Basque – A Language of Mystery
Looking for precise and professional language translation? Look no further! I specialize in accurately translating English to Haitian Creole, French, and Spanish.
Trust me to deliver exceptional results that capture the essence of your message. Contact me today for flawless language translations.
This video is all about the mysteries of Euskara – the Basque language of the Basque people in Europe.
🚩 Support Langfocus on Patreon:
Current patrons include: Nicholas Shelokov, Brandon Gonzalez, 谷雨 穆, Adrian Zhang, Vadim Sobolev, Yixin Alfred Wang, Kaan Ergen, Sky, Romain Paulus, Panot, Erik Edelmann, Bennet, James Zavaleta, Ulrike Baumann, Ian Martyn, Justin Faistand, and Panthea Madjidi for their generous Patreon support.
Thanks to Juan José Oñate for his audio samples of Basque.
Source for info at the 2:50 mark:
Example sentences taken from “A Brief Grammer of Euskara, the Basque Language” by Itziar Laka, University of the Basque Country.
Music:
Dama-May – Primal Drive by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license ( )
Source:
Artist:
Outro song: "Cromag Beat" by Silent Partner.
Intro track 1: "Tribal War Council" by Doug Maxwell and Media Right.
Some interesting facts about basque (I’m basque):
“Water” is said “ur” in modern basque, but in the ancient basque it was said “iz”. Modern basque words including “iz” are: “izerdi”, in english “sweat” (literally “half water”); “izotz”, in english “ice” (literally “cold water”); “izurde”, in english “dolphin” (literally “water pig”).
Basques had its own ‘pagan’ religion (with its mythology). But betwen 10th and 17th century the Church supressed basque religion.
Its said that the basque lenguage was alredy spoken when men were living in caves. Its easy to imagine the people back then saying: ur/iz (water), su (fire), zur (wood), aiz (rock), lur (ground), ke (smoke), jo (hit), jan (eat), lan (work), lor (achieve)…
Actually “axe” is said “aizkora”, which includes the word “aiz” (rock) on it. So its posible that when basque was “”created”” the axes were still made out of rocks.
me encanta vuestra cultura! (soy catalán jaja)
Oriol Canal Borrachero Y a mi la vuestra! (tengo familia en Santa Coloma de Gramenet jaja)
+Mena cerca de mi pueblo!
+Mena Interesting that the basque word Izquierda (left) made it into the spanish language. Is the IZ in izquierda also related to water?
Iz for water seems to derive from the sound water makes when flowing.
The same seems to be true for other languages. In Germany small streams are dubbed Bach, or Ach / Rach in dialect. This is obviously related to the sound created by flowing water.
I wonder whether one can trace down aqua/agua to the sound of water flowing.
+wwwtotalitaerde Don’t think so, because the word “left” in euskera is not “IZquierda” but “EZkerra”.
And it comes from “esku okerra” (ezkerra) which means ‘wrong hand’.
On the other hand, the word “right” is said “eskuma” (or “eskubi” in some dialects), and “esku” means “hand”. This could be an evidence of something modern humans still do, which is relating the sides (right/left) with the hands. How did we learn the sides on school? Thats right, using our hands.
About the sound of the water… It sounds “glub-glub” to me xD
I’m Basque and very proud because of your video, you did a very good job describing this beautiful lenguage! _Eskerrik asko, adiskide!_
Igerrogog https://youtu.be/fKXnz9YMa9A
bro u are spanish first….. u should proud of that
Ni euskalduna naiz eta harro nago. Espanola EZ naiz. You cannot be proud of being a Spaniard … Spain is PAIN.
@Sayantan Adak
@Xabier Lexartza XD
@Sayantan Adak no, he is human first and basque second 😂
I am basque, I speak basque thanks to school. A lot of students complain about the fact that it’s almost compulsory to study every subject in that language. I think it’s great, even if sometimes people whose mother tongue is spanish hace difficulties to express fully with the teachers or in essays and exams. The only way to protect it is by making it a big part of our culture, it’s fragile, it’s beautiful and very special. Euskara babestu!
