The Situation of the Basque language is awfully overestimated

[Spiderman]

I honestly don't understand why too many people think Basque language is doing good. It's not. Sure, the language has seen revival efforts but its still a severely endangered language overall (especially in France). Even in Spain, its a minority language (vulnerable in Spain, severely endangered in France, overall combined, definitely endangered). Even after revival efforts, there is no surge in increase at all. The Basque language was suppressed by the Spanish and French government together and although, it has seen a resurgence of interest in recent years, the growth in the number of speakers has not guaranteed that the social use of the language will increase in the same proportion, and the quantitative and qualitative differences between the territories where Basque is used, a cross-border language that depends on three different governments, have not only not been reduced but, in some respects, seem to be accentuated.Although previous editions of the Sociolinguistic Survey provided some encouraging data, Basque continues to lose its weight in the French Basque Country. If in 1996 it was estimated that 26.4% of people over 16 years of age who at that time resided in the three provinces of Iparralde, Lapurdi, Baja Navarra and Zuberoa, spoke Basque, by 2021 that percentage had fallen to 20%, establishing the number of Basque speakers in the Northern Basque Country at 51,500. There has been a decrease in the number of speakers, but the decrease in their proportional weight has been even greater because of the increase in the population of a territory that approaches 320,000 inhabitants in recent years. Next, not only does Basque have relatively fewer fluent speakers but majority of them are passive speakers. According to the census, there are 750,000 speakers of the language, with 434,000 passive speakers and 6000 monoglots. The rest have some knowledge of the language but majority of them are passive speakers. Passive speakers are speakers have no interest in the language despite learning so much of it. In fact, the seventh edition of the Survey once again shows that where the use of the Basque language is increasing the most is in the most populated and a priori less Basque speaking areas. On the contrary, the most pronounced decline has occurred in areas with a Basque speaking majority, in towns and regions that are considered the ‘lungs’ of Basque. And this is not to be taken lightly since the decline is almost ten points. Experts attribute this to a sum of factors more social than linguistic: mobility; the progressive urbanization of the rural environment; the increase in the population of foreign origin, common to all territories and all sociolinguistic areas. As you can see, the basque language isn't doing as good as it is expected, something that many people don't realize. Anyway, that's my rant.

[Dracoco OwO]

It's not overestimated, few peoples actually cares.

[steven1mac]

The language is not promoted (and historically it's the opposite) in France and Spain to prevent independence movements. Without national support, regions have little chance to maintain their own unique cultures and languages.

[Spiderman]

Origineel geplaatst door steven1mac:

The language is not promoted (and historically it's the opposite) in France and Spain to prevent independence movements. Without national support, regions have little chance to maintain their own unique cultures and languages.

That's my point

[Spiderman]

Origineel geplaatst door Dracoco OwO:

It's not overestimated, few peoples actually cares.

Yeah, the thing is, they don't realize the challenges, the Basque language currently faces

[Q-T_3.14.exe]

Inb4 someone mentions Francisco Franco.
...
Wait...

[Varsik]

Origineel geplaatst door Q-T_3.14.exe:

Inb4 someone mentions Francisco Franco.
...
Wait...

https://youtu.be/8Hj7wjdRdzw

[Dracoco OwO]

Origineel geplaatst door steven1mac:

The language is not promoted (and historically it's the opposite) in France and Spain to prevent independence movements. Without national support, regions have little chance to maintain their own unique cultures and languages.

This is exactly what's happenning, this has been happenning in most regions with their own languages, i live in one and it's pretty much same situation, my grandma even spoke about how during the war where kids couldn't speak french during it and were asked to speak German so they basically spoke a mix of Both which is Alsacien which is actually a pretty old language that exist since the fourth centuary, when the french teachers came back kids were asked to speak french and nothing else.

But now if you look at the situation closely these same peoples don't exactly care to preserve and pass on the language, i am not sure if it's because it was discouraged or they are lazy however.

[Knee]

endangered enshmangered

[Riddley Walker]

This is top tier trolling, sir. I salute you.

[Varsik]

Who cares about that language bruh?

[Spiderman]

Origineel geplaatst door Varsik:

Who cares about that language bruh?

The problem is, the government, including the people are too satisfied with the Basque situaton. Just because its increasing doesn't mean its fully safe. Ex: The Scottish Gaelic language increases but that doesn't mean it still faces challenges. As a result, the government who is too satisfied with the situation of the Basque language has stopped doing anything and as a result, the surge in usage is not increasing. That's the biggest problem of government. It's like when you got F on test and fixing only 50% of errors and calling it "done". Basque language would have been in better condition if government did more to promote the language.

[Dracoco OwO]

Origineel geplaatst door Varsik:

Who cares about that language bruh?

That's the thing, it's few peoples living in those areas, "many" (less than a million of peoples lol) speak it but they really don't care about passing it down really, it's supposedly their culture but they hardly care. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but there is a kind of pressure by govs to prevent them to try to go independant like other areas before, so there's that i guess.

[Varsik]

Origineel geplaatst door Language Statistics Reporter:

Origineel geplaatst door Varsik:

Who cares about that language bruh?

The problem is, the government, including the people are too satisfied with the Basque situaton. Just because its increasing doesn't mean its fully safe. Ex: The Scottish Gaelic language increases but that doesn't mean it still faces challenges. As a result, the government who is too satisfied with the situation of the Basque language has stopped doing anything and as a result, the surge in usage is not increasing. That's the biggest problem of government. It's like when you got F on test and fixing only 50% of errors and calling it "done". Basque language would have been in better condition if government did more to promote the language.

Whats the point of keeping languages that nobody uses...
I dont even know why they have so many languages in that country

At least for swiss it makes sense to have that many languages

[Lambros]

Insert Chris Tucker Meme!

Make Babel great again!

[Netaris]

Origineel geplaatst door Dracoco OwO:

That's the thing, it's few peoples living in those areas, "many" (less than a million of peoples lol) speak it but they really don't care about passing it down really, it's supposedly their culture but they hardly care. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but there is a kind of pressure by govs to prevent them to try to go independant like other areas before, so there's that i guess.

The thing is, there is a middle ground to find, those little communities weren't able to protect themselves anyway, they could have dissapeared for a lot of reasons without France and Spain being a part of it anyway. What was proven efficient so far, to protect a culture, a way of life, a bloodline, is the nation-state model, like France, like Spain, like Italy and so on. If you aim for something smaller, you'll be crushed at some point, if you aim for something bigger you will create so much problems it may be unmanageable and fall (like the soviet union for example and other Empires in History).

There is simply no valid reason for this language to continue to exist, as everyone else around speak other language and we travel a lot more than before. I mean, today, even if you don't like the english language, you're already greatly rewarded for learning it. The basques just take pragmatic decisions at the individual level, being fluent in french is more important, learning english is more important, learning spanish (as a french) is also more important, by far. And you can't learn all languages around. Peoples just have their priorities, save what you can save, like other regions, save parts of your culture instead, but your language will dissapear for sure long term. Be smart about it, save what you can.