For as much as the Basque government pushes it, Basque isn´t going to take over in the Basque Country in the near future, if ever. It´s very difficult to learn as it is so different.

Quintos233,
I believe people sould have the right to speak Spanish. But I don't believe they sould have any official value in other words English is the master langauge used by over 514,000,000 people, it is the dominant language in finance, IT and aviation, and it is the official language in more countries than any other, therefore its obviously alot more usefull then Spanish. Which in comparison to English it is a meer joke of a langauge when talking about the amount of people that speak it.

Yes you are correct more people do speak English than Spanish but the 300,000,000 amount of people speaking Spanish is not some thing to be ignored besides that is just the official number of Spanish speakers im sure theres anothere 60,000,000 in the US and else where. The reason english is the master language is because of the US super power status but as with every other empire and super power eventually it will dwindle I wouldn't wait in wet cement for it to happen but it will what goes up must come down. Further more 300,000,000 amount of Spanish speakers was from about 2 yrs. ago thus the amount of Spanish speakers has probably grown exponentially. Spanish is obviously important even when compared the Anglo Saxon mumbo jumbo known as English which is a language with almost no common grammar rules since many signs are posted both in and English and Spanish in some parts of the US and the fact that Spanish is taught in most schools in the south west therefore it obviously has some importance even when compared to English.

Quintos,

If that was the case, Chinese would end up the official language, with over a billion people speaking it as a native language.

What stops Chinese and Japanese from becoming more of an impact is the fact that they don't use conventional alphabets. Since English itself is the predominant language of business, it's hardly likely we'll see Spanish become the bigger impact language. For a lot of the world, knowing english is enough, wherein many countries have reluctantly admitted that they have to speak english because of the business world. Such has been the case in the vast majority of Europe, where english has become a reluctant second language of need, no matter what your native language may be.

Although Spanish is deeply rooted in so many countries, I don't see it becoming the predominant language of the world. As for english losing ground, I don't see that in the future, unless the business centers of the world end up in Spanish speaking nations, and that's a reach to even consider it happening, during the 21st century, and probably beyond, because of the vast number of people who would have to start all over again, with another language.

Basque may not be spoken by a great number of people, but one should realize that it's actually rebounding. While Franco was alive, Euskara was pretty well outlawed. Now it's being serviced by scholars, who are dealing with adding new words as the need arises, and the language is beginning to be spoken more in the Basque region of Spain. My guess is, if anything, the number of people who will be able to speak Euskara will continue to climb, and eventually be stronger than it has been for over half a century.

Calibasco can tell you more about this, since he knows the roots of Euskara much better than I.

Agur!

Wolf

I fully agree with Wolf. The number of speakers is not an argument to let a language die Quintos.

Spanish is quite used (it has reachen recently to 400 million people) but there are other languages much more used. Besides, it is absurd to think of a one widely used language imposed over the thousands of languages that exist.

Would you really like Spain to loose its cultural richness by having only one language? From my point of view, basque or galaecian are as spanish as castilian.

Fernando

Quintos: "Spanish is taught in most schools in the southwest"... To what are you referring? Spanish is also taught in "most schools" around the country. If you're referring to bilingual education, the program that wasn't working, there are no longer any state mandates to teach students in whatever native language they have [usually Spanish]. English is the main language, and the language of core instruction. We voted bilingual ed out months ago.

Roe: Basque won't ever again enjoy the dominance in Euskadi that it once did. This is not due to whether the autonomous government pushes it or not, it simply has to do with the dilution of the Basque population living in Euskadi. Basque will continue to be taught and learned by those whose parents are vascohablantes, but once you get a Basque who marries and Andaluz or something else, the propensity for propogation of the language diminishes.

Since Euskadi's population is no longer exclusively Basque, the struggle to keep the language alive is only going to get harder.

CaliBasco, there are lots of Ikastolas where children are taught in Basque and so they learn it regardless of what their parents speak, not to say that I think that Basque will be dominant.

Cali, your statements smell something racist, don't you think? When you mention "pure basque" race are you taking into account that basques have been mixing with other spaniards for more than 3,000 years?.

Do you know that I have basque blood? and castilian, and german, and catalonian, and from Cantabria... curious indeed. I'm probably a rare case. In other countries it is obvious that people is segmented by their origin. For example in France you can clearly distinguish a french from Paris than other from Borgogne at first glance... they are soooo different, aren't they?

It is always better not to mix with rude spaniards... you never know if your blood is going to degenerate. :p

Fernando

I think that your quick edit saved your butt Fernando from Calis wrath Oh yeah Cali is some what reminescent of Hitler a perfect race of pure Basques!! ps I just scrolled down and saw those graemlins haaahhaa I was wondering how you guys got them on.

Ay, ay, ay...I only asked a simple question

Hi,

I have been reading about the Basque language in your interesting posts.

I live in Donostia-San Sebastian (Basque Country) and my mother tongue is Basque.

Now there are three different education models in Basque Country: A, B and D.

A - All in Spanish, Basque like a subjet
B - Mix. Spanish and Basque, about 50%, education
D - All in Basque, Spanish language and literature (in Spanish) like a subjet.

In two of the Basque Community provinces (Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) the A model has very few force (about 5% or so), being about the half or more, the people that studies in D model. Araba (Alava) the percentages are different, being about one third for each model.

Regards,

Aitor