Euskara
- Basque
Published in the
Scotsman and the Contact Bulletin
Davyth Hicks, 1998
New figures from the Basque country indicate a massive demand for Basque medium only education and, if current trends continue, the virtual disappearance of Spanish medium education. In one area of the autonomous part of the Basque country, Gipuzkoa, the Spanish medium known as Model A is to be withdrawn entirely as there were only 3 people asking for it. It is hoped that such demand will reflect in future numbers of speakers which have steadily increased, from 20% to over 25%, since 1979 when some autonomy was gained. This has only been achieved due to the political will and significant investment of the Basque Government.
When Euskadi won some autonomy in 1978 only about 20% of the 2.5 million spoke Euskara, and of those, few could read or write it. Only 5% of primary school teachers could speak Euskara. One of the new governments first actions was to pass a comprehensive language act which listed the measures to restore the national tongue (Brian Wilson please note). A language board with a powerful Secretariat was established to implement them, and the strength of government determination was made manifest by the appointment of no less a person than Euskadi’s president as chairman of the board.
Intensive immersion language courses (1,500 hours) were organised for school teachers to reach some fluency. By the end of 1987 8,000 teachers had been released on full pay to attend long courses, with the result that 28% of primary school children were being taught through the medium of the native language - more than twice the Welsh proportion in 1987. 90,000 adults were attending language courses, taught by 1,500 professional teachers in nearly 500 language centres, two of which were residential with 50 teachers apiece. Language courses for adults cost over £10 million in 1989. This work was supported by the publication of as many as 200 textbooks a year and hundreds of cassettes and videos. In the huge federal university of 42,000 students 25% of the courses are offered in Euskara medium. Hundreds of University text books have been published for this purpose. This has cost the government of Euskadi tens of millions a year, but it reflects their will and determination to revive their language after years of severe repression from Franco’s fascist regime.
Significantly the Basques have to deal with two states their northern part, Ipparalde, is currently under French rule. The French continue in their policies of linguistic genocide and this is where Basque is still under threat. Likewise with Breton which is facing a severe generation-led crisis as the parents have not passed the language on; figures, (which are estimates as the French don’t recognise officially other languages in their state), show an increasingly ageing Breton-speaking population, which will thin out with no replacement. Other writers such as Trefor Royle assume that Breton is doing OK- even with a Government firmly pursuing policies to wipe it out and uses it as an argument to suggest that languages do not need state support. The facts from the Basque country completely destroy his argument and in fact show just how successful a well thought out and dynamic language policy can be.
To achieve these results the Basque government set up a deputy ministry for language policy, set up as part of the Governments Culture department. Created in 1983 shortly after the Law for the Promotion of Basque was passed (1982) and updated in 1995. This co-ordinates and monitors Basque language policy and also lays down and develops the criteria which the Basque Government stipulates have to be followed by the Basque public administration.
Also there are other bodies within the Basque Government which promote and disseminate the Basque language. These include: the Department of Education's Basque language service, the Institute for Adult Literacy and Basquisation (created in 1982), and the Basque Institute for Public Administration (created in 1983). The last of these has the job of determining administrative terminology, organising and assessing the language ability of civil servants and providing translation services.
The provincial and local councils of the Basque Autonomous Community also have sections or departments aimed specifically at promoting the Basque language.
In addition to all these bodies within the administration, there is also a long list of associations and private companies working on language normalisation, both for the language's corpus (including the Royal Academy of the Basque Language and, UZEI - an organisation which basically spends its time working on everything related to terminology) and for its status and promotion (here it is difficult to cite specific associations because there are several different kinds covering the needs of specific areas).
This year an interdepartmental and inter-institutional steering commission (comprising the three Departments of the Basque Government upon which the language planning bodies mentioned previously depend, the three provincial councils and the local councils of the three principal Basque cities) was created with a view to analysing and optimising the financial and human resources spent on language normalisation. Although the final results of the study which this commission is carrying out are not yet available, it should be pointed out that the amount of money spent by all the commission's participating departments and bodies is slightly over 13,400 million pesetas per year,( about £53 million. £1 =250 pesetas), broken down in the following way: the Basque Government 11,800, the provincial councils 1,100 million pesetas and the Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastian and Vitoria Gasteiz local councils 600 million pesetas. The Basque Government’s Deputy Ministry for Language Policy will divide all of this money up into different budgetary items and then analyse it to propose ways of optimising existing human and financial resources before the end of this year (1997).
Through research, they have managed to find out the main indicators of the country's sociolinguistic situation and also the strengths and weaknesses of the language normalisation process.
In recent years, efforts have been concentrated on standardising and modernising Basque, creating a bilingual education system, introducing Basque in the media, the administration and private companies, and obtaining a complete picture of the country’s socio-linguistic situation.
It is in education that the figures are remarkable, Model D is the Basque medium, and in 1976 there were only 4.7% of primary teachers who could speak Basque by 1996 this had risen to 67%, which shows the entry into the labour market of those trained in Basque medium through the 1980’s. Adult education figures are equally stunning. These schools are called ‘Euskaltegiak’, in 1995-96 there were 12,963,000 teaching hours, 44,855 pupils, 2,039 teachers and 160 schools. Added to this is a growth in media and an increasing use in public administration. Basque will develop further as it is increasingly embraced by the young, but in Scotland aren’t these exactly the kind of policies we need for Gaelic? What do we have proposed, ‘market- led strategies’ to make the Highland theme park more authentic. Moreover it makes the Welsh Language Act pale by comparison, yet it is this Act which many Gaelic activists hold up as the example of measures they seek for Gaelic.
Other figures from the Basque government show that this is no blip in the figures, or education led utopia. These show Basque as the language of the community, and its use at home, all increasing and importantly this increase again is with the young. For example, it starts as a decline; 65% over 65, to 33% of those 25-34 , but recovers back up to 38% of those 16-24. This is the age group educated in the ‘80’s since autonomy.
The important increase in the bilingual population is becoming evident even in the increase of Basque use with friends and to a lesser degree, in a family environment, since although many children have learnt Basque at school, the parents of these children have no knowledge of the language.
The Basque Government sees the most important challenges over the coming years to include promoting the family transmission of the Basque language: intensifying the programmes in the education system and the teaching of Basque to adults aimed at incorporating new Basque speakers; improving the language ability of those who have come to the Basque language via the school system; progressively creating the necessary conditions for the language attitudes of public and private bodies to adapt to the needs of new generations; establishing language criteria in subsidy policies and the contracting of services from public institutions and revising the allocation of resources, not just economic but also human to guarantee the viability of strategically important projects. The Basque Language Board even has a commission dealing solely with place-names. The question which must be asked is why do we not have this vision for Gaelic?
One Basque student , Igor Aiestaran Acedo, sums it up, “We are not fully bilingual yet and Spanish is still, unfortunately, the predominant language in Euskadi”. He added, “We are in a continuous struggle to get our language a privileged position, but the situation is not REALLY bad”.
Obviously he should come to Scotland.
For Euskara the future looks bright after years of decline under Franco’s fascist regime; there has been a significant turnaround in the number of speakers, the new native speakers are young, it has an increased use in the community, and at home where it counts, and it is led by a forward looking education system and Government. A Government prepared to research and then put the money where its needed, all this only bodes well for the future of Euskara. All Gaelic speakers should ask ; why can we not have such vision here?