zeme wrote:Every time I hear Basque, I am perplexed by its similarity to Spanish in pronunciation. Given the Isolate nature of Euskara, I would expect it to sound considerably different from neighboring languages. From its orthography, I thought it would sound a bit like Caucasian languages.
linguoboy wrote:It's only an "isolate" in a genetic sense. Speakers of Basque have continuously been in contact with speakers of other languages; for over 2,000 years, Latin and its descendents have been among those languages. It's only to be expected that there would be some mutual influence.
There are a number of Spanish innovations ascribed to Basque influence (e.g. /f/ > /h/, merger of /v/ and /b/, etc.) but the evidence for these is rather weak. Nowadays there are virtually no Basque monoglots left, so the influence of Spanish on the varieties spoken in Spain is intense.
The Basque of Spain sounds like Spanish and the Basque of France (called, "vasco-francés) sounds like French.
loqu wrote:Lex, I'm curious: does any of those dialects ever make it to appear on ETB or the radio? Or you can only hear batua on them?
Prosper_Youplaboum wrote:The Basque of Spain sounds like Spanish and the Basque of France (called, "vasco-francés) sounds like French.
not those I heard, except some learners of course. The only thing that may make it sound French, is the French r, but most of the people I heard trill it, so it doesn't sound French. The pronunciation of the j changes according to the area (ʒ, dj, or j). Except for that, what did sound French in what you heard?
While the Spanish Basque speakers I heard pronounce z like English unvoiced th (as in Spanish), intervocalic g as gh (as in Spanish), intervocalic d as English voiced th (as in Spanish), j as in Spanish... They pronounce everything as in Spanish, like.
Prosper_Youplaboum wrote:They force themselves to speak batua, or are there people whose mothertongue is batua?
I'd love it if batua were only used in certain contexts and if the dialects survived for ever, even if only used in everyday life
First of all, i'm not a Master in Linguistics but when i hear a Basque (from France) speaking Basque, i barely understand him. It's not just the French r but also the vowels,
the accent, the intonation...everything makes you think he's french;)
This dialect is very influenced by French.
As for the Spanish side: Excuse me but we do not pronounce z like English th
Most of us learnt batua at school. If someone's mother tongue is Basque, it's not batua, it's some dialect (there can be exceptions). Batua is learnt at school. In my case, my mother tongues are Spanish and Basque. My father taught me Basque (Biscayan dialect). Then, at 3, i began learning batua at Primary school. I used it just in school, then at University and now just when i watch Tv. With my family i speak a dialect.
When i said the vowels, i meant the pronunciation of the vowels.
Spanish Basques pronounce z like the English th (when we speak Spanish). But i was talking about the Basque z. In Basque, the z is pronouced as an English s.
And yes, when i said the french dialect, i meant the 3 of them (the Basque dialect spoken in France).
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