The aim of this study is to contribute to the larger body of research concerned with the prosodic systems of the Basque dialects currently spoken in Southern Basque country. More specifically, the author focuses on Standard Basque from the Bilbao area and its potential prosodic system(s). Standard Basque was phonologically codified by the Basque Academy, but there was no prosodic system provided by the Basque Academy. Although initial investigations have been undertaken by Hualde, more current research has shown that the standard spoken outside of the classroom is different from that which is taught (Lantto, 2019; Rodríguez-Ordóñez, 2016). Given that prosody is rarely taught within the classroom, it would not be surprising for differences to be found. The most obvious difference between Standard Basque and some of the traditional dialects is that Standard has no word-level contrastive stress; functions such as singular/plural distinctions and case are marked by postpositions. What has been determined is that the prosodic system of Standard Basque, or Batua, patterns closely to that of Gipuzkoan Basque. However, as noted by Hualde & Elordieta (2014), there is little knowledge regarding the variation of the functioning of Standard Basque’s acoustic correlates. As stated by Elordieta & Hualde (2001), it is only after a comparison of the intonational characteristics of the currently spoken dialects has been conducted that a typological categorization of Basque prosodic systems can be made. As Standard Basque was not codified with a prosodic system, it ultimately comes down to what individual speakers and speaker groups have done to account for this in their standard dialect productions. It cannot be presumed that the prosody of SB (Standard Basque) found in one region will exactly line up with prosody found in other regions; these too would need to be documented and analyzed as prosodic sub-systems. One major gap in current research is the analysis of intonation at the phrasal level; Gaminde et al. (2011) look at acoustic correlates and their respective force, but only at the word level. While Hualde looks at intonation, the study uses Gipuzkoan Basque used as a substratum, which constricts the findings to that particular dialectal region. For this reason, the dialect of Batua spoken in the Bilbao area proves to be worth investigating. The local dialect of the area was long ago lost, such that Batua could be said to be the Bilbao dialect. The revitalization movement of the 1960s brought about a significant number of new speakers, who learned the standard variety in school. To add to this, Bilbao’s presence as a major commercial hub has made it so that there is a vast number of regional vernaculars circulating throughout the area, all in contact with one another. For this study, data was taken from 6 Basque-Spanish bilinguals whose primary dialect of Basque is the standard, that participated in two experimental tasks: eliciting words in isolation in one task and eliciting neutral declaratives and yes-no questions in the other. These tasks were a means of gathering raw data on the intonation of both word and phrasal level productions. Results supports the previous findings of Gaminde et al. (2015) as well as those of Aurrekoetxea et al. (2015), in terms of how stress is realized in Standard Basque when taking into account factors such as syllable weight and syllable count. What’s more, findings also support the proposition of Hualde & Beristain (to appear) that inter-speaker variation will be heavily affected by the contact speakers have with other dialects of Basque.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The author compiled linguistic evidence related to the hypothesis that Basque and the Caucasian languages are phylogenetically related. Before presentation of this evidence, a discussion of the major methods employed in establishing ancient genetic relationships is included. The comparative method, the lexicostatistical method, and the typological method are studied in some detail. After the treatment of the techniques most frequently employed by linguists in comparative studies, the facts pertaining to the hypothesis that Basque and Caucasian are genetically related are presented. The work of those linguists interested in this topic is reviewed and discussed under the methodological headings introduced earlier. For example, the contributions of Lafon and Bouda are listed under the comparative method; the work of Tovar is considered under the lexicostatistical method; and the research of de Rijk and Tovar is included under the typological method. The evidence gathered from the application of these methods is inconclusive. The work done within the framework of the comparative method has gone as far as postulating some sound correspondences between Basque and Caucasian which have not yet been properly accounted for. The lexicostatistical studies do not show a high percentage of cognates, but this is to be expected due to the time depth of the alleged genetic relationship. The typological research does not conflict with the hypothesis of genetic affiliation, but again, is insufficient proof of the proposed phylogeny. The term "Caucasian languages," as used in this study, is defined, and is accompanied by a listing of these languages and a map showing where they are spoken. There is also a brief linguistic description of these languages. Aspects of the Basque language are described, and a map plus a listing of the dialects is included. Attempts at establishing affiliations between Basque and languages or language families other than Caucasian are mentioned. One chapter is devoted exclusively to non-linguistic factors, examining at length the very unusual blood-type distribution of the Basques. This is then compared with the distributions found among the Caucasian peoples. In the conclusion the author attempts to weigh the case for a Basque-Caucasian relationship in view of the data presented throughout the study. It appears that the evidence is suggestive of a Basque-Caucasian genetic affiliation, but there is a need for firmer proof to be presented before the hypothesis can be referred to as a fact.

Texte remanié de: Tesis doct.--Bilbao--Universidad del País Vasco, 1983.

Thèse-- Univ. of Paris. / Issued also without thesis note as vol. 1 of the author's Le système du verbe basque au XVIe siècle. "Bibliographie": p. [537]-544.

Thèse complémentaire-- Universit́e de Paris. / "Le présent ouvrage ... suppose et complète celui que j'ai consacré aux formes simples du verbe basque".--Avant-propos. "Bibliographie": p. [165]-168.

Tesis doct.--Donostia, 1989.

This dissertation presents a partial grammar of the Guipuzkoan dialect of Basque, and develops a theory of how to capture the syntactic and morphological relationships between arguments and argument-categorizing-elements (ACEs) in simple sentences. I assume the background of the theory outlined in A Syntax of Luiseno (Steele in prep.). Starting with the assumption that an ACE and an aux(iliary) particle sequence form together the sentential nucleus and represent the minimal requirement for sentencehood, I focus on the representation of the relations between the ACE-argument-structure and the morphological make-up of the aux form, that is, the aux-structure. I argue for a principle which determines whether the aux-structure satisfies the argument requirement of the ACE. In order to characterize overt case-marked constituents, I consider various syntactic phenomena. Then, I introduce and discuss (i) a rule which co-indexes directly an overt constituent with an argument-slot in the ACE-argument-structure, and (ii) a checking device which associates, on the basis of case-matching, an overt constituent with a morpheme (understood as a form plus meaning combination) in the aux-structure. Finally, I investigate the linear distribution of overt case-marked constituents. Special attention is given to the issue of focus in positive and negative simple sentences.

Tesis--Facultad de ciencias sociales y de la información--Leioa--Universidad del Pais Vasco, 1993. / Bibliogr. p.317-327. Chronologie p.329-454.