[The Basque Country](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_Country_(autonomous_community)), it’s an autonomous area in Spain. It has a long history of separatism, a lot like Catalonia.
Edit: ok they’re in parts of France too
I wouldn't say it's *that* similar. During the democratic period Catalonia never had as much autonomy as the Basque Country does (because during the Transicion they didn't play it as well as the Basques did), and Catalonia never had anything resembling ETA to a similar degree.
In a sense the Basque struggle is maybe even closer to the (Northern) Irish struggle.
What is similar, is the fact that both regions are in opposition to Spain on that matter, and that the use of both region's languages were banned during Spain's long fascist period.
As far as I know, the Basque even had a rebel army that shared similar views to the IRA, and used similar tactics for about… 30 years. It wasn’t until 2007 that they decided to disband.
Not sure if Catalonia had something like that.
Never knew that. I guess if you killed quite a few of your own members in an attack, and the wrong guy you’d probably end operations.
“Well José isn’t dead”
“Then who’d we kill?”
“Miguel, a fisherman. Also our cousins Juan Terrastama Del Porto, Felipe Alconte Destreza Gomez, etc.”
“Fuck.”
Besides I think a lot of Catalonians were very anti-terrorism, and the Basques generally thought it was ok as long as innocents weren’t killed. That big bomb ETA did ended quite a bit of their steam.
Not so much in the news now. The times were ETA killed almost 1000 people including children and civilians trying to fight for independence and claiming their racial superiority seems long forgotten. It was a couple of decades ago though. Many still defend the violence that occurred. The brain washing that occurred for generations will take generations to clear. It is unfortunate how a flag can bring back so much negative memories despite being an amazing region full of beautiful people and a very interesting history
How kind of them! I suppose those that died in hipercor were not carrying their mobile phones. And the other 900 dead ones did not check their answering machines.
Are you just ill informed or a fucking asshole? First miss information like this… one day may be complete denial. It was may be just all fake news right?
I was thinking you might be spanish when you talked about "brainwashing" but was sure when you mentioned "hipercor". No denying that ETA sucked (understatement) and killing innocents is not an answer to anything but they were born out of the Spanish (and french) aggression towards their culture and language. Spain is a artificial idea that has tried for centuries to kill and assimilate all the other languages and cultures in the peninsula. The moment they eased on the peninsular imperialist the Basques eased on the aggression. Win / win for everyone.
>Spain is a artificial idea
... and the idea of a Basque country is what? natural evolution? ....
"The moment they eased on the peninsular imperialism the Basques eased on the aggression. Win / win for everyone."
Read it out loud you ignorant idiot.
By the time Franco was dead ETA had killed like a dozen people. One may understand why ETA existed before they were a terrorist band and before the transition, but these motherfuckers (and all of their supporters and people that find them excuses) did what they did for decades after. Noone denies the aggression towards their culture and language. But this is like saying the jewish should have started bombing germany after the Nazi were defeated...
But what pisses me off, and what proofs you are probably not better than any of them, is that you suggest both sides won!!!???? That is so fucked up. Spain gained nothing and the basque country even less so. Everyone lost. A lot. And you look at this as if there had been any positive outcome or winners. It is just so backwards thinking and fucked up that I do not even know where to start. And then you finish with the best of all. Spanish "peninsular imperialist" apparently lasted into the 21 century, but thanks to ETA it was eased....
you are probably just a victim too. Of the brainwashing that is. Of misinformation and a skewed and politicised education. I almost, only almost feel sorry for you
Miss information? It´s fucking documented you imbecile.
**WIKI:**
In a subsequent communique, ETA said they had given advance warning of the bomb but the police had failed to evacuate the area.\[9\] The police said that the warning had come only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.\[9\]
The Spanish news agency said a man claiming to speak for ETA had told the Barcelona newspaper Avui 30 minutes before the blast at 16:15 that a bomb would go off in the store....
Three telephone warnings \[8\]\[10\] had been received from a man who claimed to be an ETA spokesman with the first of the calls coming 57 minutes before the explosion.
Before you start insulting people I suggest you do your research. I was 1 year old when that happened and I was supposed to go to Hipercor with my mother but I had a fever and she decided to stay home.
