Thesis (doctoral)--Universidad del País Vasco, San Sebastián, 1984.

L’étude du droit applicable à la langue basque en France et en Espagne et des politiques publiques menées dans chacun des pays en faveur de sa revitalisation et de sa normalisation linguistique est source de contradictions juridiques et politiques. En effet, alors que les droits français et espagnols s’opposent dans la place qu’ils font au pluralisme linguistique dans la sphère publique et à la reconnaissance des droits des communautés linguistiques, les pouvoirs publics de chaque État ont mis en place des mesures poursuivant l’objectif commun de garantir le multilinguisme dans les rapports avec l’administration et les services publics, et de permettre l’apprentissage par le plus grand nombre de la langue basque. Cette contradiction amène à s’interroger sur le modèle linguistique français et sur les pistes de conciliation nouvelle permettant d’offrir un cadre juridique plus propice à l’expression plurielle des différentes langues régionales de France, et de sécuriser juridiquement les politiques mises en place en faveur de la langue basque en France. / The study of the legal dispositions ruling the use and learning of the basque language in France and Spain, and the policies intending the revitalization and normalization of the basque language in both territories reveals a political and legal contradiction. Even if the French and Spanish regulations contain opposite principles regarding the recognition of multilingualism in the public sphere and the recognition of the rights of language communities, the public authorities in both countries have applied similar policies with the objective to ensure the use of the basque language in Administration and public service, and to allow that a large part of the population has the possibility to learn the basque language. This contradiction can be resolved with a reflexion concerning the French linguistic model. The thesis offers a proposal to establish a new legal and constitutional conciliation in France permitting a better expression of multilingualism in the public sphere, and securing legally the public policies applied in this country in the benefit of the basque language.

“No aspect of Basque linguistics has received more attention over the years than the morphology of the verb.” (Trask 1981:1) The current study examines the complex morphological agreement patterns found in the Basque auxiliary verb system as a case in point for discussion of theoretical approaches to inflectional morphology. The traditional syntax-driven treatment of these auxiliaries is contrasted with an inferential, morphology-driven analysis within the Paradigm Function Morphology framework. Additionally, a computational implementation of the current analysis using the DATR lexical knowledge representation language is discussed.

Au Pays Basque de France, le nombre de bascophones ne cesse de diminuer. Pour autant, les dernières enquêtes sociolinguistiques présentent, chez les plus jeunes générations, une progression du nombre de locuteurs. Ce phénomène est en grande partie lié à la scolarisation en basque qui ne cesse de se développer. Entre les rentrées scolaires de 2004 et de 2016, les trois filières principales de l'enseignement en basque (bilingue publique, bilingue privée et immersion en ikastola) ont connu une augmentation de leurs effectifs de 68% tandis que le nombre d'enfants scolarisés au Pays Basque de France n'augmentait que de 6%. À l'heure où les échanges mondiaux favorisent l'acquisition de langues internationales, le succès de l'apprentissage d'une langue régionale interroge. Dans le cadre d'une intervention sociologique (qui a consisté à réunir 5 fois, durant près de deux heures, 5 groupes d’une dizaine de participants), nous avons, avec des parents ayant scolarisé leurs enfants en basque, analysé leurs pratiques. Nous avons ainsi pu définir le sens social de ce choix qui leur semblait a priori évident et personnel. En plus d’une volonté de s'inscrire dans la transmission de cette langue identitaire ou du fait de bénéficier des avantages liés au bilinguisme précoce, les parents rencontrés donnent une dimension plus militante à leur choix, dimension sous-tendue notamment par des principes universels (égalité des langues, respect des cultures, préservation du patrimoine mondial, etc.). Mais cet engouement pour la scolarisation en basque peut aussi se comprendre comme la volonté d'être acteur d'un nouveau projet social. Il apparaît que le choix de la scolarisation en basque n’est pas porté par une seule motivation mais relève d'une expérience sociale qui combine ces différentes logiques d'action. Nous cherchons dans cette thèse à identifier et analyser la pluralité des motivations évoquées par les parents, et à comprendre les liens qui les unissent dans une même expérience sociale. / In French Basque Country, the number of Basque speakers keeps decreasing. Yet, the last socio-linguistic surveys show that the number of speakers increases among the youngest generations. Such a growth is partly related to the growing enrolment of children in schools in Basque. Between the school years 2004 and 2016, the three main branches of schooling in Basque (the public one, the private one, and the immersive one in ikastola) show a dramatic increase of 68% of the number of pupils in French Basque Country, whereas the total number of pupils increases by 6% only. While globalisation strengthens international languages, the growing popularity for placing young children in schools in Basque in order to acquire a regional language is challenging.Thanks to a sociological intervention (which consisted in bringing together 5 groups of about 10 parents, and meeting them 5 times each, for 2 hours) we co-analysed the practices of parents who decided to place their children in schools in Basque. This way, we defined the social meaning of their choice, which, at first, could appear obvious and personal to them.The parents involved in the sociological intervention want to take part in the transmission of an identity-sensitive language. They want to take advantage of an exposure to a bilingual learning from an early age. But they also show a sort of activism by assuming universal principals (such as equality between languages, respect for cultures, preservation of the world’s heritage, etc.). Finally, the will to take an active part in a new social project can also be considered as a driver of the desire to place their children in schools in Basque.It appears that the choice to place children in schools in Basque is never driven by a single reason only. The motivation stems from a sociological experience that articulates the different logics previously mentioned. Here, we look for identifying and analysing the diversity of the reasons the parents give, and understanding the system that relates those reasons in a same social experience.

