Euskera hizkuntza zaharra (txarra al da hori?), gaur egungo zereginetan erabiltzeko balio ez duena (?), eguneroko bizitzan erabiltzen ez dena (???), eta kontzeptu berriak adierazteko neologismoak sortu behar dituena eta beste hizkuntzetatik maileguak hartu behar dituen (ez al dute munduko beste hizkuntza guztiek gauza bera egiten,ingelera barne?) hizkuntza dela dio Murdockek, eta euskal "separatistek" inposatu nahi dutela.
Hona hemen artikulu osoa:
By Keith Johnson (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 06/11/07): BILBAO, Ms. Esquivias, a 50-year-old "For the job I do, I think learning the language is clearly over the top," Ms. Esquivias says. Basque The regional government of Although there is a shortage of doctors in the Basque The official goal of "To have a truly bilingual But as Basque nationalists try to push their language into the mainstream, they are bumping up against an uncomfortable reality. "Euskera Airport, Meanwhile, there are 10 different words for The regional government has spent years of The Basque-language Even Other adults who are now running afoul of The language policy has led to a massive adult Joseba Arregui, In the classroom, Euskera Students are taught that they Some local But back in the Arantza Goikolea, Ms. Esquivias’s teacher, leads a "BasqueBasque Inquisition: How Do You Say Shepherd in Euskera?
Spain — Rosa Esquivias is caught on the front line of the Basques’
fight for independence from Spain. Actually, she’s in the front row —
of her Basque language class.
high-school math teacher and Spanish-speaking native of Bilbao, must
learn Basque or risk losing her job. Like her nine classmates,
including a man who teaches Spanish to immigrants, she has been given
at least a year off with pay to spend 25 hours a week drilling verbs
and learning vocabulary in Euskera — a language with no relation to any
other European tongue and spoken by fewer than one million people.
About 450 million people world-wide speak Spanish.
separatists have been waging a struggle for independence from Spain for
39 years. But lately, many have taken to wielding grammar instead of
guns. Separatists still dream of creating their own homeland, but in
the meantime they are experimenting with pushing a strict regime of
Euskera into every corner of public life. Of the present-day Basque
Country’s approximately 2.1 million inhabitants, roughly 30% speak
Basque; more than 95% speak Spanish.
the Basque Country has begun to tighten the screws on its language
policy to the point where now, all public employees, from mail-sorters
to firemen, must learn Euskera to get — or keep — their jobs. Cops are
pulled off the street to brush up their grammar. And companies doing
business with the Basque government must conduct business in Euskera.
Starting next year, students entering public school will be taught only
in Basque.
Country, the Basque health service requires medical personnel to speak
Euskera. Health-service regulations detail how Euskera should be used
in every medical situation, from patient consultations down to how to
leave a phone message or make an announcement over a public-address
system (Basque first, then Spanish). There are rules specifying the
typeface and placement of Basque signs in hospitals (Basque labels on
top or to the left, and always in bold).
the Basque policy is to transform Euskera from a "co-official" status
with Spanish to "co-equal" status. That, say Euskera proponents, is
necessary to make up for years of linguistic repression. The language
was banned during the 36-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and
only began to re-emerge in the 1980s.
society, you need positive discrimination," says Mertxe Múgica, the
head of the Basque language academies where Ms. Esquivias studies. Many
Basque speakers still feel discriminated against because of the
pervasiveness of Spanish.
just isn’t used in real life," says Leopoldo Barrera, the head of the
center-right Popular Party in the Basque regional Parliament. Though it
has existed for thousands of years — there are written records in
Basque that predate Spanish — it is an ancient language little suited
to contemporary life. Euskera has no known relatives, though theories
abound linking it to everything from Berber languages to Eskimo tongues.
science, Renaissance, democracy, government, and independence, for
example, are all newly minted words with no roots in traditional
Euskera: aireportu, zientzia, errenazimentu, demokrazia, gobernu,
independentzia.
shepherd, depending on the kind of animal. Astazain, for instance, is a
donkey herder; urdain herds pigs. A cowpoke is behizain in Euskera.
While Indo-European languages have similar roots for basic words like
numbers — three, drei, tres, trois — counting in Euskera bears no
relation: bat, bi, hiru, lau, and up to hamar, or 10. Religious Basques
pray to Jainko.
effort and billions of euros to make sure that every official document,
from job applications for sanitation workers to European Union
agricultural grants, is available in Euskera. But this year, in San
Sebastian, a hotbed of Basque nationalism and the region’s
second-largest city, not a single person chose to take the driver’s
license exam in Euskera, says Mr. Barrera.
TV channel is loaded with Euskera favorites, such as the irrepressible
redhead "Pippi Galtzaluze." But the channel has a 4.4% audience share
in the Basque Country, according to data from Taylor Nelson Sofres —
less than the animal-documentary channel of public broadcasting.
some of the biggest proponents of Basque independence stumble over
Euskera’s convoluted grammar. Juan José Ibarretxe, the Basque regional
president, speaks a less-than-fluent Euskera at news conferences. Like
most people in the region, he grew up speaking Spanish and had to learn
Euskera as an adult.
the new language policy are having similar trouble picking up the
tongue. "I guess we’re the last of the old guard, but we don’t have any
choice," says Ignacio Garcia, a math teacher who is a classmate of Ms.
Esquivias, and is sweating over a stack of notes before his first big
Euskera exam.
re-education push, as tens of thousands in the Basque Country head back
to school. Their predicament has become a popular sendup on a Basque
comedy show. In one sketch, non-Basque-speaking adults who have been
sent to a euskaltegi, or Euskera language school, have to ask
schoolchildren to help them with their homework.
a former Basque culture secretary, native Basque speaker, and onetime
architect of the language policy, feels that Euskera is being pushed
too far. "It’s just no good for everyday conversation," he says. "When
a language is imposed, it is used less, and that creates a diabolical
circle of imposition and backlash."
use has also allowed separatists to control the curriculum.
Basque-language textbooks used in schools never tell students that the
Basque Country is part of Spain, for example. No elementary-school
texts even mention the word Spain.
live in "Euskal Herria," stretching across parts of Spain and southern
France, that was colonized by "the Spanish State."
politicians worry that the insistence on Basque language makes any type
of reconciliation between separatists and Spain impossible. "Everything
young Basques later encounter in life — like the fact they live in
Spain — then appears to be an imposition from Madrid," says Santiago
Abascal, a regional deputy from the Popular Party who campaigns against
the linguistic policy. "That creates frustration that keeps violence
bubbling in the Basque Country," he says.
classroom, most of the frustration seems to be with the dense grammar,
forthcoming exams, and the difficulty of finding quality shows on
Basque TV.
class through an exercise about their daily routines. Tamara Alende,
25, watches a lot of TV at night, she says in pidgin Euskera.
shows?" asks Ms. Goikolea. Ms. Alende lowers her head and turns red.
"No, Spanish series," she mumbles, to a chorus of boos from the teacher
and the rest of the class.
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