Resurrección María de Azkue
Encyclopedia
Resurrección María de Azkue (5 August 1864 – 9 November 1951) was an influential Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...

 priest, musician, poet, writer, sailor and academic. He made several made several major contributions to the study 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...

 and was the first head of the Euskaltzaindia
Euskaltzaindia
Euskaltzaindia 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 Academy of the Basque Language. In spite of some justifiable criticism of an imbalance towards unusual and archaic forms and a tendency to ignore the Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

 influence on Basque, he is considered one of the greatest scholars of Basque to date.

His full name is Resurreccion de Jesus Maria de las Nieves Azkue Aberasturi Barrundia Uribarri but he commonly known as Resurrección María de Azkue, R.M. Azkue or simply Azkue.

Biography

Azkue was born in the Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

an town of Lekeitio
Lekeitio
Lekeitio is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Basque Country, 53 km northeast from Bilbao. The municipality has 7,293 inhabitants and is one of the most important fishing ports of the Basque coast...

, a native speaker of Basque and son of the Basque poet Eusebio Maria de los Dolores Azkue Barrundia who was from Lekeitio himself and Maria Karmen Aberasturi Uribarri from Mundaka
Mundaka
Mundaka is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. On the coast, Mundaka is internationally-renowned for its surfing scene....

. After having studied nautical studies in Lekeitio, he went on to Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

 to do his baccalaureate
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 and then Vitoria and University of Salamanca
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid. It was founded in 1134 and given the Royal charter of foundation by King Alfonso IX in 1218. It is the oldest founded university in Spain and the third oldest European...

 to study theology and philosophy. He gained priesthood in 1888.

The same year, the Foral Government of Biscay invited new applicants for the chair of Basque Studies. Azkue, Sabino Arana
Sabino Arana
Sabino Arana Goiri, self-styled as Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin, , was a Spanish and Basque writer. He was the founder of the Basque Nationalist Party and father of Basque nationalism....

 and Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...

 all applied but Azkue was awarded the position. In the following period, he initiated many initiatives related to orthographic issues and the teaching of Basque, including the two magazines Euskalzale and Ibaizabal.

Although he considered himself a Basque patriot (or abertzale
Abertzale
Abertzale in the Basque language means "patriot", and it is mainly used to mean "Basque nationalist". It comes from the fusion of aberri with the suffix -zale .Although the term is synonym of "patriot", its common use...

) and although he was in contact with nationalist figures such as Sabino Arana
Sabino Arana
Sabino Arana Goiri, self-styled as Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin, , was a Spanish and Basque writer. He was the founder of the Basque Nationalist Party and father of Basque nationalism....

 and Ramón de la Sota, he is not considered to have been a Carlist and frequently disagreed with Arana and de Soto, particularly on Basque linguistic issues. More enamoured with the Basque language and culture, he tried to avoid politics in favour of cultural activities.

Notwithstanding, for many years there were two main camps of Basque writers and supporters of Basque culture - those that leaned towards Azkue's approach (the so called Azkuezaleak) and those that leaned towards Arana's approach (the so-called Aranazaleak). Over time, the popularity of Arana's somewhat puristic approach eventually waned.

In 1904 Azkue left Bilbao to travel Europe for 5 years, with major stops in Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...

, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, where he completed his musical studies.

On returning to Bilbao in 1909 he further busied himself with academic work (such as Ortzuri in 1911 and Urlo in 1914), boosting the emergence of the academic study of Basque. He was one of the most important supporters of establishing the Euskaltzaindia
Euskaltzaindia
Euskaltzaindia 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 Academy of the Basque Language, at the 1918 congress of Eusko Ikaskuntza in Oñati
Oñati
Oñati is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain. It has a population of approximately 10,500 and lies in a valley in the center of the Basque country. It lies about 40 km south of the Bay of Biscay and is about 236 m...

 and was its first head from its birth in 1919 onwards.

He vacated his chair of Basque studies in 1920 to immerse himself fully with the work of the Euskaltzaindia, pushing initiatives to codify and promote the Basque language, against considerable opposition from official quarters and the Arana camp. His main study on Basque morphology, 'Morfología Vasca' and the collection of Basque folks songs, Cancionero Popular Vasco, fall into this period. He also developed the famous Erizkizundi Irukoitza ('Triple Questionnaire'), a substantial tool to elicit information on vocabulary, morphology and pronunciation of Basque from informants.

