International Journal of Language & Linguistics

The Dynamics between Unified Basque & Dialects in the Northern Basque Country: A Survey Based on Perceptual Dialectology – Second part
Jean-Baptiste Coyos

Abstract
This article presents and analyses the answers to the open-ended questions in a sociolinguistic survey carried out as part of the Academy of the Basque Language’s Euskara EskuzEsku (Basque from Hand to Hand) project. The results and analysis of the answers to the closed questions have already been published (IJLL, 2019, 6-1, 115-125). Some of the main results of this second group of answers are as follows: according to the respondents, Unified Basque is not well known in the North Basque Country, it is mixed with dialects and it poses difficulties for Basque speakers who have not been educated in Basque. However, the main problem is French, the ultra-dominant language in this territory. It influences the Basque language itself. The most widespread prediction among the respondents is that in the future, because they are not widely passed on, the dialects will weaken and Unified Basque will become stronger.Thanks to the answers of these forty respondents, all of whom are prescribers of the Basque language in one way or another, we have a better understanding of the situation and relationships between Unified Basque, the dialects and French in the Northern Basque Country, taking into account the fact that it is a complex and changing linguistic ecosystem.

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