411 REFERENCE · Wikiquote
Basque language
Reference material by Wikiquote contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
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.Translated by Guy Deutscher, The Unfolding of Language (2005), epigraph to chapter 1.
Joseph Justus Scaliger, talking in 1604–1606.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).
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
Footnotes
External links
Basque language
Basque phrasebook at Wikivoyage
Category:Languages of Spain
language