Basque language
Basque
Euskara
Spoken in
Spain
France
Region
Basque Country except the
Westernmost part of Biscay, most
of Alava and most of Navarre
Total
speakers
1,063,700 (first language:
665,700) in 2006[1]
Ranking
247
Language
family
Vasconic (isolate)
Official status
Official
language
in
Basque Country Autonomous
Community and Navarre
Regulated
by
Euskaltzaindia
Language codes
ISO 639-1 eu
ISO 639-2 baq (B)
eus (T)
ISO 639-3 eus
Basque speaking area
Basque (native name: Euskara) is the lan-
guage spoken by the Basque people who in-
habit the Basque Country, a region spanning
Location of the Basque provinces within
Spain and France
an area in north-eastern Spain and south-
western France.
It is spoken by approximately a third of
the Basques, with its stronghold in the con-
tiguous area from central Biscay through
Gipuzkoa, northern Navarre and parts of La-
bourd to sparsely populated Lower Navarre
and Soule. Until reintroduced into the educa-
tion system, it had not been spoken in most
of Álava, in western Biscay, or in the south-
ern half of Navarre in the recent past. Out of
a total of nearly 3,000,000 Basques, it is es-
timated that some 1,063,000 speak Basque in
which 632,000 are native speakers. Approx-
imately 566,000 of the latter live in the Span-
ish Basque country, with the rest residing in
the French part.[2]
A standardised form of the Basque lan-
guage called Batua was created at the end of
the 20th century. This standard is mainly
used in the Spanish Basque country, and to a
lesser extent in the Northern Basque Country
due to the limited availability of schools
teaching in Basque or offering it as a subject.
Apart from this standardised version, there
are six main Basque dialects, comprising
Bizkaian, Gipuzkoan, and Upper Navarrese
(in Spain), and Lower Navarrese, Lapurdian,
and Zuberoan (in France). However, the dia-
lect boundaries are not congruent with polit-
ical boundaries.
Names of the language
In Basque, the name of the language is offi-
cially Euskara
(alongside various dialect
forms).