The largest sociolinguistic study carried out on the Basque language, carried out every five years, reports in its seventh edition a notable evolution in terms of knowledge of the Basque language, and positive, although much more moderate, in terms of social use, at time that reflects two large gaps. The first has to do with sociolinguistic diversity at the geographical level: the differences continue to be enormous between environments in which the language is the majority and populations in which its use is very limited. The second big gap, on the other hand, is generational: if knowledge of Basque reaches 74.5% among young people, among those over 65 it stands at 22%.
The Euskera Sociolinguistic Survey, carried out by the Basque Government, the Government of Navarra and the Public Office of the Basque Language, of the French Basque Country, has carried out a detailed x-ray of the situation of the Basque language in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi , Navarra and the French Basque Country. The study analyses, among those over 16 years of age (it leaves out those under this age), variables such as knowledge, use of the language, family transmission or attitudes towards Basque.
The Basque Government has presented data relating to the Basque Country, from which dynamics have been intuited for several years, although on this occasion they are more pronounced.
According to this survey, 36.2% of the inhabitants over 16 years of age in the Basque Autonomous Community speak Basque correctly, while another 18.6% understand the language, although they speak it with difficulty. On the other hand, 45.3% of citizens do not speak or understand Basque. If these data are compared with those of the first Basque Sociolinguistic Survey, from 1991, it can be seen that the percentage of Basque speakers has increased by 12 points in the last 30 years. Those who speak Basque correctly would go from 36.2% to 40% if the population over five years of age is taken into account (not only those over 16), through census data.
In any case, the most striking aspect of the evolution of knowledge of the Basque language is the exceptional generational gap that the study reflects. Considering the youngest age group analyzed, 16-24 years, 74.5% speak Basque; 16.1% understand it, but speak it with difficulty; and, finally, only 9.4% neither speak nor understand it. The situation is the opposite if the focus is placed on the older generation (over 65 years of age), educated during the dictatorship: 22.5% know Basque and another 9.4% understand it, while 68.5% neither speak it or understand it.
Therefore, knowledge of Basque increases as you go down the age pyramid, a situation contrary to that which occurred 30 years ago. When the first Sociolinguistic Survey was carried out, in 1991, those over 65 years of age (then they were people born at the beginning of the century) were the ones who knew the Basque language to a greater extent, while the percentage of Basque speakers among young people at that time was low ( 25% were Basque speakers, 50 points less than today), a revealing figure of the situation that the Basque language was experiencing.
“The best thing that can be in the process of revitalizing any minority language is that the young generation knows and speaks that language. Basque is today a young language, increasingly young, because knowledge is widespread among young people, who are also the ones who speak it the most. It is transformative data that characterizes the normalization process that is taking place”, explained Bingen Zupiria, Minister of Culture and Language Policy and spokesperson for the Basque Government, at the presentation of the study.
The characteristics of Basque speakers over 65 years of age and those of young people, however, are very different. The vast majority of these Basque speakers over the age of 65 acquired Basque as their mother tongue; among young people, however, there is great diversity. An appreciable percentage (around 38% of the total) has acquired it at home (in some of these cases together with Spanish); however, a similar number have acquired it through the educational system. Based on this verification, interesting readings can be made around the social use of the Basque language.
The most interesting data in relation to use are found, once again, attending to young people. Apart from children (they did not enter the study, but according to other studies they are the ones who use Basque the most), young people appear as the age group that uses the Basque language the most. 33.5% use it as much or more than Spanish and a similar percentage use it, although not as much as Spanish. The data being relatively high when compared with the rest of the age groups and, above all, if the starting situation 30 years ago is taken into account, the majority use (those who use it as much or more than Spanish) is far from that widespread knowledge among young people (of that 75%).
The reason has to do, according to sociolinguists, precisely with the fact that many of these young Basque speakers, around half, have acquired Basque outside their home and, furthermore, a high percentage reside in areas where Basque is not majority, a key issue as revealed by this study. Up to 93% of young people residing in Basque-speaking areas (the so-called sociolinguistic zones 4) mainly use Basque, a percentage that drops to 12% among young people residing in less Basque-speaking areas (zone 1). In the intermediate zones (zones 2 and 3), the percentages of intensive use of Basque range between 33.9% (zone 2) and 74.9% (zone 3).
The general use of the Basque language, taking all age groups into account, has increased by six points (6.4) in the last 30 years. 22% of the population over 16 years of age use Basque as much or more than Spanish; 11.5% use the Basque language, although less than Spanish; and 5.7% use it “on very few occasions”. Within these large generational differences, those over 65 appear again as those who use the Basque language the least.
The study confirms, once again, that the relative linguistic ability (the facility) and the sociolinguistic environment are the two factors that most influence the use of the language. Relative ability is also closely related to whether or not language acquisition took place at home, so the study gives importance to the family transmission of the language.
The age group that has acquired Basque to a greater extent at home is that of young people (16-24), 37.9% (24.1% only Basque as their mother tongue and another 13.8% together with Spanish). Likewise, the study reflects that the current transmission to children is between 100% and 71% when both parents are Basque-speaking (depending on whether both, only one or neither of them have Basque as their first language). When only one of the parents is a Basque speaker, the transmission of Basque to their sons and daughters ranges between 84% and 57% (depending on whether or not the parent has had Basque as their first language).
At this point, it is not difficult to intuit that the evolution of the use of Basque in the coming decades will depend to a large extent on those generations among whom knowledge of the Basque language is widespread transmitting it to their sons and daughters, since It deals with an aspect that directly affects its use.
Finally, other data of interest has to do with attitudes towards the Basque language. Almost nine out of ten people believe that all children should know Basque. Likewise, 67% of the inhabitants of the Basque Autonomous Community are in favor of the promotion of the Basque language, 12 points more than three decades ago, while 26.3% are “neither in favor nor against”. Basque citizens opposed to the promotion of the Basque language are 6.8%, a historical minimum and far from the 14% of that already distant 1991 in which the first X-ray of the situation of the Basque language was carried out.
