In English, there are many forms of word play from puns and palindromes to malapropisms and ideophones (past facts here and here). I never really thought about it, but makes sense that word play is a part of other languages, including Basque. And just like there are folks who make word games in English based on these ideas, so to are there in Euskara. Palindromes are words or phrases which are the same (forgetting punctuation and spaces) when read backwards and forwards – think of the classic “Madam, I’m Adam.” Here are some palindomic words and phrases in Euskara. With the aid of Google Translate, I tried my best to give the English translation – corrections welcome.

• Words (longer than the obvious short ones like ama)
  • Kikirikik
    cockle-doodle-do, crow of a young rooster
  • Okerreko
    wrong, mistaken
  • Zurrumurruz
    Rumor has it
    The longest single word palindrome in Euskara
  • Zirimiriz
    drizzle
  • Kitarratik
    from the guitar
  • Ustetsu
    from the rain
• Phrases
  • Adarreko akerra barreka okerra da
    It is wrong to laugh at the horned lark
  • Akitika aruat anuduna, neurekin ta orra zelan ama mattia gaiti amaman alez arro at nik eruen anuduna ta ura akitika
    The one wearing the dress, jumping with me—and look how the dear mother is proud of the boy because of the grandmother—out there I took the one in the dress, and she was jumping (roughly translated with Google Translate)
    This one won a palindrome contest in 1924. It is written in the Bizkaian dialect of Euskara.
  • Auzi aurrean, amaren zain, iaz neramana: errua, izua
    In front of the case, waiting for my mother, I was carrying it last year: guilt, terror.
  • Ero maite, beti amore
    Crazy love, always surrender
  • Esanik erruz egi bat eta bi gezurrekin ase
    In other words, satisfied with one truth and two lies
  • Irauli psiko-eleok ispiluari
    Flip psychological words in the mirror
    Winner of the 2024 contest mentioned below
  • Kalaka mutuz izutu makalak
    The silent calamus terrified the poplars.
  • Kaosa bizi sebez y especialmente ere bizi basoak
    Chaos lives in itself and especially in forests.
  • Nik enara neraman amaren aranekin
    I was eating my mother’s plums
  • Ze nekeza inori atea irekitzea eztikeria eta ironia zekenez
    It was difficult to open the door to just anyone, because he could be sarcastic and ironic
  • Zerua urez
    The sky with water
• On his blog, Markus Gimeno (who died in 2018) from Ermua, posted several Basque palindromes as exercises for people to fill in, you can find them here: https://www.zerorajasoa.com. In 2024, the Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia hosted an exhibit featuring some of his own palindromes. Some of the palindromes above are by Markus.
• Palindrome contests in Euskara continue the tradition of that 1924 contest and Markus Gimeno’s work. Berria has a page on the 2023-2024 competition, where they received more than 400 entries.
• And abere ba is an illustrated book of animal-based palindromes in Euskara.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: European Day of Languages; Appendix:Basque palindromes, Wiktionary; Palindromoak euskaraz, Bigara; Palíndromo, Wikipedia; Palindromo, Wikipedia