Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Support for Euskara

This article about the defense of Euskara comes to us via EITb:

Institutional support for Basque language

Even though in former times the Basque Country was privileged with a series of ancient rights, these were insufficient to protect the social use of Basque.

Institutional support is the last decisive factor in the sociolinguistic continuity and revitalisation of Basque. Even though in former times the Basque Country was privileged with a series of ancient rights, these were insufficient to protect the social use of Basque, as can be seen from what happened to the situation of the Basque language in Alava during the eighteenth century and Navarre during the first half of the nineteenth century.

With the exception of some specific action taken by the provincial governments during the first decades of the twentieth century and the brief interval during which the Basque Government was formed (1936) during the Spanish Civil War, there was no true institutional support for the language until the 1980's, once democracy had returned to Spain and the Statutes of Autonomy of the Basque Autonomous Community (1979) and Navarre (1982) were approved.

The successes obtained in the standardisation and modernisation of the language, its presence in the education system, culture, the media, the administration and business have been made thanks to the support from the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre.

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