Basque

Basque

Basque people

The Basques (Basque: euskaldunak, Spanish: vascos, French: basques) as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria), a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.

The Basques are known in the local languages as:
- Euskaldunak ("Basque speakers", also used loosely to describe all ethnic Basques), euskal herritarrak ("natives of the Basque Country") or euskotarrak ("natives of the Basque Country", an often mentioned but rarely used neologism) in Basque
- Vascos in Spanish
- Basques in French
- Bascos in Gascon

Basque language

Basque (endonym: Euskara, IPA: [eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is a language isolate ancestral to the Basque people, who are indigenous to and mainly inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 27% of Basques in all territories (714,136 out of 2,648,998). Of these, 663,035 are in the Spanish part of the Basque Country and the remaining 51,100 are in the French one.

Official language in	Basque Autonomous Community
	Navarre

Basque proverbs

The Basque language (called Euskara by the Basque language speakers or Basques themselves) is the oldest language in Europe, the only non Indo-European language that survived after the administration of the Roman Empire spread throughout our continent. It is spoken by about one million people in the seven provinces of the Euskal Herria, that is, in North East Spain and South West France. No relationship between Basque and any other language has been established with certainty. The alphabet used for Basque employs Roman letters. The first printed book in Basque appeared in the 16th century. Basque is both agglutinative and polysynthetic.

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Basque Proverb

Listening

¶ Aditu nahi ez duenak, ez du esan behar.
Translation: He who doesn't want to hear, shouldn't say.

Name

¶ Aberats izatea baino, izen ona hobe.
Translation: It's better to have a good name than to be rich.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Basque_proverbs