The Basque language, casually spoken | Andrew speaking Biscayan | Wikitongues

[@Wikitongues]

Caption and translate this video: amara.org/en/videos/hIfAZNYAarOy Help us record another language by supporting on Patreon: patreon.com/wikitongues Submit your own video here: wikitongues.org/submit-a-video Sign up for our monthly newsletter: eepurl.com/gr-ZQH

[@Wikitongues]

Transcript and translation by Andrew (in case anyone wants to add them as subtitles via the Amara link!): Kaixo danoi, zelan zagoze beroŕeek? Neure uzena Andrew da eta amerikaŕie naz, zehatzago California-koa. Hamentxe, euzkal amerikaŕ asko gagoz eta geure alkaŕteak dekoguz, beroŕeek zoratzen dihaŕduzue euzkariez beŕbetan jaŕduten dan amerikaŕ bat untzuteagaitik… begitandu dezaket. Ixan be, euzkaldunok mendebalde Amerikaŕera heŕiratzen hasi ziran 1.500etik auŕera eta gehien lekuttu ziran estatuetan batez be Idaho, California, Utah, Nevada, Washington eta Oregon dira baińa ziuŕ nago galdutako bat baińo gehijau auŕki daikezuela beste estatu batzuetan, hona etozan euzkaldun gehienak bizkaitaŕok eta ipaŕaldekook ziran. Usu zahaŕiek goŕde dogu, euzkal etxeok eta beste alkaŕteek ahalegińa egitten dabe bixirik kontseŕbauteko baińa neure eretxian, etenbako gauza batzuk ez jataz atsegintzen, adibidez, euzkal jaŕdueretan pizgaŕixeek eskua emoten dodaz, horidxe bai, baińa euzkalkijak kendu eta beŕbaldi bakaŕagaz haren lekuan ipinten, zalantzarik ez alde. Bestetik, neure buruaz apuŕ bat edestuz, ba beno hogeita zazpi uŕte dodaz eta Dona Monika, Aingeruetan jaio eta Bakersfield-atik hazi nintzan ume-denporan baińa gauŕkoz Florida-n bixi naz. Baskonian be nengoan neure famiĺixe nongoa zan ezaguttzen, neure aittittek eta amumak piĺo bat eskolatu eusten neuri, oroipen polittek dekodaz eta elebiduna ixateaz oso haŕo sentiduten naz. Gauza bakanie nekusanala eta nabarittu nebanala zan nola nerabeok euzkariez beŕba egitten dabela eta nora zoazen arabera, eŕdaragaz edo frantsezagaz nahastetan dabez, neiko berezkoa da. Adibidez, bizkaiera zahaŕien adeŕbak eta beŕbak euzkaratik eta keltaratik jatoŕkuz, polito-polito latińa oratu zan be eta kittu, baińa euzkara baŕixen beŕba batzuk eŕdaratik atarata dagoz, eta demontre! ...horidxe zaiĺagoa uleŕtzeko egitten jatzu, zeren eŕdariez beŕba egitten ez badozu, afoŕaute zabilz, beŕbaz beŕba. Aholku bat emon behaŕko ei baneu… ba ez uŕundu zeure euzkalkitik eta sustraijetatik, mundu honegaz konekzińoa dekogu eta euzkalkijak amaluŕagaz beŕba egitteko eta geure jenteakaz konektauteko modu bat dira, oŕduantxe ez galdu. Desbaŕdintasunak ixan aŕen eta zein luŕaldekoak garan, beŕbakuntza batek batzen dauen euzkal heŕija gara. O'intxe amaittzeko, miĺa eskeŕ ikusteagaitik, estimetan dot… bideo hauxe guztijoi gustau ixana ustea dekot eta bizkaiko euzkalkixe ikastea kuraieztatzen deutsuet. Aguŕ eta eskeŕik asko. Hi everyone, how are you? My name is Andrew and I am American, specifically from California. Here, we are many Basque Americans and we’ve got our communities, I can imagine you are just freaking out by listening to an American speaking in Basque. In fact, Basques began to immigrate to the Western America from the 1,500s and settled down in the Idaho, California, Utah, Nevada, Washington and Oregon states but I’m sure that you can find more than one (Basque) lost in other states, most Basques who came here were Biscayans and Iparraldeans. We have kept the old traditions, the Basque houses and other associations make the effort to conserve them, but in my wen, I don’t like some things, for example, I support the incentives towards Basque activities, that yes, but removing the dialects and replace them with only one speaking, markedly not in favor of. On the other hand, by telling something about me, well, I am twenty-seven years old and I was born in Santa Monica, Los Angeles and raised by Bakersfield in my childhood but nowadays I live in Florida. I also was in Baskland getting to know where my family was from, my grandpa and grandma schooled me a lot, I’ve got beautiful memories and I feel very proud to be bilingual. A curious thing I saw and noticed was how teenagers who speak Basque, depending on where you go, they mix it up with Castilian or French, it’s quite quirky. For example, verbs and words in Old Basque come to us from Basque and Celtic, little by little Latin arrived and that’s it, but in Modern Basque some words are taken out from Castilian Spanish, and dang! ...that makes it more difficult to understand, because if you don’t speak Spanish, you’re screwed to speak it, literally. If I had to give advice, then don’t move away from your dialect and roots, we’ve got a connection in this world and the dialects are a way to speak with Mother Earth and be connected with our people, so don’t lose it. Despite our differences and what country we are from, we are one Basque country united by one language. Now to finish, “a thousand thanks” for watching, I appreciate it… I hope everyone liked this video and I encourage you to learn the Biscayan dialect. Goodbye and thank you so much.