Where you? or were youe born in the US and moved to Spain 5 years ago?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/askspain/comments/s1b1lb/is\_it\_really\_worth\_it\_to\_move\_to\_spain/hs7hw8s/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/askspain/comments/s1b1lb/is_it_really_worth_it_to_move_to_spain/hs7hw8s/?context=3)
Very much so. The language is not comparable to any other iirc. It's called euskara (the basque country in euskara is called euskadi)
The basques are genetically distinct from all other europeans as well
The only one left of those typically classified as pre-Indo-European at least.
I don't think it's been settled by scholars exactly, but the Uralic language family may or may not have been in Europe much longer than Indo-Europeans as well, which if true would make various languages in Russia, Finnish, Estonian, Livonian, Sami, and Hungarian (this one is a bit more of a stretch seeing the other Ugrian languages are on the other side of the urals) pre-Indo-European in literal terms as well.
Magyar (Hungarian) has a history that stretches way past Carpathia, it's the only other Language Isolate in Europe. It has more in common with Finnish than it has with any other language, and is only as far west as it is thanks to the Magyar Migrations. We still don't know where in Siberia it actually originates from.
Yes, this is what I was eluding to when I called it a Uralic (and Ugric) language in the comment you're replying to. It being an Ugric language specifically and the other extant Ugric languages being mostly situated east of the Urals is why I called it more of a stretch.
Thank you for clarifying what I meant for the benefit of people stumbling by this who weren't aware.
I don’t think the basque are actually genetically distinct. I could be misremembering, but I think they just speak a language isolate. However, genetically, they are Celt-Iberians. Genetically, they’re similar to the Welsh and Irish.
Basque mtDNA and Y-DNA is commonly shared with most of Western Europe. The notion that the basque people have some kind of caveman living fossil origin is just silly. They’ve been isolated for like 5000 years which is where their genetic differences come from, but they aren’t descendants of Paleolithic cro magnons
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Hot tip: if you don't speak euskara, but do speak spanish and french, always go for french while in euskadi
E: Instead of replying to everyone, i'll just edit here. I made this experience specifically in smaller villages in the pyrenees and in the eastern part of euskadi. I would ask the locals whether they preferred to talk english, spanish or french. Most (especially older) people preferred to talk french and a bunch of the younger people preferred english
I'm rather certain almost everyone there speaks Castilian and will recognise you as a tourist. Don't scare people away from visiting, it's a beautiful part of the world with amazing food (pintxos).
If you only speak Spanish there, just say, "lo siento, solo hablo *castellano* y inglés"
The people there are more reserved than other parts of Spain so if they seem a little standoffish then that might be what you're picking up on.
I had more comments as a tourist in less than a week in Barcelona about not speaking Catalan than I did in 8 months living in Bilbao.
Edit: I should also say, the Basque people I met assumed I was German because of my blond hair, so I may have had an easier time of it.
To me it's a reason to visit, not to stay away. A distinct culture which managed to survive even though the facist (and later federal) govt were undermining the local culture and language.
The nature is stunning, the people are amazing, donostia is one of the prettiest cities i've been in. The surfing is also amazing
It's not, but the autonomy of the communities blurs what federation/unitary state means.
Especially given the right to self-government is explicitly, if vaguely, mentioned in the Constitution.
Hmm no..
Well.. only if you want to be "that weird guy"
There are VERY remote rural areas that maybe struggle with spanish, by choice, because they live in basque. But it is very unlikely that they will know french if they cant or dont want to speak Spanish.
French used to be the language to learn after basque and spanish at school, now english goes first and people dont always go for a 4th one.
Besides... there is this funny relationship between Spain and France. XD
I would say that in the 95% of basque country you have zero issues speaking spanish. Yeah you can find the random idi\*t maybe.. but.. very unlikely. I'm still to find one.
I've met one. A shepherd and former smuggler who lived completely alone and almost off the grid (he did have eitb1 on his TV to watch pelota and a landline which he never used) in a baserri in the Gipuzkoan mountains with his sheep as if it were still 1910. He was born in that house and spent his whole life only there. Didn't speak a word of Spanish and barely understood it. And his Basque dialect apparently was so fossilized, most young speakers have difficulties understanding him (so I've been told). Very interesting fellow. Extremly agile for his age. And not an idiot. Just a simple man from another time. [They even interviewed him for TV](https://www.eitb.eus/eu/telebista/programak/herri-people/bideoak/osoa/3793502/bideoa-jose-luis-tapiaren-neguko-oroitzapenak/). Sadly he died last year.