1935 saw the publication of Euskaleŕiaren Yakintza, a 4 volume collection of traditional lore and a major push to develop the Gipuzkera Osatua project.

During the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

 ordered the closure of the Euskaltzaindia but Azkue managed to avoid exile as he was both of an advanced age and not a prominent political figure. Eventually, he managed to re-open the Euskaltzaindia in 1941 with the help of the young Federico Krutwig
Federico Krutwig
Federico Krutwig Sagredo was a Spanish Basque writer and politician, author of several books.Along with Felix Likiniano, he tried to create some resistance to the Francoist regime after the Spanish Civil War...

.

Azkue eventually died in 1951 shortly after accidentally falling into the Ibaizabal
Ibaizabal
The river Ibaizabal drains southeastern Biscay to the Estuary of Bilbao. It is 43 km long from its source at Elorrio to the Nervion, and it passes by the towns of Durango and Amorebieta and joins the Nervion river at Basauri. Both rivers run then together for a short length until they merge...

 river in Bilbao.

Studies

Azkue spent most of his life studying the Basque language and his works continue to be a major source of information to anyone working with the Basque language. Most of his work focussed on lexicography
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....

, grammar and popular literature. Some of his most important works include:
  • Euskal Izkindea-Gramática Euskara (1891). A study on the Basque verb
    Basque verbs
    The verb is one of the most complex parts of Basque grammar. It is sometimes represented as a difficult challenge for learners of the language, and many Basque grammars devote most of their pages to lists or tables of verb paradigms...

     which Azkue in later years called a "sin of his youth" as it sought to present an idealised and "purified" picture of the Basque language. Although Azkue himself left this approach behind soon, Euskal Izkindea inspired a school of thought that for many years sought to promote such an idealised view of the Basque language.
  • Diccionario Vasco-Español-Francés ('Basque-Spanish-French dictionary') (1905). Originally published in two parts, this is the publication that Azkue is most widely known for today. It lists Basque words from all Basque dialects in unmodified form and is considered a major source of dialectal material. Azkue collected the data for this dictionary from existing sources and his own research. It has been reprinted numerous times.
  • Diccionario de Bolsillo Vasco-Español y Español-Vasco (1918), a Spanish-Basque pocket dictionary.
  • Cancionero Popular Vasco (1918–1921), a compilation of music and songs.
  • Morfología Vasca (1923), a study on Basque suffixes. This publication too still constitutes a major source of information on morphological data, including forms and features that are no longer in use.
  • Euskaleŕiaren Yakintza (the knowledge of the Basque Country) (1935–1947), a major collection of traditional basque lore.
  • Gipuzkera osotua (1935), Azkue's documentation on a standardised form of Gipuzkoan.


Between them, Euskaleŕiaren Yakintza and Cancionero, constitute a major collection of Basque folklore, containing songs, poems, soties, children's games, tonguetwisters, customs, beliefs, folk remedies and over 2900 proverbs. He also revised Lucien Bonaparte
Lucien Bonaparte
Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Français, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano , born Luciano Buonaparte, was the third surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino....

's original distinction of eight dialects into seven.

Contribution to Batua

In relation to the efforts to find a literary standard for the Basque language, Azkue was a proponent of Gipuzkera Osatua ('Completed Gipuzkoan
Gipuzkoan
Gipuzkoan is a dialect of the Basque language spoken mainly in the province of Gipuzkoa in Basque Country but also in a small part of Navarre. It is a central dialect, spoken in the central and eastern part of Gipuzkoa...

'). This was in essence a codified form of the Gipuzkoan dialect as the balance of power had by then shifted from the Northern Basque dialects
Basque dialects
Basque 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...

 to the South, with the majority of Basque speakers now concentrated in Biscay
Biscay
Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

 and Gipuzkoa.

His novels, such as Ardi Galdua ('the lost sheep'), were written in Gipuzkera Osatua and it was to be a major influence on the later development of Standard Basque
Batua
Standard 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...

.

External links

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