Preserving Euskara

It should be quite telling that the Basques call themselves Euskaldunak, meaning Basque Speakers. It should also be understood that they call their country Euskal Herria, the Land of the Basque Speakers.

Dividing the Basque lands in three different political entities with different approaches to the significance and preservation of the language among linguistic giants like Spanish and French has become the task of titans, but is has not been up to titans to do so, but up to average citizens, people willing to speak the language of their forefathers, people willing to advance it despite the "democratic" governments bent on suffocating it.

Here is a very interesting note about the efforts by one of the many Basque groups engaged in making sure Basque remains the corner stone of Basque culture.

EHE: “Basque needs one single law for the whole of the Basque Country”

During an event held in Iruñea, Mikel Irastorza, a member of the pro-Basque association EHE, appealed to all sectors of society to give Basque priority, in order to achieve the total normalisation of the language; he called for the uniting of forces in this task

Editorial Staff – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian)

The Euskal Herrian Euskaraz-EHE association celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Anaitasuna sports centre in Iruñea (Pamplona) yesterday before a crowd of several hundred people. Just as it did in Durango 25 years ago, the association supporting the Basque language issued a statement yesterday, this time entitled 25 urte eta gero… Euskal Herrian Euskaraz! (25 years on… in Basque in the Basque Country!). In the statement, the EHE takes a look back at the course of the Basque language during the last 25 years, and outlines the keys to its future progress.

Mikel Irastorza read out the statement on the EHE’s behalf and said that the progress made by the language during this period was due to the work, determination and fight on the part of the popular movement and members of the public. He referred to some of the numerous initiatives taken: “As a result of our efforts in favour of the Basque language, we Basque speakers have exposed the infringement of our linguistic rights and the fact that we are prevented from living in Basque; the idea of overcoming legislation designed to kill off Basque is growing; the official status of Basque throughout Euskal Herria needs to be firmly instilled in people; despite the difficulties, we are creating and increasing the number of Basque language media; the movement in favour of the Basque language has moved from being something dispersed to something more united.”

Irastorza pointed out that the tools “to kill off Basque” came into effect 25 years ago. He said that because of the legal situation, the triple division of Basque reflected a language adrift in all parts of its territory. “Yet the Spanish and the French have not stamped out the attachment we Basques have to our language; they have failed, because 25 years on Basque is alive, just as the Basque Country is,” he stressed. He went to say that throughout these years the French and Spanish States had been constantly trying to destroy everything that we Basques had built. He said this was borne out by the closing down of Euskaldunon Egunkaria and the assault on popular movements.

.... ... .