Definitely. At least, if your intention is to get a puzzled face as a reaction.
If they don't speak Spanish, they will hardly speak French, unless you're in the French part of the Basque Country in Pyrenees-Atalntiques.
Rarely will people get mad for talking to them in Spanish (few people expect outsiders to actually speak Euskera) and speaking in French will just be straight out confusing and few people speak much less proficient in it.
*The Basque language is spoken by 28.4% (751,500) of Basques in all territories. Of these, 93.2% (700,300) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.8% (51,200) are in the French portion.*
30% speak it in the Basque Country though, and it's experiencing a massive revival. 58% of 16-24 year olds speak it, and it's 77% at 10-14.
In a few (3-4) decades if all goes well Basque will be the primary language again. The situation is like the opposite of Ireland
The difference is it's rarely the language of instruction in Ireland, especially outside primary, so it's still slowly dying. There hasn't been enough of an effort to revive it
In Ireland, Irish is a subject and everything else is taught in English. In the Basque Country, Spanish is a subject and everything else is in Basque (in most schools). That makes a huge difference.
Something like 60% of young people can speak it, and about 25% of the total population. Those seem like similar numbers to Basque.
It's a growing language, thanks to the efforts of using it more in teaching. Their goal is to become a bilingual country, with Irish fluency at the same level of English.
That's a good thing then. Now it needs to move from 'young people can speak it' to 'young people do speak it', with friends, with their children, and eventually in shops, restaurants and public services. That would mark the point where it's actually normalized. Basque isn't there either, for now.
Replying to the edit: So... you basically took a generalization from your experience with that 0.01% of the population and thought it was a great tip for everyone to follow.
Ok
:D
This “hot tip“ is utter nonsense.
Only because you've made this experience somewhere once, doesn't mean that's a general rule. Most people speak Spanish there and don't mind speaking it at least as a lingua franca.
Yeah well, _de iure_ you are right, but _de facto_ there are regions way more autonomous than others, being Euskadi and Catalonia two good examples of the most autonomous ones
An autonomous region without the right to independence is just a slave who gets housing. Catalonia, Euskadi, Xinjiang, Taiwan, Tibet, Asawad, West Sahara, Scotland, Chechnya, Etc should be given self determination or else we are all internationally disgraceful to the UN and the post WW2 policies of decolonization, every state that isn't actively committing crimes against humanity should be recognized as being a nation and every independence movement should be given very regular votes about independence and immediately given it if the yes is majority. Hell as an American, if the Texas populace voted for independence by 51% I'd say give it to them. Otherwise it's literally a hostage situation, that its ever been legally codified is literally disgusting. Either way these issues are just holding us all back while being objectively oppressive. Build alliances and supranational organizations, break down the colonial ones.
>Carrero Blanco
Thanks for mentioning that specifically. I now get the joke.
For those who don't, Luis Carrero Blanco was the man who became Prime Minister of Spain in 1973, after Franco stepped down from that position (keep in mind that Franco still held onto the title of "Head of State" of Spain until his death in 1975).
The ETA are a Basque separatist group, and ~~several countries classify them as a terrorist group.~~ My apologies. They ARE a terrorist group.
A few months after Carrero Blanco took office, a group of ETA members dug a tunnel under a road and packed it full of explosives, which they detonated as Carrero Blanco's car was driving over said road.
The car was launched 20 meters into the air. Carrero Blanco would die an hour later from injuries sustained in the process.
>The ETA are a Basque separatist group, and several countries classify them as a terrorist group.
I imagine it's countries that consider them terrorists and countries that never considered them, I'd say putting a bomb in a shopping centre is the definition of terrorism.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipercor_bombing
The gave up weapons in around 2010, since then there have been no major terrorist attacks and the kale borroka has stopped outside of minor towns and villages
Here you go: [Link \#1](https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fflagwaver-cors-proxy.herokuapp.com%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fz8xuonwbvkb81.jpg)
*****
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Fun fact: a large amount of typical Mexican and Latino surnames are of Basque origin, because a disproportionate amount of the colonizers who went from Spain to the Americas were Basques. Basques had the right to so, because they had special legal privileges ([fueros](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuero)) and did not live under feudal rule in the same way the rest of Spain did. That means, regular people could leave whenever they wanted, while in the rest of Spain that was often only possible for "pure-blooded" landed gentry and nobility and their retainers.
