Basque language
language of the Basque people
Basque is a language isolate ancestral to the Basque people, who are indigenous to and mainly inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in north-eastern Spain and south-western France.
Sourced edit
- Cést un langage estrange que le Basque... On dit qu’ils s’entendent, je n’en croy rien.
- Translation: Basque is really a strange language... It is said that they understand one another, but I don't believe any of it.[1]
- Joseph Justus Scaliger, talking in 1604–1606.[2]
Footnotes edit
- ↑ Translated by Guy Deutscher, The Unfolding of Language (2005), epigraph to chapter 1.
- ↑ Quoted in Scaligerana (1666), p. 36. Scaligerana contains Scaliger's own words as written down by his friends, probably after their conversations, but is generally considered reliable (see Scaligerana at the Warburg Institute).
External links edit
- Basque phrasebook at Wikivoyage