Standard Basque
Batua (English Unified) is a standardised dialect of the Basque language most widely and commonly spoken throughout the Basque Country. Heavily based on Gipuzkoan on account of its rich literary heritage, it is the version of the language found on TV, in newspapers and in common parlance.
Batua is a created language using unified orthography and is accepted as the literary standard. In spite of this, many people continue to oppose the imposition of a single created dialect of Basque, however, because Batua is most widely taught in schools, this balance is beginning to shift.
History
The language was created by the Euskaltzaindia (Royal Academy of the Basque Language). Having been for centuries pressured on both sides by Spanish and French, and under the rule of Franco coming close to extinction, the Academy felt the need to create a unified dialect of Basque, in order that the language have a greater chance of survival.
The 1968 Arantzazu Congress laid down the basic guidelines for achieving that objective in a systematic way (lexicon, morphology, declension and spelling). A further step was taken in 1973 with a proposal to establish a standard conjugation.
The debate arising from this new set of standard language rules (1968 - 1976) did not prevent it from becoming increasingly accepted in teaching, the media, and administration (1976 - 1983), within the context of burgeoning regional government (Statute of Autonomy in Euskadi, 1979; Improvement of the Charter of Navarre, 1982).
Other Basque dialects
The following dialects, spoken in the Spanish and French Basque regions, pre-date Batua, which was created using them as a basis. They are typically used in the region after which they are named, but have many linguistic similarities.
Spain
France
See also
- Gara Basque newspaper
- Euskal Telebista Basque television and radio broadcasting
- Ethnologue on Spanish dialects
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