Basque Dialects - History of Basque Dialectology

History of Basque Dialectology

One of the first scientific studies of Basque dialects, regarding the auxiliary verb forms, was made by Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon. His original dialect map Carte des Sept Provinces Basques which was published in 1869 along with his Le Verbe Basque en Tableaux was regarded as the authoritative guide in Basque dialectology for a century. He collected his data in fieldwork between 1856 and 1869 in five visits to the Basque Country. By then, the Basque language was much in retreat in the whole territory where it had been commonly spoken. In Alava, Basque had all but vanished from the Plains and the Highlands, just remaining in the stronghold of Aramaio and bordering fringes of Biscay and Gipuzkoa, while in Navarre the scholar collected the last live evidence in areas extending as far south as Tafalla.

In 1998, Koldo Zuazo, Professor of Basque Philology at the University of the Basque Country, redefined the dialect classifications slightly, amongst other things changing the name of Biscayan dialect to Western, Gipuzkoan to Central, Upper Navarrese to Navarrese, grouping Lapurdian with Lower Navarrese, distinguishing Eastern Navarrese as an independent dialect and recognising several mixed areas:

• Western (Biscayan)
• Central (Gipuzkoan)
• (Upper) Navarrese
• Eastern Navarrese (including Salazarese and the extinct Roncalese)
• Navarrese–Lapurdian
• Souletin

Much has been studied too on the Basque dialect spoken formerly in Alava. In 1997, Koldo Zuazo released research carried out on the issue based on dispersed recorded evidence (Landuchio's glossary,...) and papers drawn up especially by Koldo Mitxelena. The pundit outlines three main linguistic areas running north to south, where features related to Western and Navarrese dialects mix up to different degrees according to their geographical position. He focuses mainly on relevant lexico-morphological differences, such as instrumental declension marks -gaz/rekin, ablative -rean/tik, barria/berria (= 'new'), elexea/elizea (= 'church'), padura/madura (= 'swamp'), to mention but a few.

Some key distinguishing features in Basque dialect phonology are:

• loss of /h/ and aspirated stops in Southern Basque dialects
• strong divergence of historic /j/ into /j/ /ɟ/ /ʒ/ /ʃ/ /x/ /χ/
• Souletin development of the vowel /y/