{"id":7879,"date":"2026-10-04T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=7879"},"modified":"2026-10-04T13:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T13:44:13","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-basque-palindromes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2026\/10\/04\/basque-fact-of-the-week-basque-palindromes\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: Basque Palindromes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">In English, there are many forms of word play from puns and palindromes to malapropisms and ideophones (past facts <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2023\/06\/11\/basque-fact-of-the-week-sounds-in-euskara\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2020\/04\/12\/basque-fact-of-the-week-basque-ideophones\/\">here<\/a>). 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 &#8211; think of the classic &#8220;Madam, I&#8217;m Adam.&#8221; Here are some palindomic words and phrases in Euskara. With the aid of Google Translate, I tried my best to give the English translation &#8211; corrections welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Markos_Gimenoren_palindromoen_kartelak_Gernikako_Euskal_Herria_Museoan_ikusgai.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Markos_Gimenoren_palindromoen_kartelak_Gernikako_Euskal_Herria_Museoan_ikusgai-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Markos_Gimenoren_palindromoen_kartelak_Gernikako_Euskal_Herria_Museoan_ikusgai-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Markos_Gimenoren_palindromoen_kartelak_Gernikako_Euskal_Herria_Museoan_ikusgai-768x434.jpg 768w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Markos_Gimenoren_palindromoen_kartelak_Gernikako_Euskal_Herria_Museoan_ikusgai.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">One of the exhibits in honor of Markus Gimeno and his palindromes. Image from <a href=\"https:\/\/eu.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Palindromo\">Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Words (longer than the obvious short ones like <strong>ama<\/strong>)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Kikirikik<\/strong><br>cockle-doodle-do, crow of a young rooster<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Okerreko<br><\/strong>wrong, mistaken<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Zurrumurruz<\/strong><br>Rumor has it<br><em>The longest single word palindrome in Euskara<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Zirimiriz<\/strong><br>drizzle<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kitarratik<\/strong><br>from the guitar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ustetsu<\/strong><br>from the rain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Phrases\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Adarreko akerra barreka okerra da<br><\/strong>It is wrong to laugh at the horned lark<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Akitika aruat anuduna, neurekin ta orra zelan ama mattia gaiti amaman alez arro at nik eruen anuduna ta ura akitika<\/strong><br>The one wearing the dress, jumping with me\u2014and look how the dear mother is proud of the boy because of the grandmother\u2014out there I took the one in the dress, and she was jumping (roughly translated with Google Translate)<br><em>This one won a palindrome contest in 1924<\/em>. <em>It is written in the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2022\/09\/04\/basque-fact-of-the-week-euskalkiak-the-dialects-of-basque\/\">Bizkaian dialect<\/a> of Euskara.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Auzi aurrean, amaren zain, iaz neramana: errua, izua<\/strong><br>In front of the case, waiting for my mother, I was carrying it last year: guilt, terror.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ero maite, beti amore<br><\/strong>Crazy love, always surrender<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Esanik erruz egi bat eta bi gezurrekin ase<br><\/strong>In other words, satisfied with one truth and two lies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Irauli psiko-eleok ispiluari<br><\/strong>Flip psychological words in the mirror<br><em>Winner of the 2024 contest mentioned below<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kalaka mutuz izutu makalak<br><\/strong>The silent calamus terrified the poplars.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kaosa bizi sebez y especialmente ere bizi basoak<br><\/strong>Chaos lives in itself and especially in forests.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Nik enara neraman amaren aranekin<\/strong><br>I was eating my mother&#8217;s plums<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ze nekeza inori atea irekitzea eztikeria eta ironia zekenez<br><\/strong>It was difficult to open the door to just anyone, because he could be sarcastic and ironic<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Zerua urez<\/strong><br>The sky with water<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On his blog, <a href=\"https:\/\/eu.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Markos_Gimeno\">Markus Gimeno<\/a> (who died in 2018) from <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2025\/07\/06\/basque-fact-of-the-week-the-industrial-town-of-ermua\/\">Ermua<\/a>, posted several Basque palindromes as exercises for people to fill in, you can find them here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerorajasoa.com\">https:\/\/www.zerorajasoa.com<\/a>. In 2024, the Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia hosted an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deia.eus\/cultura\/2024\/10\/08\/carteles-euskera-leen-igual-izquierda-8780432.html\">exhibit<\/a> featuring some of his own palindromes. Some of the palindromes above are by Markus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Palindrome contests in Euskara continue the tradition of that 1924 contest and Markus Gimeno&#8217;s work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.berria.eus\/gr\/palindromoak\/\">Berria<\/a> has a page on the 2023-2024 competition, where they received more than 400 entries. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And <em><a href=\"https:\/\/abereba.eus\">abere ba<\/a><\/em> is an illustrated book of animal-based palindromes in Euskara.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">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 class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Primary sources: <a href=\"https:\/\/edl.ecml.at\/Fun\/Palindromes\">European Day of Languages<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Appendix:Basque_palindromes\">Appendix:Basque palindromes<\/a>, Wiktionary; <a href=\"https:\/\/bigara.info\/palindromoak-euskaraz\/\">Palindromoak euskaraz<\/a>, Bigara; <a href=\"https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pal\u00edndromo\">Pal\u00edndromo<\/a>, Wikipedia; <a href=\"https:\/\/eu.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Palindromo\">Palindromo<\/a>, Wikipedia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[836,14],"tags":[38,4321,4319,4320],"class_list":["post-7879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-euskara","tag-euskara","tag-markus-gimeno","tag-palindromes","tag-word-play"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-235","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Markos_Gimenoren_palindromoen_kartelak_Gernikako_Euskal_Herria_Museoan_ikusgai.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7879","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=7879"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7940,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7879\/revisions\/7940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}