Hello there!
Yes, I’ve been away for a little while again. Between Saturday and Thursday, I was on a well-earned holiday to the Basque Country.
If you’re not familiar with this part of Europe, it’s a region in the western Pyrenees that includes a little bit of the southwest of France, and the northeast of Spain. I based myself in Biarritz, but also travelled to some lovely spots like Bayonne, San Sebastián, and Bilbao. I had a great, relaxing time, but you’re not here to hear about my holidays.
Linguistically, inevitably, the Basque Country is a fascinating place. People there of course speak French or Spanish, depending on their nationality, but also the Basque language. This language pre-dates the various Indo-European languages that our modern European languages are descended. As a result, Basque bears no relation to any of the other languages around it.In fact, it’s what’s known as a language isolate, a language that shares no common linguistic ancestor with other existing languages at all.
It’s not surprising if you visit the Basque region, and see and hear first-hand just how different it is from French and Spanish. Basque Country, for example, is Le Pays basque in French, País Vasco or Vasconia in Spanish, and Euskal Herria in Basque. In Basque Spain in particular, where the majority of speakers live, you’ll see a lot of bilingual signs (and some with French too), and even if you’re not so familiar with Spanish, it’s easy to spot Basque by its relative predominance of K‘s.
No-one’s quite sure about the history of the language, but it was more than likely part of a group of similar pre-Indo-European languages, all of which died out except for Basque. Maybe it survived due to the common identity shared by the Basque people and the desire to retain the language as part of their shared culture. It’s another great example of how complex and culturally rich this little continent of Europe is. Within this small region you can expect to hear four quite distinct languages spoken proficiently (including English of course).
Not that I heard much English, as the trip was a great opportunity for me to practise my French. It was great to be immersed in the language for a few days, and not have to resort to speaking English. I could have of course, and once or twice people replied in a little English when they saw I wasn’t a native speaker. Mostly though, I started things off in French and we continued that way, as I was clearly comfortable enough speaking it. Which was nice, and I hope some people appreciated a touriste making a little effort and not assuming they’d speak English for me.
The most interesting experience with French was in San Sebastián actually. As it’s popular with French tourists, being so close to the border, a lot of places had signs and menus in Spanish, Basque, and French. When I was ordering lunch in a restaurant, I therefore did it in French. What made it unusual was that it was one of the rare occasions when I was the more confident French speaker than the other one, and I had to grade my language, keping it simple and clear, the opposite of what I was doing in France (i.e. trying to show off what I know, basically).
A lot of language learners don’t like speaking with someone at a lower level than them, as they feel they’re not getting good listening exercise, by not listening to someone who speaks fluently. However, it’s actually quite a useful exercise, because if makes you think about how to communicate what you want most clearly, and stops you from trying anything too complicated, which can be useful to help you improve, but is also a classic way to make mistakes.
I’m back home now, to a mercifully sunny Ireland, for an important vote and a few more days of rest before I get stuck into my emails on Monday morning!
English-Language Thoughts 
Are the varieties of French and Spanish spoken there closer together than the standard forms? And how many people are bi- or tri- or quadri-lingual?
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I’m not too sure about the Spanish, but the French is pretty close to the standard form, apart from the accent. There isn’t a huge variety in forms of French within France though, with L’Académie Française dictating usage. There didn’t seem to be much Basque in use in the French section, but most people seemed to have a smattering of Spanish, and on the Spanish side there seems to be a lot of people comfortable with French, Basque, and English.
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Very interesting, I had no idea such a language existed.
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Kaixo and welcome back!
So, never talk about sex, religion or politics…
The referendum: did you vote?
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I did, and I voted Yes. I’ve always make sure I vote as long as I’m in the country. I didn’t expect the winning margin to be so big.
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It really shows how Ireland has modernised over the years. The image of Ireland (as least among the “Saxons”) used to me: “nice place, but a bit OTT and over-conservative.” Now Eire has an openly gay and (mixed race) Taoiseach and much more. Interesting to see how the power of the church has faded in recent years.
As for my view, well, if the Orange Order are against it, I’m for it.
From a purely practical point of view, the fact that abortion will be legal in EIre, does not necessarily mean that women will be able to go to an Irish health service hospital to get an abortion. Will Irishwomen still have to fly over to Great Britain to get an abortion? “May you live in interesting times.”
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It’s interesting, because for the moment there’s no legislation in place, so it’s still not possible (the vote was just to repeal a constitutional amendment commuting to protect the life of the unborn. However the government has committed to legislation allowing unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks, which should be in place by the end of the year, so it’ll be available in hospitals here then.
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It’s very interesting indeed. (As an aside, I’ve just emailed Mary Lou McDonald TD to ask a few “what happens in practice?” questions.)
The devil is in the detail.
I’m interested a conscience clause: what if a health care professional is against abortion? Will they be punished?
What will be the criteria for allowing abortion, given that abortion on demand is not on the table?
Will the Irish health service provide abortion free at the point of use?
Finally, what will happen in Northern Ireland? (This is where it gets political. The DUP have got the Maybot over a barrel, so I can see her saying that abortion is devolved issue, even though Stormont has not met for about 18 months.)
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I don’t think there’ll be much movement on the issue in the North for a long time. Apparently any GPs refusing to deal with abortions will face penalties. It’ll be basically unrestricted up to 12 weeks, but after that two doctors will have to determine there’s a serious risk to either child or mother. Apparently the average cost will be €300, but people with a medical card (usually unemployed or low income) will get it for free, as they generally get medicine and care free with the card.
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Any change in the North/The Six Counties/Northern Ireland takes ages. “The Province” because it’s always been a bit provincial compared to the rest of the UK of GB&NI.
So no conscience clause? That’s going to cause some issues, surely?
And the state will pay? Blimey. So the situation is quite advanced?
Watch this space…
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Yeah, I think there are going to be a lot of little wrinkles to be ironed out before the legislation is passed.
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Let’s see what happens. I’d anticipate a conscience clause to acknowledge the concerns of objectors.
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