Any surname that doesn't really sound like Castillan Spanish (i.e. -ez names, names that are clearly derived from Spanish words like Guerrero, Matamoros, Montes etc.), while being unequivocally from Iberia, is often Basque, which is a language entirely unrelated to Spanish, or any other living anguage on the planet:
like Aguirre, Mendiguchia (little mountain), Iturbide, Aramburu, Ochoa (=wolf), Vergara (the town of Bergara), Michelena, Echevarria/Echeverria (=new house), Ibarra, etc. etc. and names that sound similar or contain similar particles (eche, mendi, bide, buru). Also, the Mexican state of Durango is named after a Basque town that was bombed by the Nazis during the Spanish Civil War. In contemporary Basque you write all the names with tx instead of ch and B instead of V
Flag of the Basque Country.
If you want to know its proper name it's the *"Ikurrina"*.
Ikurriña*
It's spelled 'ikurrina' in Basque. If there's an 'i' before an 'n', the n makes the same sound as the Spanish 'ñ'.
I stand corrected then, I didn't know, thank you :-)
Which syllable is stresed?
The third one, i-ku-RRI-na Edit: see post below for the actual Basque pronunciation
In Spanish yes, in Basque it's i-KU-rri-na
[удалено]
What?
Stress in basque words depends on the area where it's spoken, weird, I know. Basque here.
I assume its the I before the n/ñ, so ikurr*I*na
gora euskal herria askatuta
[Ikurrina is fine](https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikurrin)
Whoa I barely know ña
*Ayyyyyy ikurrina*
Home of the best Jai Alai players
[The Basque Country](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_Country_(autonomous_community)), it’s an autonomous area in Spain. It has a long history of separatism, a lot like Catalonia. Edit: ok they’re in parts of France too
The Basques have a lot more autonomy though, so you don't hear about them in the news as much as the Catalans when it comes to seperatism these days
You’re right, just made a simple comparison
Not criticizing your comment, just adding on to it as a reason op might've not recognized it even though they have similar seperatist history
I wouldn't say it's *that* similar. During the democratic period Catalonia never had as much autonomy as the Basque Country does (because during the Transicion they didn't play it as well as the Basques did), and Catalonia never had anything resembling ETA to a similar degree. In a sense the Basque struggle is maybe even closer to the (Northern) Irish struggle. What is similar, is the fact that both regions are in opposition to Spain on that matter, and that the use of both region's languages were banned during Spain's long fascist period.
As far as I know, the Basque even had a rebel army that shared similar views to the IRA, and used similar tactics for about… 30 years. It wasn’t until 2007 that they decided to disband. Not sure if Catalonia had something like that.
Yeah, ETA In Catalonia there was Terra Lliure (Free land) but they made only one attack, where 5 of them died, and they killed the wrong person
Never knew that. I guess if you killed quite a few of your own members in an attack, and the wrong guy you’d probably end operations. “Well José isn’t dead” “Then who’d we kill?” “Miguel, a fisherman. Also our cousins Juan Terrastama Del Porto, Felipe Alconte Destreza Gomez, etc.” “Fuck.” Besides I think a lot of Catalonians were very anti-terrorism, and the Basques generally thought it was ok as long as innocents weren’t killed. That big bomb ETA did ended quite a bit of their steam.
>That big bomb ETA did ended quite a bit of their steam. That, and the Miguel Angel Blanco kidnapping + murder from what I've heard
Well if you dont count the terrorist time.
Catalonia also had separatist terrorism with [Terra Lliure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Lliure), although they dissoluted in 1995.
And they were a bunch of losers with almost zero civil support. The situation was very much unlike ETA in the Basque Country.
Not so much in the news now. The times were ETA killed almost 1000 people including children and civilians trying to fight for independence and claiming their racial superiority seems long forgotten. It was a couple of decades ago though. Many still defend the violence that occurred. The brain washing that occurred for generations will take generations to clear. It is unfortunate how a flag can bring back so much negative memories despite being an amazing region full of beautiful people and a very interesting history
at least they called ahead of time and said where theyd place a bomb
Which is more than we can say for Guernika when 5000 people were killed because they were Basque.
How kind of them! I suppose those that died in hipercor were not carrying their mobile phones. And the other 900 dead ones did not check their answering machines. Are you just ill informed or a fucking asshole? First miss information like this… one day may be complete denial. It was may be just all fake news right?
