Nov
11
Don’t mess with the Basque language!
The Wall Street Journal published a story about Euskera, the Basque language, that has caused quite a stir among Basque bloggers. The article, which had the unfortunate headline “Basque Inquisition: How do you say ’shepherd’ in Euskera?“, is about Spaniards having to learn Basque to order to keep their jobs. The lead example is a 50-year-old math teacher who has been given a year, at full pay, to learn a language which has zero similarity with Spanish.
In Spain there are several different regional languages of which Euskera is one. What raised the ire of Basque bloggers was the suggestion that Euskera isn’t a language used in “real life.” Insulted blogger Luistxo Fernandez who blogs over at The English Cemetery wrote that while the WSJ may believe that, he can assure everyone that Euskera is used in real life and “virtual life”, i.e. on the Web.
In an open letter to the WSJ reprinted on The English Cemetery, Mikel Morris, author of an English-Euskera dictionary, wrote a scathing critique of the piece.
“As for statistics, I fail to see where you got the figure 450,000,000 speakers for Spanish. Are you including Anglos who speak “Taco Bell” English in the States? German tourists who can order a beer in pidgin Spanish in the Costa Brava? George Bush? Indians in Guatemala who can barely utter a sentence in intelligible Spanish? An authoritative estimate from the Ethnologue Survey (SIL) gave a figure of 332,000,000 in 1999. Has Spanish acquired an extra 120,000,000 since 1999? If so, that is truly amazing but hardly plausible.”
Keith Johnson, author of the WSJ piece, wrote back with an open letter of his own.
I’m all in favor of multi-lingualism, so I think the more languages people speak the better. But there was something in the WSJ article that got my attention. Starting next year, the language of instruction in public schools will be Euskera. What does this mean for the next generation of Basques? A generation of young people who can speak Euskera fluently but are only minimally proficient in Spanish? What kind of future will they have in their own country, meaning Spain, if they can’t express themselves easily in Spanish? Why isn’t it possible for the two languages to co-exist?
I agree that it would be bad if they left school minimally proficient in Spanish. It’s just not the case. Basque students leave school completely fluent–both conversationally and academically–in Basque, Spanish, English, and quite often a fourth language. These programs, which are now used by nearly 90% of the population, have been around since the transition to democracy in the late 70s. And, they’re completely voluntary. So, if you want Spanish to be the main language of instruction you can still choose that.
Hi Kristen,
Thank you for the additional perspective. Much appreciated!!