Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

Chris Bates wrote:


> I ended up buying
> a book and some tapes and an amazingly good dictionary (given that it
> isn't a language spoken very widely) for Basque. I've just flicked
> through them so far, but I do have several questions:
I'm too lazy to search for my own copy of Basque grammar lying somewhere in
boxes since we moved... So I'll try to say a few words just from
recollecting an optional course in Basque I had about 10 years ago...

> 1) Just how many verbs are widely found in finite forms?
About a dozen.

> 2)The language actually sounds quite nice, nicer than I imagined for
> some reason... although I have difficulty getting the distinction
> between s, z and x right. It does seem strange though that Basque has s,
> S and... I don't know what the X-SAMPA representation of <s> is,
There was a discussion about the nature of Basque sibilant on the list, try
to search. My own impression was and is that _s_ [s_a], _z_ [s_d], and _x_
[S].

> but
> lacks f. Did basque f --> h (many Spanish speaking people around the
> Basque country pronounce f as h in their spanish), or has basque never
> had an f?
From what I know, Basque has never had _f_, and even in recent loans it
often makes _f_ > [p].

> 3) THe book emphasizes that some of the (non-verbal) grammatical affixes
> apply to *noun phrases* rather than nouns. ...Are these true affixes, or
are they
> really clitics?
I'm afraid, linguisticly they are clitics, but the speakers perceive them as
something glue-sticked to the word they modify...

> 4) The "definite" article, the book says, is used much more widely than
> the English article, and in many of the examples it seems to be serving
> other functions (for instance, nominalization when using headless
> relative clauses etc). What is its derivation? Is it a true definite
> article, or is its primary function something else?
It's a nominal phrase marker - zero slot filler for a determiner in a NP.

Cheers,
Yitzik