Gipuzkoan
Encyclopedia
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
of the Basque language
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
spoken mainly in the province of Gipuzkoa in Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
but also in a small part of Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
. It is a central dialect, spoken in the central and eastern part of Gipuzkoa. In the traditional dialectal classification of the language based on research carried out by Lucien Bonaparte
Louis Lucien Bonaparte
Louis Lucien Bonaparte was the third son of Napoleon's second surviving brother, Lucien Bonaparte. He was born at Thorngrove, mansion in Grimley, Worcestershire, England, where his family were temporarily interned after having been captured by the British en route to America A philologist and...
in the 19th century, the varieties of the valleys Sakana and Burunda are also included in Gipuzkoan, while this approach has been disputed by modern Basque linguists.
Area
Gipuzkoan is not spoken all over Gipuzkoa, roughly comprising the area between the Deba River and the River Oiartzun. The strip of Gipuzkoa stretching from Leintz-GatzagaLeintz-Gatzaga
Leintz-Gatzaga is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain.-Etymology:...
to Elgoibar
Elgoibar
Elgoibar is an industrial town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain.It is located in a valley and it is traversed by the Deba river....
is part of the Biscayan
Biscayan
Biscayan, sometimes Bizkaian , is a dialect of the Basque language spoken mainly in Biscay, one of the provinces of the Basque Country of Spain....
(Western) dialect area, while the River Oiartzun flowing past Errenteria
Errenteria
Errenteria is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, North of Spain, near the French border. The river Oiartzun cuts its way through the town, one that has undergone severe pollution up to recent times on its lower...
outlines the border with the Upper Navarrese
Upper Navarrese
Upper Navarrese is a dialect of the Basque language spoken in the Navarre community of Spain, as established by linguist Louis Lucien Bonaparte in his famous 1869 map. He actually distinguished two dialects: Meridional and Septentrional...
dialect. However, borders between Gipuzkoan and High Navarrese are gradually disappearing as standard Basque is beginning to blur the differences among traditional dialects, especially among younger Basques.
Comparative traits
Some features of Gipuzkoan as perceived by other dialect speakers may be summed up as follows:- The grapheme j, which is highly variable amongst Basque dialects, is generally [x] (e.g. [xa'kin] vs [ja'kin], jakin).
- Verb 'to go' pronounced jun ([xun]), as opposed to general joan ('[joan]).
- Auxiliary verb forms "det - dek - dezu", etc., as opposed to general Basque "dut" (BiscayanBiscayanBiscayan, sometimes Bizkaian , is a dialect of the Basque language spoken mainly in Biscay, one of the provinces of the Basque Country of Spain....
"dot"). - Verb infinitives with ending -tu (bizitu, bialdu, etc.), frequent in central dialects.
- In nouns, root final -a is often interpreted as an article and dropped in indefinite phrases, e.g. gauz bat "one thing" vs gauza bat.
Variants of Gipuzkoan
Within Gipuzkoan, there are four main sub-dialects:- The Beterri variant (from the area surrounding TolosaTolosa, SpainTolosa is a town and municipality to the south of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain. It is located in a valley of the river Oria and overlooked by Uzturre, a white cross-topped mountain.-Famous people from Tolosa:...
, towards San SebastiánSan SebastiánDonostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
). - The GoierriGoierriGoierri is one of the eight regions in Gipuzkoa, formed by 18 municipalities, Beasain, Lazkao and Ordizia being the main towns.-External links:* ////....
variant. - The Urola variant (from ZarautzZarautzZarautz is a coastal town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country, northern Spain.The town is a popular tourist destination with the population swelling from its usual 22,812 to around 60,000 in summer. The Palace of Narros, located adjacent to Zarautz's 2.8 km long beach,...
to MutrikuMutrikuMutriku is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country in northern Spain. It is the site of the world's first multi-turbine breakwater wave power station, inaugurated July 8, 2011....
). - Navarrese Gipuzkoan (Burunda, Echarri-Aranaz).
Historical role
Gipuzkoan is one of the four dialects known as the literary dialects of Basque (BiscayanBiscayan
Biscayan, sometimes Bizkaian , is a dialect of the Basque language spoken mainly in Biscay, one of the provinces of the Basque Country of Spain....
, Lapurdian
Lapurdian
Lapurdian or Labourdin is a dialect of the Basque language spoken in the Lapurdi region of the Basque Country in France...
, Souletin and Gipuzkoan). It was used in Basque literature
Basque literature
Although the first instances of coherent Basque phrases and sentences go as far back as the San Millán glosses dating back to about 950AD, the large-scale damage done by periods of great instability and warfare such as the clan wars of the Middle Ages, the Carlist Wars and the Spanish Civil War...
from the 17th century onwards but, as with Souletin and Biscayan, it only enjoyed a minor role during the period of the Lapurdian dialect's dominance. This was due to the fact that the centre of Basque literary production was in Labourd
Labourd
Labourd is a former French province and part of the present-day Pyrénées Atlantiques département. It is historically one of the seven provinces of the traditional Basque Country....
during the 16th, 17th and most of the 18th century.
Gipuzkoan and Standard Basque
Gipuzkoan vocabularyVocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
was used as the main source for in Standard Basque, a standardised dialect of the Basque language used in teaching and the media.
See also
- Basque dialectsBasque dialectsBasque dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar from each other and from Standard Basque. Between 6 and 9 Basque dialects have been historically distinguished:*Biscayan*Gipuzkoan...
- BatuaBatuaStandard Basque is a standardised version of the Basque language, developed by the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s, which nowadays is the most widely and commonly spoken Basque-language version throughout the Basque Country...
(Standard Basque) - EuskaltzaindiaEuskaltzaindiaEuskaltzaindia is the official academic language regulatory institution which watches over the Basque language. It carries out research on the language, seeks to protect it, and establishes standards of use...
, the Royal Academy of the Basque Language