[@reinoud6377]

the link is dead unfortunately...

[@hongry-life]

CC captions think that this is Indonesian :)

[@wildberrypurple233]

As a native Basque speaker it's so amazing to see that a Basque diaspora that still speaks Basque so beatifully after so many generations exists. And how they keep the culture alive and vibrant! Definitely a lesson to learn for those of us living in the Basque country or Iparralde (the french basque country). Gure hizkuntza bizirik mantendu dezagun! Let's save the Basque language! Also super interesting and lovely accent! It blew my mind 😍 I am super curious to learn more about the Basque American diaspora.

[@jakesamuelson1352]

I just returned from study abroad in Bilbao. Many of us have family that migrated to California, Nevada, and Idaho in particular from rural parts of the Basque Country. My family last name is etxepare and was never pronounced correct here in the US. Basque Americans are so so so proud of their heritage, to the point of learning to speak euskera, arguably one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. I can’t wait to start learning when I return this June to Bilbao!

[@wildberrypurple233]

@@jakesamuelson1352 Amazing! This is again something we do not know much about in the Basque country, about the American Basque diaspora. I think it would be very nice to teach this to people, possibly in schools. And to maybe organise exchange programmes between Basque communities in the world. I would definitely be up for it :)

[@mechanicalman1068]

@@jakesamuelson1352 yes. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many Basques came to the American west to work as shepherds. California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada. There are actually a few basque restaurants in Bakersfield of all places, more than anywhere else. Crazy. One, Noriega hotel, used to be a boarding house for shepherds when they weren’t out with the sheep. I heard it even had a Jai Alai or Basque Pelota court in the back.

[@vincentp9671]

Il y a une culture Basque au Québec également, il y a l'ile aux basques et aussi un fronton de pelote basque à Trois-pistoles, Qc

[@jah0524]

The Basque American diaspora is easy to recognize. Basque spoken in America has the F word frequently used in every sentence.

[@chestersakamoto6843]

To think that this language could be a remnant left over from Prehistoric Europe just fascinates me. This is an old language, and has been spoken long before the Indo-European tongues arrived on the continent.

[@nathanmerritt1581]

When the Neanderthals were still alive, this language was spoken.

[@dayalasingh5853]

@@nathanmerritt1581 there is no proof for this

[@Goddessღ]

Finnish itself is an old language as well. It isn't indo european either and came from elsewhere. It isn't european but rather east asian or from the urals. Still interesting though as it is obviously different than the other langauges of europe. Estonian has similar roots and hungarian too but hungarian has changed greatly, estonian has changed some and Finnish has not changed much compared to its older version.

[@clouds-rb9xt]

@@nathanmerritt1581 While it's true that Paleo-European languages existed long before Paleo-European languages, there's no evidence that it reaches back 40,000 years.... Plus, Basque wasn't even a language, it was part of the atlantic substrate. Who knows how long Paleo-Europeans existed. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4SqpHSorpaaZqs

[@animalswin2105]

@@dayalasingh5853 there is. The words for metal are pre metal age... Isaure Gratacos, the French anthropologist has show how old Basque is. At least 30 000 years old

[@pisos95]

Alright, I'm Basque from the Biscayan province and this blew my mind. He speaks fair Biscayan Basque (better than me, since I'm a proud ascendant of "maquetos" or "non Basque" and Basque people alike), but the accent is something like I never heard before 😱😱 It's like a mixture of Basque and American, but in a way I would've never expected. Benetan, inpresionatute geatu na 🤯 This really shocked me 🤯

[@anawkwardsweetpotato4728]

This is the first time Basque doesn't seem to have a heavy Castellano accent xD

[@Wikitongues]

There's a reason for that! Check out our response to Ilhan below :)

[@keptins]

But instead it seems to have american, portuguese and polish accents all at once 😂

[@Itziar_hay_yan]

That's because he's from USA, he doesn't have basque accent, he speaks very well but some vowels sound like American English

[@xalima8101]

Porque no es vasco, genio

[@marcelbas]

Indeed! I even hear some nasalised vowels!

[@ultramet]

I spent 3 months living in the Basque Region in the late 70s. This is the first time that I have heard this language since then. Amazing memories. I stayed in Oñati (Gizpukoa), Pamplona, Bilbao (Vizcaya). This is such a beautiful region of the world and the language is amazing. The Basque people treated me so nicely too-eskerrik asko.

[@TheCarlScharnberg]

Woah! Never heard anything like it.

[@Wikitongues]

Basque is the only Iberian language to survive Roman conquest and the rise of Latin, making it a language isolate today - so it's a truly unique expression of one of Europe's ancient cultures!

[@TheCarlScharnberg]

@@Wikitongues Wow! Very interesting and cool - especially from a historical and linguistic perspective. Thanks for the info!

[@xolang]

The automatic subtitles are in Indonesian, my father tongue, and the "translation" is quite hilarious. 😂 Anyway, thank you for showing Basque! One thing Basque and Austronesian languages have in common is that we don't distinguish genders at all linguistically. Just today I was talking to a friend about how I thought the prophet Elisa (Elia's successor) was a woman, until when I was 16 I read the story in English with "him, his, he". That's when it dusked upon I that Elisa was not a prophetess as I thought she/he was. 🙃

[@jackemmakem]

This is one of my favorite languages to learn about. Language isolates are so damn cool

[@BeeMcDee]

I know right! Like how has it survived so untouched, given the thousands of years of potentially other influences???

