ANCIENT CULTURE
Art | Traditions | Sports | History | LanguageThe languages spoken in the Basque Country are Basque, Spanish (in the Spanish section), and French (in the French section). About 30.9% of the population speak Basque, with the percentage going up to 48.9% among the younger population. Even so, a greater number of people identify themselves as Basques in each country.
Euskera is a non Indo-European language, spoken by approximately a million people whose speaking community lies mainly in the Basque Country. The territory of the language extends to three different areas of administration: in the Iberian Peninsula, the two Autonomous Communities of Euskadi and Navarre, and the French Republic, in the part of its Department in the Atlantic Pyrenees.
Although several theories about its enigmatic origin have been suggested (ancient Iberian, Hamito-Semitic, or Caucasian), it still today remains a mystery. Basque is the only remaining living language of those spoken in southeast Europe before the Roman Empire. Since the 10th Century it has been gradually supplanted by Spanish and French, and was even banned during Franco's dictatorship. Today, on the other hand, the restoration of the language is being promoted, with the standardisation of its spelling and the promotion of its use and instruction.
This ancient language is divided into different dialects or "euskalkis" (bizkaíno, gipuzkoano, labortano, suletino, alto navarro, and bajo navarro) and sub dialects. The location of these dialects corresponds to the location of the ancient Basque tribes (várdulos, caristios, and vascones). As a result of the unification of the different dialects, Euskera Batua was created in the 1960s and was later adopted as the official language.