{"id":7161,"date":"2024-09-08T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=7161"},"modified":"2024-09-08T15:40:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T15:40:24","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-some-special-basque-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/09\/08\/basque-fact-of-the-week-some-special-basque-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: Some Special Basque Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background\">The Basque newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\"><em>Deia<\/em><\/a> (the oldest Basque newspaper) has been running a series of articles in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/vivir\/contando-historias\/\">Contando Historias<\/a> section about Basque words and phrases, calling out the most beautiful, the oldest, and the most common Basque words used in daily life. Such lists are always subjective and Deia has resorted to using artificial intelligence and the opinions of TikTokkers for these lists, but it still offers an interesting perspective on the language.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/egunsentia.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/egunsentia-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/egunsentia-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/egunsentia-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/egunsentia.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Egunsentia, or dawn, over Araba, taken by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/12090378@N05\/53912016451\/\">Jabi Artaraz<\/a>. He has a lot of amazing photos on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jabitxu\/\">his Flickr account<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/contando-historias\/2024\/06\/19\/palabra-euskera-dia-dia-8376132.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2KBghNrja2V2BX19RnCj1U8VB-ZS3jqdjvLLhc_dVqs9a6B7iIQlb06J4_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw\">The Basque word most used in daily life<\/a>: <strong>Agur<\/strong> is the word most used in daily life in the Basque Country, even among non-Basque speakers. Nominally meaning <em>goodbye<\/em>, agur is much richer than that, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/01\/03\/basque-fact-of-the-week-the-basque-word-agur\/\">variety of meanings<\/a> based on context. In modern Basque society, agur has become an expression of identity, of cultural belonging.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/contando-historias\/2024\/06\/06\/saludo-comun-dice-euskera-8325546.html\">The most common Basque greeting<\/a>: The Basque word <strong>aupa<\/strong> can be used in almost any context. Often used to mean hello, it can be used in a more formal setting with coworkers or a more familiar setting with friends and family.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/contando-historias\/2024\/06\/11\/tres-palabras-bonitas-euskera-increible-8344462.html\">The three most beautiful Basque words<\/a> (at least according to social media account Guk Green): These words are beautiful, both because of how they sound but also how their meaning arises as compound words in Euskara. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Egunsentia<\/strong> (dawn): egun (day) + sentitu (feel); literally <em>feeling the day<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eskuzabal<\/strong> (generous): esku (hand) + zabala (width); literally <em>wide or open hand<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Otsaila<\/strong> (February): otsoa (wolf) + hilabete (month); literally <em>month of the wolf<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/contando-historias\/2024\/05\/10\/expresamos-euskera-enfado-alguien-8217936.html\">Basque words used to express anger<\/a>: This same TikTokker Guk Green describes Basque words used when we get angry with someone:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Txoriburu<\/strong>: Literally meaning bird-head, it is used to describe someone who is simple-minded.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pikutara joan<\/strong>: When you want someone to go away, you can say pikutara joan, which means &#8220;go get figs.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Babalore<\/strong>: With a literal meaning of &#8220;flower of the bean,&#8221; this again means someone who is dull or stupid. But, in the right context, it can mean beautiful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/contando-historias\/2024\/06\/17\/palabra-antigua-euskera-diario-8366854.html\">The oldest Basque word in daily use<\/a>: I guess I&#8217;m not sure how much I trust it, but according to Deia, an artificial intelligence model has indicated that the two oldest words in Euskara that are in common daily use are <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/09\/07\/aita-an-unfortunate-acronym\/\">aita<\/a><\/strong> (father) and <strong>ama<\/strong> (mother). They go on to describe how aita has Castilian roots and ama has similarities with the word for mother in many languages. They then discuss theories of how Euskara is related to Georgian, a theory that <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2024\/06\/23\/basque-fact-of-the-week-who-was-larry-trask\/\">Larry Trask<\/a> would certainly place in his bongo-bongo list.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/contando-historias\/2024\/06\/07\/nombre-euskera-bonito-inteligencia-artificial-8330707.html\">The most beautiful Basque names<\/a>: Again turning to AI, Deia asked what was the most beautiful Basque names. I&#8217;m not sure how fruitful such queries are, but in any case, this was the answer:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>&#8220;The perception of what constitutes a \u201cpretty\u201d name can vary widely between different people and cultures. However, many consider the name \u201cAne\u201d to be one of the prettiest in the Basque language. \u201cAne\u201d is the Basque form of \u201cAna\u201d or \u201cAnna\u201d and is popular for its simplicity and sweetness. Other Basque names that are also highly regarded include \u201cAitor\u201d for males, meaning \u201cfather of the Basque race,\u201d and \u201cNerea\u201d for females, meaning \u201cmine\u201d or \u201cmy own.\u201d Each of these names has a pleasant sound and deep cultural significance, making them especially beloved in the Basque community and beyond.&#8221;<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background\">A full list of all of Buber&#8217;s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/basque-fact-of-the-week-archive\/\">Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Primary sources: Sources are in the links in the main text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Basque newspaper Deia (the oldest Basque newspaper) has been running a series of articles in their Contando Historias section about Basque words and phrases, calling out the most beautiful, the oldest, and the most common Basque words used in daily life. Such lists are always subjective and Deia has resorted to using artificial intelligence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[836,14],"tags":[38,4019,859],"class_list":["post-7161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-euskara","tag-euskara","tag-hitzak","tag-names"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/egunsentia.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1Rv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7161"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7298,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7161\/revisions\/7298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}