[@ilhan3506]

The lack of a Castilian accent makes it sound totally alien. Is this what Basque speakers sounded like before excessive Spanish influence?

[@noamto]

Same thing could be asked about how Castilian sounded like before excessive Basque influence.

[@willothewispp]

@@noamto i mean not really jajaj

[@Wikitongues]

Kaixo! Daniel from Wikitongues here. From a certain point of view, yes! Standardized Basque or Euskara batua is the most widely-spoken Basque dialect, especially among younger generations, and since most are bilingual in Spanish, there is definitely more Spanish influence in pronunciation and vocabulary today. However, Andrew speaks the Bizkaiera dialect or Biscayan Basque, one of the dialects that existed before Euskara batua was developed. He's also a member of the Basque diaspora in the United States - present since the 1830s! - so there is less Spanish influence. This is a very round-about way of explaining that yes, this is a very good example of Basque less influenced by Spanish, but it is a regionally specific variety, so it's not how "Basque speakers sounded" in general. I hope this helps :)

[@ilhan3506]

@@noamto I don’t think Euskara could influence Castilian as much as the other way around. It’s true though that Castilian has somewhat of an Euskara substratum

[@noamto]

@@ilhan3506 It did influence Castilian though and I'd say to quite a large degree, considering it seems to be the reason Castilian lost the original pronunciation of "f" inherited from Latin.

[@olegabbatini7015]

Fun fact: the auto-generated subtitles on KZbin say he is speaking Indonesian.

[@lisetteaimee2081]

That actually depends on whom uploaded the video, I think they must pay for each language if they want those subtitles.

[@alvinkoeswanto8622]

I'm Indonesian and I'm too perplexed by this. Because I can speak both Indonesian and Spanish and I can't understand a word he says.

[@raediaufar5003]

And it doesn't sounds like Indonesian at all

[@OsScratchMaker]

Translate it to english

[@HawaiiDEEPS]

@@alvinkoeswanto8622 Out of curiosity what compelled you to learn Spanish?

[@JMarieCAlove]

I live in Bakersfield, California, in the central San Joaquin valley.. we have several Basque restaurants here in town, they’ve been around for several decades and still popular here in town. This is the first time I’ve heard the Basque language spoken. Very cool! 😁

[@coolguywithshades34]

I’m basque from Sacramento but my grandfather immigrated from French Basque Country to bakersfield

[@anissapicard8682]

Woolgrowers!!

[@StrawberryMilkkTeaa]

It sounds so interesting! Nothing I’ve ever heard before, it’s almost otherworldly, like an invented language made-up specifically for fictional beings like the elf language. It’s fascinating and curious. I really like it.

[@masterjunky863]

Sounds like a fantasy or sci-fi fictional language. Very fascinating!

[@Goddessღ]

Listen to finnish you'll get the same vibe lol

[@animalswin2105]

@@Goddessღ your comment doesn't make any sense, did you forger some words ?

[@Fatasha776]

@@animalswin2105 it does make sense

[@EnglishWithBlake]

Thank you for posting this! I've spent a long time trying to find a video of Basque being spoken without a thick Spanish accent. It sounds beautiful.

[@mechanicalman1068]

I love this. So many of the languages we’re accustomed to in the west descend from the same root, indo-European. Romance, Germanic, Slavic, the Celtic tongues and more. This is one of the few that doesn’t, and my understanding of a that it shares no root with any other languages the Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are Uralic. As English speakers (or French, German, Russian, etc.) if we don’t speak other Eurasian languages, they are still somehow recognizable as language, with reasonably familiar sounds and structure. It sounds so wonderfully alien. I just love it.

[@carlosdumbratzen6332]

Yeah, It is similar to hearing some east-asian languages, like Indonesian. With most other european languages you have atleast some familiarity with the inflection and certain words, but this sounds so wonderfully alien

[@mysteriousDSF]

I'm Hungarian and I feel strongly for the Basque, they're our brothers in trouble, being native Europeans but non-Indo-European. (Although Uralic might have its root in Asia, today's European Russia territory is more likely.)

[@zoeg8303]

Basque is technically Proto Indo-European meaning it predates the beginning of that language family. It is not related to any other language that is spoken today.

[@mysteriousDSF]

@@zoeg8303 we use "proto" in a different context in linguistics.

[@nickfifteen]

Apparently I speak Basque! I recognized "California", "Nevada", "Utah", "Washington"... 😂😋

[@PerfectAlibi1]

Because there is no word for those names in Basque, he used the English versions XD

[@Made0nEarth]

@@PerfectAlibi1 hahah very good ! tell me the name in basque for Cristiano Ronaldo!

[@PerfectAlibi1]

@@Made0nEarth Oh, I'm not Basque. But it makes sense that there is no word for names that weren't around for when it was mainly spoken... XD

[@Nehauon]

@@PerfectAlibi1I think he’s making fun of you not understanding that it was a joke.

[@frankpatraziebe5515]

You could be a substitute Basque teacher like Peggy Hill is for Spanish.

[@Awakeningspirit20]

Iberia is a linguistic hotbed. I have attacked Spanish and Portuguese, tried Catalan... then there's THIS... imagine learning this. I'd be happy!

[@Nehauon]

Damn right, brother!

[@taffypyth]

Completely different language. Basque origins are unknown, its not Iberian

[@am74343]

It really is amazing how thoroughly *ancient* Basque sounds. The limited phonemes, the rigid pronunciations of those limited phonemes, the rigid stresses, the rigid lengths of the morae. Absolutely fascinating! It's as though the language has undergone very few changes in its intire history!