I believe I am Basque. One of the highest concentration of people with Rh negative blood is in this area. My Mothers maiden name is Francesena….
also there’s a link to the Basque and Atlantean’s 🤗
@PBJ It doesn’t have a cost. People naturally converge their speaking into various laguages. The esperanto was basically what you are saying, and it didn’t work, people just don’t want to lose their cultural richness
@PBJ Incentives to forget your mother language will never exist. Language is apart from a communication tool, a cultural expression, and eradicating a language will never have a positive impact on anything.
@PBJ
I would say language as a mean of identification and heritage emphasis is enough reason wanting to preserve it, is it not?
@PBJ hey dude, I despise taxes too.
Hi, I’m a native Basque speaker and I must admit I’m really impressed. Everything you’ve said is accurate af. Congratulations, this is an amazing video and it is clear that you have made a great deal of research. I hope you continue making such good videos.
Esanten bazenun thanks ere ondo egongo zen denbora gutxigo egiteko
So.. do you have Rh-negative blood? 😏🤔😁
@Heidi van Loosbroek No I don’t
I’m curious if it’s true and known to basque people that back when Philippines was a spanish colony, a lot of spanish migrated to Philippines are basque and where we got names like Iñaki ?
That’s fascinating. How many languages do you speak?
“Emakume”, in english “woman”, is made up of two words : “eman” (in english “give”) + “(k)ume” (in english “child).
Almost all the words in basque are compound words by base-words (which are usually monosyllabic). The meaning of the compound word is the relationship between the meanings of the base words.
Is the case system also like this? Like a ancient word that they glue it together to the nouns
Feminists: “wait that’s illegal”
@itziar unciti: what’s the word for man?
@Ishtar Gizon: Giza+on. “Giza(ki)” means “human” and “On” means “good”.
@Itziar Unciti thank you for the quick answer 👍
Hello!
I’m a basque native speaker, I have spoken Basque and Spanish since I was little. I came across your video and I loved it 😄 It’s great that a person who lives far from here can explain the language in such a good way. Basque is really difficult to learn, it requires patience and effort; however, I encourage people to do it, because it is beautiful!
Because it came from Armenia
Is basque related to etruscan as some enthusiasts say? Have you tried reading etruscan scripts? I tried reading them in russian and now I’m pretty confident russian-etruscan relation theories is pseudo-science.
Can you teach me basqu language
Basque girls are really dificult to catch.
@goutd’0 utopic Armenia?? Hahaha is a no indoeuropean language
I’ m not basque but I really appreciate their culture and way of life!
Sono Ligure e ammiro chiunque conservi le proprie tradizioni. Anni fa avevo conosciuto Beronia , una ragazza di origini Basche .Abbiamo simpatizzato subito perché dall’ intonazione della sua voce avevo capito il significato della frase.
Dude, I am basque, so proud of it, and I do speak basque, it is compulsory to learn it in school, and we always try not to loose our language. Thanks for showin it to the world
I need to learn that language.
Didn’t know Quavo was from the Basque Country
@Edwin Hidalgo DNA proves nothing. Being basque or in my case being russian is, first of all, a cultural thing. Though I agree you with those 5% would always be more basque than any random person with the same language and culture knowlege but without any genetic similarities.
@Василий Мельник It literally proves where you come from.What the damn hell are you talking about?I’m Turkish but if I have 35% English DNA and %20 Turkish DNA,then I am genetically English.(Which is possible because European Huns(which are Turkic)caused Anglo-Saxons to be born.)
The french republic suppressed basque and all other ‘regional’ languages by banning them in schools too. They also created a culture of shame around those languages which was almost fatal to them, and the governments today still continue to slowly and shamelessly kill our languages in the name of ‘unity’.
“The first step in liquidating a people, is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will
Milan Hübl.
This is what the French State did and still does, in France against Breton, Corsican, Basque, Alsacian, etc,… cultures and languages.
« Pour liquider les peuples, on commence par leur enlever la mémoire. On détruit leurs livres, leur culture, leur histoire. Puis quelqu’un d’autre leur écrit d’autres livres, leur donne une autre culture, leur invente une autre histoire.