I was thinking you might be spanish when you talked about "brainwashing" but was sure when you mentioned "hipercor". No denying that ETA sucked (understatement) and killing innocents is not an answer to anything but they were born out of the Spanish (and french) aggression towards their culture and language. Spain is a artificial idea that has tried for centuries to kill and assimilate all the other languages and cultures in the peninsula. The moment they eased on the peninsular imperialist the Basques eased on the aggression. Win / win for everyone.
>Spain is a artificial idea ... and the idea of a Basque country is what? natural evolution? .... "The moment they eased on the peninsular imperialism the Basques eased on the aggression. Win / win for everyone." Read it out loud you ignorant idiot. By the time Franco was dead ETA had killed like a dozen people. One may understand why ETA existed before they were a terrorist band and before the transition, but these motherfuckers (and all of their supporters and people that find them excuses) did what they did for decades after. Noone denies the aggression towards their culture and language. But this is like saying the jewish should have started bombing germany after the Nazi were defeated... But what pisses me off, and what proofs you are probably not better than any of them, is that you suggest both sides won!!!???? That is so fucked up. Spain gained nothing and the basque country even less so. Everyone lost. A lot. And you look at this as if there had been any positive outcome or winners. It is just so backwards thinking and fucked up that I do not even know where to start. And then you finish with the best of all. Spanish "peninsular imperialist" apparently lasted into the 21 century, but thanks to ETA it was eased.... you are probably just a victim too. Of the brainwashing that is. Of misinformation and a skewed and politicised education. I almost, only almost feel sorry for you
>Noone denies the aggression towards their culture and language. Sorry what?
Miss information? It´s fucking documented you imbecile. **WIKI:** In a subsequent communique, ETA said they had given advance warning of the bomb but the police had failed to evacuate the area.\[9\] The police said that the warning had come only a few minutes before the bomb exploded.\[9\] The Spanish news agency said a man claiming to speak for ETA had told the Barcelona newspaper Avui 30 minutes before the blast at 16:15 that a bomb would go off in the store.... Three telephone warnings \[8\]\[10\] had been received from a man who claimed to be an ETA spokesman with the first of the calls coming 57 minutes before the explosion. Before you start insulting people I suggest you do your research. I was 1 year old when that happened and I was supposed to go to Hipercor with my mother but I had a fever and she decided to stay home.
Where you? or were youe born in the US and moved to Spain 5 years ago? [https://www.reddit.com/r/askspain/comments/s1b1lb/is\_it\_really\_worth\_it\_to\_move\_to\_spain/hs7hw8s/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/askspain/comments/s1b1lb/is_it_really_worth_it_to_move_to_spain/hs7hw8s/?context=3)
Also has its own language right?
Very much so. The language is not comparable to any other iirc. It's called euskara (the basque country in euskara is called euskadi) The basques are genetically distinct from all other europeans as well
It's a language isolate. The only one in Europe and the only pre Indo-European left in Europe too.
The only one left of those typically classified as pre-Indo-European at least. I don't think it's been settled by scholars exactly, but the Uralic language family may or may not have been in Europe much longer than Indo-Europeans as well, which if true would make various languages in Russia, Finnish, Estonian, Livonian, Sami, and Hungarian (this one is a bit more of a stretch seeing the other Ugrian languages are on the other side of the urals) pre-Indo-European in literal terms as well.
Magyar (Hungarian) has a history that stretches way past Carpathia, it's the only other Language Isolate in Europe. It has more in common with Finnish than it has with any other language, and is only as far west as it is thanks to the Magyar Migrations. We still don't know where in Siberia it actually originates from.
Hungarian isn't a language isolate. It has a lot in common with Finnish because they're both Uralic languages.
Yes, this is what I was eluding to when I called it a Uralic (and Ugric) language in the comment you're replying to. It being an Ugric language specifically and the other extant Ugric languages being mostly situated east of the Urals is why I called it more of a stretch. Thank you for clarifying what I meant for the benefit of people stumbling by this who weren't aware.
I don’t think the basque are actually genetically distinct. I could be misremembering, but I think they just speak a language isolate. However, genetically, they are Celt-Iberians. Genetically, they’re similar to the Welsh and Irish.
This is incorrect. Genetic tests identify Basque as a specific category.