[@jonasHM]

Limited phonemes?? Compared to what?

[@surfboarding5058]

Send me a Webster please

[@GaiusCaligula234]

​@@surfboarding5058because you don't speak English? Go to school fam

[@surfboarding5058]

school is brainwash prison you slave @@GaiusCaligula234

[@terdragontra8900]

No, it has changed just like every language does

[@patriotka63]

I'm fascinated to hear this old language still going strong and protected. ❤

[@dylaninglis7136]

Fascinating. Very good Biscayan, and its interesting to hear some of the characteristic verb conjugations, words and phonetical aspects maintained in Andrew's speech that have mostly been replaced by Spanish, more common Biscayan or Standard Basque forms in Euskadi over the last few decades. Itzela!

[@pepitaaralartxope2304]

Pero si habla como si fuera chino, Fu Manchú

[@haitzkarakuelotsoaaspuruko7997]

Eredugarria haiz, Dylan! Euskaldun guztiek hire kemen, kontzientzia, koherentzia eta jakinduriaren hamarrena balute beste kuku batek joko liguke.

[@keptins]

Feels like a polish born brazilian man learned basque in an immersion school in America.

[@ViktorRotkiv98]

So specific 😅😅

[@keptins]

@@ViktorRotkiv98 I mean I heard them all! What can I do?! 😂😂

[@Jonura]

Im basque... and i speak precisely his dialect (bizkaiera- mendebaldekoa- western accent) his accent is sooooo american. For me its very strange. His nasality and some inflexions are very exaggerated

[@uniteandfight5670]

@@Jonura I agree, what he says isn't wrong, but is hard to understand st certain points, specially the vowels...

[@lisetteaimee2081]

@@Jonura Rather than he mispronounces vowels.. I'd recommend you to view the transcript in the first comment by Wikitongues, it's all written there. In fact, he uses the tt-letter much more, he differences between r and ŕ which is bizarre to do today because of the rr from Spanish, also faded words such as 'untzun' (entzun) or uzena (izena) which are no longer used in Modern Biscayan but are indeed Biscayan and you can see them in old manuscripts, for example, the word 'alkaŕteak' is more common to listen to 'komunitateak' today, or edestu (kontau), usu (tradizino). Somehow it's a clearer Biscayan with no Batua or Spanish influence and actually there's no Basque exaggeration because old people in small towns speak and overpronounce like that, obviously with exception of his American accent. Neuk be bizkaieraz berba egitten dot.

[@philipmendisco6656]

Lets not forget that, despite its relatively small size geographically, there are FIVE distinctly different Basque dialects. I am fluent in the Lower Navarrese-Lapurdian dialect, but can understand and converse in all 5. Basque was a unified single language until the middle ages

[@Otrebor0707]

Philippines had a fairly large Basque immigration. Some of the most influential families are Basque in origin. Jai Alai was a very popular sports in Philippines also. I met a Basque hotel owner in Spain who traveled to Philippines for Jai Alai tournaments.

[@long_dan]

Andrew’s Basque sounds quite “nasal” to me. I’d never heard the Biscayan variety, so I don’t know whether this is characteristic of the Basque spoken in this region. Anyway, I’d never have thought he’s American if he hadn’t said “Utah”, “Nevada” and “Washington” the way he did, all the more when he pronounces the vibrating “rr” quite well (as for example in “aurrera” 0:40 and “eskerrik” 4:18), which is usually hard to pronounce for English speakers. Fun fact: speaking of the Basque influence on Castilian, “izquierda” the Spanish word for left, comes from the Basque “ezkerra”, with the same meaning.

[@zlo8389]

Languages and perspectives are so interesting. As someone who is American and Spanish, I thought I recognized a North American accent until he said the state names. The way he pronounced the "A" did not sound North American at all to me...it almost sounded like when a British person imitates the American accent and forces an American "A" vowel sound hahaha

[@andrewwg.6892]

@@zlo8389 I highly doubt you are American and say something like that, where are you actually from? In the USA, the American English accent varies from state to state, north to south, east to west and even from county to county. Let me tell you that in California we've even got phonetical variations from LA to SF and even more in the countryside, btw I currently live in Florida and here is even crazier when you go to Miami Dade County to Broward or even the Tampa Bay area and this happens all over the country, go to Boston a meet a couple Irish-Americans and freak out. In fact, I am Californian born and raised as I explained in the video and it's posted in the transcript, my heritage is indeed Basque, you can't expect me to speak Basque as I speak English because it's hella different and both languages follow a different rhythm, most native Basque speakers will find it weird because they're used to only hearing Spanish and French accents but they'd be shocked by meeting old Basque farmers living in the rural areas of Nevada or Utah. Somehow, the main problem with first listeners towards the Basque language is that they try to link it up with the actual European Basque society which has little to do with true Basque culture or identity and not because of their fault, but because of historical oppressions in general.

[@zlo8389]

@@andrewwg.6892 Dude I wrote a whole post in Spanish defending you because people were saying "he isn't really Basque." My point was that when you said the state names it sounded full Euskera, not the American pronunciation. I also said a lot of Basque people were forced to leave their homeland for political reasons so nationality and birth place aren't the only things that define a person's identity. My point is that if someone feels Basque then people should have no problem calling them Basque. People try to call out Americans all the time for our pronunciation when in reality you pronounced the entire video in Euskera. People want to discredit you because of your nationality and pretend like you had some super noticeable American accent when the reality is that you pronounced the states the same way someone from Guernica would. But I disagree that Basques in Spain have lost their culture. Yeah Bilbao is all castellano but if you go to rural areas of Euskadi, especially Guipuzkoa, you'll still find older people that don't speak much castellano and have preserved the Basque culture. Northern Nafarroa is heavily Basque. Huntza is a Basque band mostly from Guipozkoa and they are all under 30 and use Euskera in all of their songs, communications etc. Also, kids have to learn Basque now in school in Euskadi and a lot more jobs in Euskadi require you to have at least a basic knowledge of Euskera.

