Here is one of the most important lesson because it introduces you to the main feature of the Basque language, an can be regarded as the main difficulty of Basque for an Indoeuropean language speaker
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY EUSKARA IS DIFFICULT ?
In many languages, personal pronouns are exteriorised :
I see you. He loves me. Etc...
Euskara has not reached this phase. Indeed according to linguists, languages evolve through three stages:
1. Merging pronouns with the verb
2. Intermediate state (I think it is called holophase or sth...)
3. Externalized pronouns
Euskara is at stage two. What the heck does this mean ?
Pronouns are integrated to the auxiliary, ie looking at the auxiliary, you now the nature of the subject and of the complements.
Let's take a famous example.
To love is maite ukan (to have love literaly). You recognize the auxiliary ukan, "to have".
Okay, now a sentence for you lovers
Maite zaitut : I love you.
You're right to ask me where has ukan gone, and why there is one word to translate "I have you".
In Baque we say that maite ukan is a nor/nork verb, ie it has a transitive subject (here "I", case : nork) and a transitive object (here "you", case nor).
Knowing this, the auxiliary is declined.
ZAITUT = ZAIT U T
ZAIT = you
U = root of the auxiliary "ukan"
T = I
You notice why the verb is called nor/nork : because the object (nor) is in the first position and the subject (nork) at the end.
And the auxiliary declension is done also when the subject/object are nouns...
I will give you a barbaric chart, the nor/nrk chart.
Don't learn it by heart, just observe it and try to build your own sentence.
NA u T
D u
GA it u GU
ZA it u ZU
ZA it u zte ZUE
D it u z TE
1.The left part is the object the right part the subject.
2.The "it" is the mark of a plural object.
3.The "zte" and "z" are connectors to help the pronounciation.
4.The "u" is the root of the auxiliary "ukan".
5. The subject of the third person is "nothing". A silence is worth thousand words...
Fancy an example ?
We see them : to see is ikusi
Them = DIT
We = GU
The auxiliary is DITUGU
Ikusi ditugu = We see them.
(Now you are right to say "it's all Basque to me")
Well, if you had any trouble understanding it, please ask, because this is the key of euskara, its hidden treasure...
Zoroa