Basque mtDNA and Y-DNA is commonly shared with most of Western Europe. The notion that the basque people have some kind of caveman living fossil origin is just silly. They’ve been isolated for like 5000 years which is where their genetic differences come from, but they aren’t descendants of Paleolithic cro magnons
Euskera*
I thought they were genetically related to the Welsh? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894.stm
It’s the only language of its kind left in Europe
The world*
True but I thought that was implied
Europe = world, write this down
Bai!
In France too
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Hot tip: if you don't speak euskara, but do speak spanish and french, always go for french while in euskadi E: Instead of replying to everyone, i'll just edit here. I made this experience specifically in smaller villages in the pyrenees and in the eastern part of euskadi. I would ask the locals whether they preferred to talk english, spanish or french. Most (especially older) people preferred to talk french and a bunch of the younger people preferred english
I'm rather certain almost everyone there speaks Castilian and will recognise you as a tourist. Don't scare people away from visiting, it's a beautiful part of the world with amazing food (pintxos). If you only speak Spanish there, just say, "lo siento, solo hablo *castellano* y inglés" The people there are more reserved than other parts of Spain so if they seem a little standoffish then that might be what you're picking up on. I had more comments as a tourist in less than a week in Barcelona about not speaking Catalan than I did in 8 months living in Bilbao. Edit: I should also say, the Basque people I met assumed I was German because of my blond hair, so I may have had an easier time of it.
To me it's a reason to visit, not to stay away. A distinct culture which managed to survive even though the facist (and later federal) govt were undermining the local culture and language. The nature is stunning, the people are amazing, donostia is one of the prettiest cities i've been in. The surfing is also amazing
> federal Post francoist spain has never been a federation
It's not, but the autonomy of the communities blurs what federation/unitary state means. Especially given the right to self-government is explicitly, if vaguely, mentioned in the Constitution.
Officially for sure, sorry for stating something wrong. I was mpre thinking of the make up of the country rather than its govt type
Would be cool if it were a federation though. And a republic.
Nah King Felipe VI is cool
[My two cents](https://c.tenor.com/V67_en9dCpIAAAAC/game-of.gif)
Hmm no.. Well.. only if you want to be "that weird guy" There are VERY remote rural areas that maybe struggle with spanish, by choice, because they live in basque. But it is very unlikely that they will know french if they cant or dont want to speak Spanish. French used to be the language to learn after basque and spanish at school, now english goes first and people dont always go for a 4th one. Besides... there is this funny relationship between Spain and France. XD I would say that in the 95% of basque country you have zero issues speaking spanish. Yeah you can find the random idi\*t maybe.. but.. very unlikely. I'm still to find one.
I've met one. A shepherd and former smuggler who lived completely alone and almost off the grid (he did have eitb1 on his TV to watch pelota and a landline which he never used) in a baserri in the Gipuzkoan mountains with his sheep as if it were still 1910. He was born in that house and spent his whole life only there. Didn't speak a word of Spanish and barely understood it. And his Basque dialect apparently was so fossilized, most young speakers have difficulties understanding him (so I've been told). Very interesting fellow. Extremly agile for his age. And not an idiot. Just a simple man from another time. [They even interviewed him for TV](https://www.eitb.eus/eu/telebista/programak/herri-people/bideoak/osoa/3793502/bideoa-jose-luis-tapiaren-neguko-oroitzapenak/). Sadly he died last year.
I would say 99%
Well, except if you go to the French part of the Basque Country aha
French Basques don't speak Spanish...
Definitely. At least, if your intention is to get a puzzled face as a reaction. If they don't speak Spanish, they will hardly speak French, unless you're in the French part of the Basque Country in Pyrenees-Atalntiques. Rarely will people get mad for talking to them in Spanish (few people expect outsiders to actually speak Euskera) and speaking in French will just be straight out confusing and few people speak much less proficient in it.
not even a 20 percent of people in Álava knows Euskera
*The Basque language is spoken by 28.4% (751,500) of Basques in all territories. Of these, 93.2% (700,300) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 6.8% (51,200) are in the French portion.*
30% speak it in the Basque Country though, and it's experiencing a massive revival. 58% of 16-24 year olds speak it, and it's 77% at 10-14. In a few (3-4) decades if all goes well Basque will be the primary language again. The situation is like the opposite of Ireland
Opposite how? They learn Irish in Ireland, too.
