Basque language

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

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]

Basque is demonstrably related to other languages... a scientific analysis of the evidence leads to the most probable conclusion that Basque is, at first remove, most closely related to the North Caucasian language family.
- John D. Bengtson, from his book “Basque and its closest relatives: A new paradigm“. also quoted in [1]

Footnotes

↑ 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

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Basque language

Basque phrasebook at Wikivoyage

[1] Translated by Guy Deutscher, The Unfolding of Language (2005), epigraph to chapter 1.

[2] 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).

[1]

[2]