[@andrewwg.6892]

@@egoi1955 The transcript is written in Biscayan Basque and there's a literal translation in English, that means the translation is based on how every word coming out of my mouth is said from the Basque perspective and not as it oughta be said in English. Unfortunately, Wikitongues didn't specify as I handed it to them but I do respect your ignorance, thanks for watching though.

[@andrewwg.6892]

@@zlo8389 True that! I couldn't agree more with you, there are haters everywhere. You should also join Wikitongues and make a video in Castilian Spanish, let's show the world how real we keep our ancestors' folklore in America!

[@benoitvadeboncoeur3473]

I’m from Québec and I have Québécois father and a Newfoundlander mother from the area region of Port aux Basque (west Coast). I’ve recently found out that I have partial Basque ethnicity on my father’s side. Ironically I’ve discovered that a large proportion of French Canadians (be they Québécois or Acadien) are of partially Basque heritage! Kind of makes sense since the majority of military and sailors would be recruited from Atlantic ports. There you go I’m part of this group that I never knew!

[@landofw56]

Let's save this language!

[@dandstuff]

It's recognized as a language by Spain, and has 900.000 speakers

[@Xiodeminsa]

Really good accent man, i live in Berriatua and used to live in Lekeitio and people around here doesnt have that kind of accent but it sure is from Bizkaia. Agur eta ondo izan.

[@Might_b_iz]

My father's side is from Barcelona, Spain and my great aunt (me tia) spoke Spanish and Catalan and told me about the different regions on Spain and all the different languages including Basque. I recently did an Ancestry DNA test and found out Im primarily of Basque decent. I decided to look into it and its absolutely amazing, blowing my mind. Thank you for the content and allowing me to learn more about my ancestry. 🙏

[@LadyO_333]

I think your language is beautiful, an ancient extraterrestrial language that has survived on our planet. Thank you.

[@Goddessღ]

Listen to finnish it's beautiful too hehe

[@cuttingmotions3636]

A lot of rh negative bloodlines there. The royal blood, they are definitely aliens in a good way. Very very unique genetics and history

[@Fatasha776]

@@Goddessღ stop telling people to listen to Finnish no one cares

[@georgiannakaya2590]

This is an amazing video, thank you Andrew for posting, this is such a unique language that was nearly completely lost under Franco’s dictatorship. I never knew there to be such a thriving Basque community in America. Hearing the language being spoken again brings back fond memories. The Basques are big hearted people, extremely welcoming and very proud of their heritage. Well done to all the ambassadors out there trying to keep the Basque language and traditions alive.

[@piroskaracz3621]

If i listen without looking at the guy...it reminds me of East Asian languages....similar to the way Cambodian sounds

[@ilovesparky13]

What a bizarre sounding language. Not bad, just very different.

[@bingbonghafu]

That’s because it’s a language isolate

[@ializarg]

Yes, sounds very bizarre... even for a Basque native like me.

[@Ethan-qo9rx]

bizarre sounding language. haha Southeast Asian languages must be alien to you then

[@namitajimmy6737]

It's not Indo-European, also he doesn't has any Spanish accent when speaking

[@kaia8535]

Kaixo, pilo bat gustatu zait bideoa. Kalifornian non hitz egiten duzu euskara? :)

[@BrokeTheInterweb]

It feels wild to hear a whole language with no familiar elements to cling onto. It really humbles me lol, this is a beautiful completely unique, super old language that I'm so so grateful is still around for us to hear. I hope it stays around for a long time!

[@chuckcaines8691]

About 12 years ago I did a tanker ship refit with a bunch of Basques folks. It’s nice to hear this language again!

[@ander4368]

Eskerrik asko atzerrian egonda be, euskara ikasteko egiten dozuen esfortzuagatik! Aupa zuek!

[@jeanbiroute]

You’re amazing. Thank you

[@CPlusPlusOpenGLMan]

The true original European language. ❤

[@pierovasquez8450]

Phonetically it sounds a lot like Georgian, specially when it is spoken without Spanish/Castilian accent. There is actually a hypothesis that proposes Basque and Georgian have shared common roots; they both would be part of a same family language, according to this hypothesis.

[@WingsOfADream1]

0:46 I like when he uses English names...

[@joeldiaz7416]

1:58 I heard the word Bakersfield I think. Thats where I'm from and there's a community of Basque people here :)

[@IsenoAlpha]

So even though this isn't what typical Basque that you're likely to find sounds like I've yet to hear any Basque spoken by people in the French part of the region. Since some people are saying that Basque may have influenced Spanish and not the other way around, it may not be as different as I'm imagining but considering how hard France was on the language through its history I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least some French influence on it.

[@dasappman9321]

This is the language I speak whenever I try to make up my own.

[@macart5429]

Speaking of this: For some time now, I have believed that the Vilane Languages of the Red Zora Valley(located in Minecraft nation of Novekia) are related to Basque. They simultaneously developed from the sounds of a certain villager tribe in the area. I speak one of Vilane languages fluently.