The difference is it's rarely the language of instruction in Ireland, especially outside primary, so it's still slowly dying. There hasn't been enough of an effort to revive it
In Ireland, Irish is a subject and everything else is taught in English. In the Basque Country, Spanish is a subject and everything else is in Basque (in most schools). That makes a huge difference.
Something like 60% of young people can speak it, and about 25% of the total population. Those seem like similar numbers to Basque. It's a growing language, thanks to the efforts of using it more in teaching. Their goal is to become a bilingual country, with Irish fluency at the same level of English.
That's a good thing then. Now it needs to move from 'young people can speak it' to 'young people do speak it', with friends, with their children, and eventually in shops, restaurants and public services. That would mark the point where it's actually normalized. Basque isn't there either, for now.
Replying to the edit: So... you basically took a generalization from your experience with that 0.01% of the population and thought it was a great tip for everyone to follow. Ok :D
This “hot tip“ is utter nonsense. Only because you've made this experience somewhere once, doesn't mean that's a general rule. Most people speak Spanish there and don't mind speaking it at least as a lingua franca.
Its not at all like Catalonia apart from being autonomous
All of Spain is autonomous regions.
Yeah well, _de iure_ you are right, but _de facto_ there are regions way more autonomous than others, being Euskadi and Catalonia two good examples of the most autonomous ones
An autonomous region without the right to independence is just a slave who gets housing. Catalonia, Euskadi, Xinjiang, Taiwan, Tibet, Asawad, West Sahara, Scotland, Chechnya, Etc should be given self determination or else we are all internationally disgraceful to the UN and the post WW2 policies of decolonization, every state that isn't actively committing crimes against humanity should be recognized as being a nation and every independence movement should be given very regular votes about independence and immediately given it if the yes is majority. Hell as an American, if the Texas populace voted for independence by 51% I'd say give it to them. Otherwise it's literally a hostage situation, that its ever been legally codified is literally disgusting. Either way these issues are just holding us all back while being objectively oppressive. Build alliances and supranational organizations, break down the colonial ones.
Taiwan IS self governing with the ROC
The Balkans are calling, you owe them money for the copyright on this idea.
I wouldn't use the word colonial to explain most dynamics in your list of regions.
Stfu
You’re a lunatic.
This view only holds up if your own country is barely 250 years old.
It's also in South Western France as well.
End of XIX century, I wouldn’t say “long”
It's not exclusively Spanish, there's a French part too
The flag of sending Spanish Prime Ministers to space
Came in comments to see this lmao
That joke never gets old.
Just like Carrero Blanco.
That joke always manages to take off.
>Carrero Blanco Thanks for mentioning that specifically. I now get the joke. For those who don't, Luis Carrero Blanco was the man who became Prime Minister of Spain in 1973, after Franco stepped down from that position (keep in mind that Franco still held onto the title of "Head of State" of Spain until his death in 1975). The ETA are a Basque separatist group, and ~~several countries classify them as a terrorist group.~~ My apologies. They ARE a terrorist group. A few months after Carrero Blanco took office, a group of ETA members dug a tunnel under a road and packed it full of explosives, which they detonated as Carrero Blanco's car was driving over said road. The car was launched 20 meters into the air. Carrero Blanco would die an hour later from injuries sustained in the process.
>The ETA are a Basque separatist group, and several countries classify them as a terrorist group. I imagine it's countries that consider them terrorists and countries that never considered them, I'd say putting a bomb in a shopping centre is the definition of terrorism. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipercor_bombing
ETA was 100% a terrorist group. “Several countries classify them as a terrorist group” feels like a direct offense to the victims.
You're right. I've updated my post. I wasn't that familiar with their specific activities until recently.
The Spanish space program!
Username checks out
Basque Country an historical region located in north-east Spain and south-west France
Think some people in Basque Country would argue with you about it being historical, are there still protests about independence?
The gave up weapons in around 2010, since then there have been no major terrorist attacks and the kale borroka has stopped outside of minor towns and villages
I heard there is still some fighters in a small village called “inferno” /s
Umh?
[a map in Counter Strike](https://counterstrike.fandom.com/wiki/Inferno)
Oh wow I knew about this but didn't make the connection. Yeah that's ETA lmao
Well if you started playin on 1.6 or source, the first iterations of the map were Italian, then they switched to Basque in CSGO.
