Basque Dialects - Standardized Dialects

Standardized Dialects

There have been various attempts throughout history to promote standardised forms of Basque dialects to the level of a common standard Basque.

• A standardised form of Lower Navarrese was the dialect used by the influential 16th century author Joanes Leizarraga.

• Azkue's Gipuzkera Osotua ("Complemented Gipuzkoan"), dating to 1935, attempted to create a standardized Basque based on Gipuzkoan, complemented with elements from other dialects — a largely unsuccessful attempt.

• In the 1940s, a group (Jakintza Baitha, "Wisdom House") gathered around the academian Federico Krutwig, who preferred to base the standard on the Lapurdian of Joanes Leizarraga's Protestant Bible and the first printed books in Basque. However they did not receive support from other Basque language scholars and activists.

• In 1944, Pierre Lafitte published his Navarro-Labourdin Littéraire, based on Classical Lapurdian, which has become the de facto standard form of Lapurdian. It is taught in some schools of Lapurdi and used on radio, in church, and by the newspaper Herria.

• Since 1968, Euskaltzaindia has promulgated a Unified (or Standard) Basque (Euskara batua) based on the central dialects that has successfully spread as the formal-usage dialect of the language. Batua is found in official texts, schools, TV, newspapers and in common parlance by new speakers, especially in the cities, whereas in the countryside, with more elderly speakers, people remain attached to the natural dialects to a higher degree, especially in informal situations.

• More recently the distinct dialects of Bizkaian and Zuberoan have also been standardised.