What would the Basque Nation be called?
I studied Tibetan (modern not classical) for 2 years, and my instructor told us that Tibetan and Basque were either the only two or two of the very few languages to use “egophoric voice”. You’ll have to get one of the resident linguists to explain it; it’s a strange idea to my Indo-european mind, and it took the better part of the first year for me & the other students to comprehend… In the case of Tibetan, though, it described how verbs were used in relation to the speaker; in Tibetan there are like 4 to 6 ways you can say “I am” ( & any other verb) and depending on which voice you use (by changing verb form but not tense), you implied different meanings about you and where or how you “are”. (P.S. this has nothing to do with religion or mysticism, just how their language developed way before Buddhism).
The President of el País Vasco (called “Lehendakari” in Basque), Ibarrexte, is a member of PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco) a separatist party. I’ve been reading the Plan Ibarrexte (in Spanish), which is PNV’s proposed revision of the Statute that governs the País Vasco. It clearly defines Euskal Herria as “el pueblo vasco” which means the Basque people. The region is called “Comunidad de Euskadi” in the text or Euskadi Community.
The Basque language is a source of endless fascination for me. In my school years, I had no less than two flatmates of Basque descent; one when I was an undergrad at the University of Chicago, and later when I was studying at Sciences Po in Paris. I really got a kick out of listening to these folks speaking to their parents on that phone, it sounded like no other language I have ever heard.
Yes, Euskadi is for name for the autonomous region in Spain…I was thinking if Spanish and French Basque communities were to unite in a nation (insert flight-of-fancy warning), what would they call the nation? Is there a Euskaran word for ‘Shangri-La’, a promised land, or something similar that symbolises a united sovereign nation? I just read ‘The Basque name of the Basque Country is Euskal Herria’ from here, and while that seems at odds with the others, it is the only site that deals in both French and Spanish Basque unity, as opposed to purely Spanish. Then again, it may just be a Euskaran transliteration for ‘Basque Country’. The general consensus seems to run with Euskadi. Thanks again, amberglow!