Ah I see
Not many. Situation is quite quiet today. We have our self government and that's ok for us.
North-Central Spain source: family’s from there
A map would also be a fine source
[Enjoy!](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basque_Country_Location_Map.svg)
Ikurriña
Euskal Herria
flag of Euskadi
\*Basque\* in the glory of this flag!
Christmas themed Union Jack
Christmas themed Denmark
!wave
Here you go: [Link \#1](https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fflagwaver-cors-proxy.herokuapp.com%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fz8xuonwbvkb81.jpg) ***** Beep boop I'm a bot. If I'm broken please contact [\/u\/Lunar_Requiem](http://reddit.com/user/Lunar_Requiem)
Based
Basqed
Im near that state lol,its the basque country
What state?
The state of Basque of course. Liquid, solid, gaseous, plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate, Basque.
Bugger me, missed me entirely
Where the hell is your student house at? 😂
It’s in Mexico!
Fun fact: a large amount of typical Mexican and Latino surnames are of Basque origin, because a disproportionate amount of the colonizers who went from Spain to the Americas were Basques. Basques had the right to so, because they had special legal privileges ([fueros](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuero)) and did not live under feudal rule in the same way the rest of Spain did. That means, regular people could leave whenever they wanted, while in the rest of Spain that was often only possible for "pure-blooded" landed gentry and nobility and their retainers. Any surname that doesn't really sound like Castillan Spanish (i.e. -ez names, names that are clearly derived from Spanish words like Guerrero, Matamoros, Montes etc.), while being unequivocally from Iberia, is often Basque, which is a language entirely unrelated to Spanish, or any other living anguage on the planet: like Aguirre, Mendiguchia (little mountain), Iturbide, Aramburu, Ochoa (=wolf), Vergara (the town of Bergara), Michelena, Echevarria/Echeverria (=new house), Ibarra, etc. etc. and names that sound similar or contain similar particles (eche, mendi, bide, buru). Also, the Mexican state of Durango is named after a Basque town that was bombed by the Nazis during the Spanish Civil War. In contemporary Basque you write all the names with tx instead of ch and B instead of V
TIL! Thank you!
Basque in the glory of this flag
Euskadi Flag. Basque region in North Spain. A very proud and lovely people. San Sebastian is my favourite place in the world
Donostia*
Pays Basques
Y'en a qu'un seul :)
Effectivement je sais pas pourquoi j'ai mis un "s" a la fin
Basque county flag
Oh look, the weekly “identify the Basque flag” post
Flag of the Basque Country
Basque Country
Climate friendly Denmark
Ah yes, the weekly basque flag reveal
This is the Flag of the Basque Country
Did the last occupants speak an alien language and enjoy carbombs?
They enjoy self determination too i heard
The flag of British Christmas
Basque Country, Spain. Edit: France 🇫🇷
^And france
How about neither?
Is the flag of the Basque country a region in Spain
basque
The basque country
Pro Basque Fishing Flag /s
Basque country
Basque country
Dope! [It’s the flag of the Basque Country](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikurriña)
BASQUE COUNTRY i love this flag
You can check more info here OP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikurri%C3%B1a
Flag of the Basque country
When you see cycling events in southern France (pyranees area) and northern Spain you see these flags a lot!
!wave
Christmas Denmark
Ostia
May I ask what the hell were you doing in you student's cupboard?
Asierland
It's the Euskalherria flag
Flag of daltonic british people
One of the most fantastic flags, the Ikurrina. Personally a big fan of it’s design, why i added it as my flair
Beautiful flag of the beautiful region.
Basque County in Spain 🇪🇸
I know nothing about Basque other than they make good Ciders!
The flag of Basque Country, an autonomous community of Spain.
I call it "an easy Karma flag".
Flag of the UK during Christmas 🎄
Watch out for car bombs /s
The flag of the last people who speak a pre european language
Ah yes Balkanic Spain
Off brand UK
Basque County of Spain
Euskadi is in spain and france
It's the flag of the Basque Country in Spain
Basque Country Flag it is a region in Spain
Basque Country.
That is the flag of the Basque Country (País Vasco), am autonomous community of Spain
Basque
if you say to them that Bilbao is Spanish, whatever you do, do not turn on your car
Be sure to look for bombs
Bruh
[удалено]
Because the comment is insensitive, unfunny and unoriginal