Ensuite, le peuple commence lentement à oublier ce qu’il est et ce qu’il était. Et le monde autour de lui l’oublie encore plus vite. »
Milan Hübl (Ecrivain et historien Tchèque)
they do it in a name of freedom. then they show all world how freedom should be
So did the USA with “regional” languages, including French in Louisiana, ironically enough :p
I am a Celt, eff the French, English and Spanish
The same with catalan in southeast of France. In a old school in a small town in french- catalonia (roussillon) you can read: Soyez prope, parlez français. Be clean, speak french!
I am Basque and I have to admit that I love to see people from other countries that are not spain speak about our language so that more people know it
hello my name is soila. i came to this video by doing research on my name. is it true that soila means simple
@soila reyes Yeah, it has more meanings but simple is one of them.
My girlfriend and I went to Bilbao end of this April (1 week ago from the time I’m writing this comment). We both speak Spanish and love Spain in general and were excited to discover Bilbao which is a beautiful city. However we were surprised that we didn’t hear many people speak Basque between each other. Like even when we watched Athletic vs Sevilla we heard people speak Spanish to each other. Nonetheless it’s good that officially it’s still around and being taught as well as there being signs in Basque. It’s a unique language and should be preserved. Btw we were speaking Greek to each other (because we’re from Greece) and an old lady on the street suddenly was staring at us so then we thought maybe from a distance she thought we were speaking Basque and was surprised 😂
@Tasos Pat Yeah, in the cities like Donostia, Gasteiz or Bilbao there are much fewer people who speak Basque than in smaller towns. I suppose it will be because in general the cities attract a lot more people from outside the Basque Country. Aniways, hope this info helps you and you are doing well there in greece
As Spaniard from a region without any other language than Castillian, I think it would be really cool if every school teaches as a third language one of the other co-oficial languages of the country. I think that would be very enriching.
And basque, of course, is so cool and weird and unique! A pity they didn’t teach me that!
I’m basque, and since we are kids we speak basque. I wouldn’t be able to learn basque if I wasn’t native hdhdhshs
@heartchuu me neither, baldintzas are difficult and also deklinabidea
Your idea is worth an implementation. It enriches Spain.
@Yim Veerasak Yes, but it will never happen. The mentality in the right wing is still Spanish nationalistic and their politicians framed a lot of their campaigns in the context of “not giving up to the peripherial nationalisms” (So Spanish nationalism after all)
DIOS imagínate poder elegir aprender vasco como opción, sería increíbles. Me abriría las puertas para seguir aprendiendo por mí mismo. Y podríamos ser más empáticos con la gente que usa indistintamente el español y su lengua regional. Sería maravilloso
I know it sounds very awkward to many people. However, the order of words is so amazingly similar to Korean which is known to be another isolated language. Both languages have S+O+V structure. The perfect aspect and the ending with “da” (is) and its variables like dio and du are so similar too. Take one sentence for example from your clip, “The Child fell in the street.” could be translated to “Ai-ka Kil-wuie Numeo-jud-da.” 아이가 길위에 넘어졌다. Ai(child)+ka(case for subject) Kil(street)+wuie(on, or upon for original meaning but like “in” for your term) Numeo (fall or fell)+jud(perfect aspect)+da(is). “The man has given the book to the child.” could be translated into Korean, 아저씨가 아이에게 책을 주었다. Ajeosi-ka Ai-eoke Chaek-ul Ju-eod-da. It is Ajeosi(the man)+ka (case for subject) Ai (child)+eoke(to), Chaek(book)+ul(case for object) Ju(give)-eod(perfect aspect)+da(is). Anyway, it is very interesting.