[@swish043]

I've heard of this language but never imagined it sounded like this! It sounds like a strange mixture (to me) of Hindi, Thai, and Arabic (?). What on earth? My boyfriend said it sounds like Arabic mixed with aliens 😆 He has misophonia and did not have a good time with me playing this on full volume (with all the uvular consonants and heavily rolled R's).

[@JTomas96]

He speaks REALLY REALLY AWFUL(His consonants are good tho) This is real basque: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGbOq3yQd7qcf9k His pitch is TOO HIGH.

[@Rolando_Cueva]

There are no uvular consonants.

[@OffGridInvestor]

It sounds like that high pitch Russian singer Vitas trying to sing arabic.

[@OffGridInvestor]

It sounds like that high pitch Russian singer Vitas trying to sing arabic.

[@AmicusAdastra]

So everyone is going to sit here and act like they don't know it could be the language that peoples in Atlantis spoken with Tamazigh if it may have existed ?

[@MrMikkyn]

This language sounds so cool. Its sounds like Russian, Moroccan Darija, Mongolian, Greenlandic, European Portuguese

[@barbarakb8847]

Love hearing different languages!

[@hi_arav]

I looove the Basque language. My family comes from Asturias, but there is something so beautiful about Euskadi (North/South, and including Nafarroa (Navarre)).

[@Rolando_Cueva]

De Asturias! Ellos hablan bable?

[@landofw56]

It is so beautiful not to understand anything

[@edstar83]

He said he has come for our women and will be taking them all back to his planet.

[@Realivangarcia]

I found I actually am partial Basque when I took a DNA test. Crazy how this culture is subverted from the mainstream but has managed to survive for thousands of years.

[@jacobalexander7192]

Fascinating!

[@stupor_mundi]

Fascinating, I'm a stranger to the Basque language and to my ears I would describe this sound as a mix of Cantonese and Arabic.

[@ganmerlad]

Yes to both of those, and it also sounds like there's some Slavic in there as well.

[@USA2321]

Sounds like Georgian

[@RaymondHng]

Cantonese is my mother tongue. There is no Cantonese at all in this Basque speech.

[@stupor_mundi]

@@RaymondHng you won't hear the similarity the same way foreigners do, as a native speaker your perception won't be the same because the language is already familiar to you.

[@RaymondHng]

@@stupor_mundi As a foreigner, your perception of the phonology of Cantonese is extremely sophomoric. Cantonese is a tonal language. Basque is not a tonal language. Cantonese has consonants that Basque does not have.

[@ellobo3175]

This is the very first time I'm hearing this language. I heard it's the only language based on no linguistic family. Sounds like nothing I've ever heard. So interesting! So cool!

[@dayalasingh5853]

There are other languages that don't have a language family. Haida is one spoken on the islands of British Columbia

[@jzaar7483]

There are plenty of examples of language isolates, but Basque is the only one in Europe.

[@tholian_web]

Euskara is so fascinating. It is a very ancient language, possibly tens of thousands of years old. It existed before the Indo-European languages came into Europe. My ancestry DNA showed me to be 2% Basque. Whoopee!

[@jesseechavarria8488]

Cool video. Thank you. 👍

[@ToutCQJM]

I’m learning Euskera. Little by little.

[@miklosdavid7627]

I was curious to find out what Basque would sound like and it was a terrific experience. I expected lots of influence of Spanish but could not detect much of that. Interestingly I captured some remarkably similar accentuation to Japanese. Well, I'll give it another try sometime, it is fascinating knowing the background of Basque.

[@LarruSketch]

First "Euskenglish Bizkaittarra" that I've ever heard. You're brilliant, itzela zare!

[@Jonura]

Basque with american accent... ze arraroa!!! Karkarkar. Baina berdin da. Euskara entzutea beti da inportantiena.

[@tigran1982]

It sounds like a Semitic language that has been isolated from others in its group and has had a tremendous influence from Romance languages over a long period of time. I think it might be a Semitic-Romance hybrid much like the Maltese language.

[@Fatasha776]

It’s defo not Semitic

[@ExplorerOfTheGalaxy]

It seems a little bit Korean/Japanese to my ears.. but mixed with some Russian.. and ALIEN!! :) Loved it.

[@nathanmerritt1581]

Lol

[@bandaloiuliviu7805]

A language from another planet.

[@mrmgarcia89]

just found out that I have Basque blood and I love how interesting the culture, language, and history is. I'm here because I would love to learn more about this side of my ancestry.

[@xoanwahn]

This is beautiful! I've only heard Basque with a Spanish accent before and I've never liked it until today.

[@matthewmckever2312]

I've just listened to a few examples and this is completely different from all the others.

[@b_simrace]

I'm having a really good time turning on the auto generated indonesia subs

[@voskeethgha]

As a native Armenian speaker, I can attest that this language sounds extremely similar to ours. I know there are many words that sound the same and mean the same thing. Super cool!

[@cen80]

Fun fact, he looks like a Turk or Armenian.

[@user-td4do3op2d]

Could you provide some examples? What you just said contradicts every linguist who has ever lived.

[@Justin-df9ev]

@@cen80 No

[@pollitodinosaurio]

Are you for real? That is impossible

[@Tdiarocks123]

....not at all

[@ricosuave7102]

I wonder if the early basque people could understand you? The language seems to have some influence by Latin and possibly some other languages but I am just speculating.

[@vickhernandez8664]

Hello. I think I understood that you are from California? I too live in California my great-grandparents were from the Basque Country. I had the privilege to visit their home land this past summer Itziar. I would love to learn this language. I speak 6 languages what and where would you recommend I could learn? Thank you!

