/words-etched-into-an-ancient-bronze-hand-hint-at-the-mysterious-origins-of-the-basque-language-180981153/.
Aiestaran, M., Velaza, J., Gorrochategui, J., Usúa, C., Pujol, P., Alonso, E., … Agirre-Mauleon, J. (2024). A Vasconic inscription on a bronze hand: writing and rituality in the Iron Age Irulegi settlement in the Ebro Valley. Antiquity, 98(397), 66–84. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.199.
Gondra, A., Rodríguez-Ordóñez, I., & Franco-Landa, E. (2024). Variation in the production of Basque ergativity: Change or stable variation? Language Variation and Change, 36(1), 95-120. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394524000048.
Sánchez Goñi, V. (n.d.). Pinpilinpauxa, the Basque language’s most beautiful word. Walk on the Basque Side. Retrieved October 26, 2024, from https://walkonthebasqueside.com/en/pinpilinpauxa-the-basque-languages-most-beautiful-word/?cn-reloaded=1.