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the100thmonkey's avatar

Can you recommend any online resources for learning Euskara (Basque)?

Asked by the100thmonkey (11265points) January 14th, 2011

I’d like to learn the basic principles of the grammar of Basque.

The Wikipedia page is too dense and takes a high-level linguistics approach rather than a pedagogical one.

Google Translate is useful for processing simple sentences, and I can formulate certain hypotheses from it: that negatives trigger a switch in the placement of the verb ‘be’, for example, but I have no idea whether or not my hypothesis is actually correct, or whether it’s on the right track but in need of refinement or, indeed, whether it’s just plain wrong. Indeed, I don’t even know how to identify verbs at all.

It’s a curiosity project for me – I’ve had a few students over the summer from Euskadi/pays vasca and I found them really warm, friendly and pleasant people – it brought back to me a lovely holiday I had in Biarritz and San Sebastian (France/Spain) many years ago that I really enjoyed. I’m also a total nerd for languages – I’ve taught myself solid social Japanese, speak passable French and read to a high level. I can read Spanish and Italian with the help of a dictionary, probably due to my having studied Latin for eight years at school.

Euskara is an intellectual puzzle that I’d really like to crack – I can transliterate the text to sound, but the way it works just doesn’t seem to make any sense, and this bugs me.

As I’m moving to Japan shortly, I don’t really want to be spending any money on what is essentially a luxury for now, but I would also appreciate any paid resources that you could refer me to.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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2 Answers

mrmijunte's avatar

That is a very tough language to learn because as you already know it is a unique tongue, it does not come from Latin nor anything else. I don’t know where you are from but if you live in a big city maybe checking with a Spanish Consulate, or go to a library. If you said that you taught yourself Japanese then this is a challenge you will enjoy.
Now if you where living in Mexico City where there are a lot of Gachupines then I would recommend you going to Club EspaƱa and they will surely send you to the right place.
Good Luck!

the100thmonkey's avatar

Thanks for the response @mrmijunte.

I couldn’t find anything, unfortunately, and my Google-fu is usually strong.

I bit the bullet and bought a beginner’s Basque book.

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