[@Someone-ym1ny]

Gosh it almost sounds Southeast Asian! Super cool to hear how the language sounds without the Spanish influence

[@Blublod]

This is Vizcaíno. You would be hard pressed to hear this in most of Euskadi.

[@Blublod]

@@asiersanz8941 - I’m talking about most people, not just a few people, so in the whole of Euskadi this version of basque is not as common / Jende gehienaz ari naiz, ez jende gutxi, beraz, Euskadi osoan euskararen bertsio hau ez da hain ohikoa.

[@asiersanz8941]

@@Blublod Erratuta zaude. You are not right. It is widely spoken in many areas, where basque speakers are over 80% of the population. Ondarroa, Lekeitio, Markina, Gernika, Bermeo, Durango, Eibar, Bergara, Arrasate, Oñati, Aramaio, Igorre, Bedia, Gatika, Mungia, ... just to say a few important towns.

[@asiersanz8941]

@@Blublod It's not a few people, it has between 200.000 and 300.000 native speakers. With its classical literature (Mogel, Txomin Agirre,...), some TV and radio stations, many local magazines... and it is the most spoken basque dialect. Go to euskalkiak.eus/ and have a look to the videos you'll find there. Euskal Herrian hiztun gehien duen euskalkia da, ni neu barne. Hala ere, formalki elkar komunikatzeko nahiago dut batua erabiltzea.

[@lisetteaimee2081]

@@asiersanz8941 I agree with Rick, you're also right about the Biscayan dialect being so widely spoken but not as close as this way. Most native Biscayans speak the remains of their parents or grandparents which generation after generation has been more and more influenced by Batua and Castilian. In fact, teenagers and young adults easily conjugate verbs and use borrowings from Batua which is based on Central dialects because that's what we learn in school, we also learn the Spanish alphabet, Batua writing and it's nothing like what it's in the transcript. He even writes the phonetical difference between the r-letter and ŕ-letter, the Biscayan (-ińo-) endings instead of (-io-) or the Biscayan (-ala) instead of (-ela) which are Batua influence. Thus, if you did a research about Old Biscayan writings and old documents or even heard elder people speak, this would be quite close and not what modern Biscayan is today.

[@asiersanz8941]

@@lisetteaimee2081 I think you don't know anybody who speak biscayan. First of all, when a linguistic variant pr a language are alive, of course, they change, they are not ecstatic. As to the biscayan dialect is concerned, it is alive and very well described by academics. The suffixes yoj mention are used on a daily basis with normality. So much thta when biscayan batua speakers speak basque they use also those terminations. By the way, as you may know the dialects of a language that are geographically in its boundaries are the most influenced by the language in contact but at the same time they keep the OLDEST forms of the language, and thisi is a universal law. So, there is no a kind of creole between biscayan and batua. We know when we speak biscayan ( it is better to say western dialect) and when we speak batua. The batua or biscayan have not take any spanish alphabet, as ig does not exist, but the latin alphabet takin into account the phonetic sound universally acceptes. An advantage of being quite new. You have ahotsak.eus ti hear actual biscayan/western speakers. Hear them and you'll tell me if they speak a kind of batua

[@MrRaevsky]

For me sounds like a mix of armenian/geogrian and baltic languages

[@BabyAngelV]

Whoa! This is fascinating!

[@williamhowerton744]

I can see why the romans had a time with the tribes populating the iberian peninsula. Very different from indoeuropean tongues.

[@SuperManning11]

Fascinating! I speak pretty fluent Spanish, French and Italian….and I really didn’t get a word of what he was saying.

[@justakathings]

That’s because it’s not a Romance language :)

[@SuperManning11]

@@justakathings Yes, that’s right. It’s amazing to think that this might be a language heard in those parts before the Romans arrived.

[@vivaladaryl7723]

I understood California and Idaho.

[@MasterGhostf]

@@SuperManning11 basque was the language before the indo Europeans, so around 10k years ago. It would be related to the language of those who built stone henge.

[@SuperManning11]

@@MasterGhostf that is so fascinating!! I’m gonna seek out more examples to listen to. Thanks!

[@pyrenaea3019]

I'm basque :D

[@Wikitongues]

Ongi etorri! Have you thought about making a Wikitongues video of your Basque? 😄

[@pyrenaea3019]

@@Wikitongues Maybe I'm still too young, I'm 16

[@TheTudoor]

It sounds like he is trying to start a sentence in romanian for a second and then russian and then portuguese and then idk.Interesting language!

[@Winterascent]

Impressive. Now, if we could only hear Etruscan spoken.

[@gojkosimovljevic]

It's easy, just listen Serbian and you can imagine how Etruscan was.

[@valerieo1483]

I have 1% Basque in my DNA. I’ve never even heard of Basque before my DNA test. Very cool!

[@DanielHowardIRE]

Kaixo! I really enjoyed listening to this variant of Basque without much Castillian influence. I spent an Erasmus year in Bilbao and loved whenever I heard somebody speaking Basque. Euskera is such a beautiful language. As for the Spanish influence on Basque, we've got a similar situation here in Ireland with English influence on Irish Gaelic. Like Basque batua, the standardised form, we've got a standardised form of Irish too. It's bound to happen to a minority language especially when many of the speakers are bilingual and might speak the majority language as their mother tongue. I think what's more important is people trying to speak the language than being a purist about it. We've got Irish language purists here who chastise you if you don't speak it perfectly. It just puts people off speaking it! Anyway, eskerrik asko!

[@sarribel]

Europako hizkuntzarik zaharrena, bizirik dirau. Oldest language in Europe alive and kicking.today.