These similarities could maybe say something about the time at which these languages came to being; the same time period.
i also found its structure similar to turkish. it is strange but basque might be close to transeurasian languages
So basically it could be easier to learn Basque if you would speak Korean instead of Spanish? 😅
I have mad respect for the Basque speakers, not only did they survive for 12,000 years of constant speaking. But they survived the Indo European expansion, The Celtic Expansion, the Roman Expansion, The Spanish speaking World, the Arab expansion, and now the English speaking world, if I’m not wrong I think the Germanic tribe invasion after the fall of Rome. And possible many more invasive things. Your people probably went through hell to keep this amazing language alive and active. Mad respect
12,000 years? Basque is just like 6000 years like most European languages
@Triangull689 I think truthfully we don’t really know exactly how old the language is… but I feel like 6,000 is probably a closer estimate? but what do I know
@Triangull689 much older
@fred777 how do u know
I’m Japanese, and had a sense of affinity for Basque language. The Basque grammar is like SOV, just like Japanese.
Damn, I was wondering why some phrases I tried to learn/read in Japanese were kind of “comfortable” for me while so many people had issues when trying to get the meanings in the correct order. TIL!
I’m basque and I’m learning Japanese, and I have found some funny coincidences between the two:
japanese: 鳥。
basque: txori 「チョリ」
japanese: ◯◯だ。
basque: ◯◯da.
japanese: ばかり。
basque: bakarrik.
Also, one of the basque gods, the dragon Sugaar, in some places is called Sugoi, as Suge= 蛇 and Goi=上. So it’s literally すごい.
The same applies for Quechua (a South American native language) it is SOV !!! So many “isolated” non Proto Indo European languages that use SOV
@ERENCIO YEGUA about 45% of languages use that word order
There is a Japanese Woman with a very good basque level she translated some basque books into Japanese and some Japanese books into basque.
I’m a native Basque speaker as well, I also speak Spanish and English like most of the Basque speakers in this comment section. I really like how basque and non-basque people are interacting and asking questions in this comment section, it’s nice to be able to talk about this with people around the world 🙂 Cheers, y’all!
Half Georgian scientist(linguist, historian) Nikolai Marr traveled in Basque country and he found many similarities between Basque and Gurian(Guria-region in Georgia, where he was raised) life styles^^ also, as far as i know, some of their surnames are the same as Migrelian(Kartvelian languge, region is Samegrelo) surnames:)))
So, i believe that Basque and Georgian languages are related🤷🏽♀️💕
P.S i’m interested in learning Basque language someday, thanks for the video💜
They might be related via Anatolian farmer population.
If you know a damn when it comes to prehistoric archaeology and genetics you know Europe had the Hunter Gatherers (WHG and EHG) as well as Anatolian farmers, and Indo-Europeans of course, the steppe herders, its likely before the Indo-European Kurgan Yamnaya steppe migration, or “Aryans” if you prefer, extinct cultures and language families from the early European Neolithic Anatolian farmers, who lived all over Europe, except parts of Eastern Europe like Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but from the rest of Europe, the Caucasus, Anatolia (no brainer) and even a few groups that made it to the Maghreb, its not surprising if Basque and Georgian are the same language family like Indo-European is.
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on who you are and how you look at it, the Indo-Europeans wiped out and assimilated most of the Anatolian farmer populations.
France has a long way to go before embracing regional languages and dialects again, hopefully it will before it is too late. I always think about how patois Norman died a little more each generation in my own family. Grandparents could speak it but didn’t. My dad could understand it in his youth (but probably can’t anymore) because his grandparents spoke it, and definitely couldn’t speak it. I can neither speak it nor understand it.
Long-timer Langfocus fan here. I was just revisiting this video. I had totally forgot that it opened with you rejoicing and reflecting on hitting 50,000 subscribers. It’s January 2023 right now and you’re up to 1.4 million – incredible!
You must have put in so much time and hard work to get here, Paul.
I for one (as well as at least 1.4 million others) appreciate and enjoy your videos.
Grazie mille, danke schön, terih makasih, merci, harigato and thank you!!!
The suppression of a language should be considered a crime against Humanity.
I’ve been watching your videos for a few years and I’m very very impressed with your knowledge of so many languages. I was born in California from Mexican parents. My great grandfather moved to Sinaloa Mexico from the Basque country. I was lucky enough to visit the Spain and drive north all the way to San Sebastián. It is a beautiful area of Spain and I can see people that reminds me of my family.. thank you for all your fantastic work…!