Loreak (Flowers in English) is the first Basque language film to be nominated for the Goya Award and the first Basque language film to be considered for an Oscar (in the Best Foreign Language film category). It was Spain’s selection for that Oscar, though it was, in the end, not nominated. However, these accolades highlight the […]
Jaialdi is starting! Maybe, as you wander the streets, Kalimotxo in hand, you will hear an old timer (he might be my dad) speaking with his buddies in Euskara. Or you might hear some of those visiting musicians or even the Lehendakari himself, also speaking in Euskara. Or, even, some of those preschoolers who attend […]
While the survival of the Basque people and culture to modern times is often ascribed to the isolated region in which the people inhabit, the Basques are not so secluded as one might think. Some great examples demonstrating this are the various pidgin and mixed languages that have sprung up out of the interactions of […]
This article originally appeared in Spanish and Basque on Kondaira’s Facebook page. It is translated and posted here with permission. The Basque-Algonquian language is a pidgin that arose for intercommunication between the members of the Mi’kmaq tribe, Innu and other Amerindians with the Basque whalers, cod fishermen, and merchants in Newfoundland, Quebec, the Labrador Peninsula, […]
In 1991, I traveled, for the first time, to the Basque Country. Though my dad was born there, and my mom’s grandparents as well, we’d never made a family trek as it simply was beyond our resources. My dad himself only went back a handful of times during the first 30 years he was in […]
In this guest article, Professor Begoña Echeverria, a professor of education at the University of California, Riverside, describes how she uses songs to teach basic concepts of the Basque language to adults, focusing not on grammatical aspects, but rather conversation. Eskerrik asko, Begoña! Basque-ing in play: Using song to teach Basque in the American diaspora Begoña Echeverria […]
Homeland is a short video produced by the Etxepare Basque Institute and Surffilmfestibal that gives a glimpse into the world of Basque surfing and surfers. Narrated in Euskara with English subtitles, it begins by introducing the Basque people and Basque culture from the perspective of the ancient traditions that many aspects of Basque culture are […]
The Buber Prizes are an annual event in which the best Basque websites and internet applications are recognized. For me, these awards are particularly meaningful, as the awards are named after these pages, partially as a recognition of the role of Buber’s Basque Page in the history of Basques on the internet and partially because […]
I first visited the Basque Country in 1991. The Internet was just starting to reach students at universities. I remember that, at the University of Idaho, I had barely learned about email before leaving for Spain. When I got to Spain, it was difficult to find any computers to log into and read or send […]
Yesterday I posted about another blog that ranked languages in terms of “weirdness”, which made the claim that Spanish, German and English were much weirder, in comparison with other languages, than Euskara. Well, another blog, this one from the Language Log at the University of Pennsylvania describes some issues with this analysis. In particular, a […]
