Basque Inquisition:How Do You Say Shepherd in Basque?

GRAMMAR LESSONS

The Basque language, or Euskera, has no relationship to Indo-European languages, and has its own particular grammar. Some key differences with Spanish or English: There is no gender, or separate prepositions, and it is a heavily inflected language. The same noun phrase can have 68 basic forms, depending on case, number, etc.

Examples:
1. She bought me the tickets for the game.Berak erosi zizkidan partidurako sarrerak.
-- Prepositions are included with word endings, as in Latin. The "-rako" ending of "game" means "for the."
-- "Berak" is the same whether "he" or "she" bought the tickets.
2. I told him not to drink it because it was too hot.Nik ez edateko esan nion, oso bero zegoelako.
-- The "-k" marker is very characteristic of Euskera, used for plurals and direct objects.
-- "Elako" means "because" and goes at the end of "hot."
3. So in the end, are you going to the fiestas in Pamplona?Azkenean joango zara iruñeko jaietara?
-- "Iruña" is Basque for "Pamplona," while "etara" means "to the (plural) fiestas."

Source: WSJ research, AEK Euskaltegi (Bilbao)

Traducción

Reactions:

El Gobierno en respuesta al artículo del The Wall Street Journal

Empire, stupid, idiot, arrogance, superficiality, frivolity o language son préstamos del latín y algunos de los ejemplos citados por el viceconsejero de Política Lingüística Patxi Baztarrika, en respuesta al artículo publicado por The Wall Street Journal, y para poner de manifiesto la "ignorancia" del autor del artículo, porque "los préstamos -recuerda- son una prueba de la vitalidad y salud de cualquier lengua".

As a response to the WSJ article

I would like to end this letter inviting you to have a look at the doctoral theses that are written in Basque language every year, listen to some electronic music sung in Basque or have a surf through the flourishing Basque blog community. Hopefully, you will not dare again to say that Basque is not a language for the modern times.

AEKren prentsa bulegoa

Beti bezala : Cocidito madrileño