[@annalisette5897]

Good heavens! To an untrained ear this sounds like an Asian tonal language. Interesting.

[@uniteandfight5670]

I would say that's mainly because of his american influence. While what he's saying is correct, the pronounciation is sometimes weird, especially the vowels, where he makes a lot of nasal sounds... I think that's what makes it sound asian. However, as a proud Basque speaker, I really admire the effort the people living in other countries make to maintain the language, really glad I found this video!

[@DoreenBellDotan]

I heard the same thing. Elements of Arabic too - the guttural k sound.

[@JTomas96]

He speaks REALLY REALLY AWFUL(His consonants are good tho) This is real basque: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGbOq3yQd7qcf9k His pitch is TOO HIGH.

[@akatxupowell4431]

Aupa txo, gorantzixek bizkaiko kostaldetik..

[@leftsidem5030]

Sounds very different... lovely language

[@WilliamParkerer]

Wow it even sounds independent.

[@redl1ner170]

From the video description: "This video was self-recorded by Andrew Goiburuntza in Miami, Florida." If this fella speak with native basque accent, I speak old valyrian with native valyrian accent. lol I'm laughing my ass of at all the comments in this video. Speacilly all the people saying that "basque sounds like portuguese".

[@jangitz]

he obviously has an american accent, but he speaks the basque dialect from the region called Bizkaia, and thats a pretty specific way to speak

[@weeweefeet4030]

It’s almost like Turkish mixed with Tagalog! Crazy to hear Basque without Spanish influence.

[@GeoAlekos]

God!!! How sweet!!! It sounds wonderful! And I can realise a bit Spanish scent in his accent too.

[@Gus2828]

I come from a Basque family that emigrated to Argentina. Unfortunately, I never learned the language. Anyway, what is he talking about ?

[@emreerdogdu1234]

I am writing a paper about Basque nationalism and I was trying to understand why Basque language is so important. Now I have listened to it, I can see why. I am constantly listening to it while writing my paper in English.

[@avgvstvs7]

bizi yaz oğlum bizi mınagorum vaskoların

[@XSilentKnife-XSS]

Kind of sounds like what I imagine Nordic sounded like very fascinating

[@Daveena1008]

I don't understand a word, but going by the sound of the language, I would say that this sounds like Persian mixed in with a Far-East language possibly Chinese, with a slight Portuguese accent.

[@rrn7689]

His accent is quite strange for any Basque-speaker.

[@Daveena1008]

@@rrn7689 Is he Basque? He looks Mexican looking to me. Maybe he is speaking Basque with a Mexican accent?

[@Daveena1008]

@@andrewwg.6892 Hi Andrew - thank you for the response. I did not mean to offend you in any way. You look very Mexican to me, hence why I thought you might be a Mexican who knew how to speak Basque. I am fully aware that Basque is a language isolate and not the same as any other Indo-European language.

[@rrn7689]

@@Daveena1008 maybe he has some Basque ancesors but physically he does not look like a Basque or Spaniard.(The vast majority of Basques and Spaniards are physically similar) and that man seems to have quite non-European ancestry.

[@Daveena1008]

@@rrn7689 Are you Basque? Is it true that Basque people have prominent noses? That's what many Spanish people have told me, they say that you can normally tell Basque people from their noses. But I don't know as I have only ever come across 2 Basque people in my life. I am based in the UK and there aren't that many Basque people here.

[@myblueskye777]

I found out today through Ancestry that I have some Basque heritage, and though I had heard the word "Basque" before, I didn't know anything about this fascinating country or the language, so I decided to look it up and I am having so much fun learning new things! This video is my first time hearing the Basque language. It's nice to have a version of what some of my ancestors spoke to listen to, so thank you! Even if I wasn't doing this kind of ancestral research I would say your language sounds beautiful! Thank you for sharing your language with the world.

[@joelbarr5171]

fascinating it sounds like a mash of Arabic and Korean!

[@jess_n_atx]

English subtitles would be awesome

[@elisabeta4696]

😮😵‍💫 Bizare language.It seems a mix of a lot of languages: a little portugese, arabic, gypsy ( sorry!), maiby slavonic.

[@atamija]

these almost ejective stops at the end of words really threw me off, i did not expect Basque to feature them at all!

[@ДимитърМитов-ш6ю]

omg, this is fucking interesting, you can hear how he pronounces J as ZH

[@andrewwg.6892]

Hi, I actually used the j-letter which is a beautiful way to represent it using the Latin influence, however, the [ʒ] sound is also represented with dx-letter from the Basque root, that's how I personally like it but it might've seemed kinda weird for many people because that letter has unfortunately faded away a lot.

[@piroskaracz3621]

It also reminds me of East Asian languages...Cambodian etc.A slight nasal sound

[@MenelionFR]

What an interesting variation of Basque! I don't speak Basque and don't really know much about it, but still: his final voiceless plosives to me sound like ejectives for some reason, plus I clearly hear a [ʒ] (like S in Pleasure), but I've never known this sound existed in Basque (dialectal particularity?), plus some vowels seem a bit nasalized to my ear. Just fascinating!

[@lisetteaimee2081]

Yes, there are ejectives in the words that end in k-letter, and the /ʒ/ sound is particularly from this dialect.

[@emanuelduarte5436]

We can have this sound in the western of the western's dialec ( Bizkaiera" called too). But this sound can be heard particularly in the dialect of the extrem north-east in the province of Zuberoa (zuberera), with the dialect of Bizkaiera, these are the more specifics dialects with some rare sounds.