L’objectif de la présente étude est de donner une certaine idée de la façon dont la langue basque a changé au cours des deux millénaires écoulés. Dans ce but, l’étude fournit une présentation problématisée du diasystème contemporain. Elle s’intéresse ensuite à un groupe de verbes considérés comme révélateurs de l’évolution du système. Elle présente les principaux acquis des études diachroniques basques et met en place des amorces de scénario de changement. Elle tente de comprendre la façon dont le diasystème latino-roman a pu conditionner l’évolution du diasystème basque. Enfin, elle offre un éclairage particulier à partir de l’exemple du vocabulaire de la parenté. / The objective of the present study is to give some idea on the way the Basque language has changed over the last two millennia. For this purpose, the study provides a structured overview of present Basque diasystem. It then focuses on a cluster of verbs considered indicative of the evolution of the system. It presents the main achievements of the Basque diachronic studies and puts first change scenarios forward. It aims to understand how the Latin Romance diasystem has conditioned the evolution of the Basque diasystem. Finally, it offers an insight dealing with the example of the kinship terminology.

This study analysed the reporting of the debate over the Guggenheim Bilbao in the Basque nationalist newspapers Egin and Diario Vasco. I was looking at differences/similarities between the newspapers, and at how argumentation changed over time (1997/1998), drawing upon content analysis, discourse analysis of the ideological themes in the reporting and an indepth analysis of two editorials, one in Spanish and one in Basque. The content analysis confirmed that economy and Basque culture/identity were highly controversial themes; and that in 1998 the museum became more accepted. An analysis of rhetorical strategies e.g. quantification rhetoric for economic predictions; vagueness/evasiveness to portray the Basques' reception of modem architecture/art, permitted the examination of intragroup/intergroup models of interaction, strategies and underlying ideological dilemmas (Billig et ai, 1988). After the inauguration, Diario Vasco claimed that the museum was concerned with Basque modem art, while Egin maintained a cautious distance. The in-depth comparative analysis of political rhetoric in two Egin's editorials, reporting similar events in Basque or Spanish, confirmed that the use of these different languages involves different construction of the readership; and different strategies to convey communality between writer/reader. In the Basque language editorial, communality was cautiously constructed until an assertive we Basques stressed search of unity, differentiation, and sovereignty: conflict/differences between Basques were omitted, backgrounded or ironized, while differences with the Spanish foregrounded. In the Spanish editorial, an impersonal third person tone avoided using the rhetoric of we. Specific Basques were blamed for the repression of Basque secessionism. A dramatic tone suggested subtle criticism against ETA, yet implying that it was reasonable to include ETA among the human victims. The explicit nation state's deixis in the Spanish editorial implied Spain was the nation state. In the Basque context the nation state's deixis was ambiguous: we Basques might be used to address Basques beyond French-Spanish boundaries, suggesting a long-term representation/project that imagined Basqueness beyond its present-day administrative division or actual political influence. The implications of such fine detail differences were discussed.

The Basque people and their language have been politically oppressed for centuries. I examine the history of the Basque language and how its oppression and revitalization have been shaped by the language policies of France and Spain, the two countries spanned by the Basque country. I focus my research and predictions on the French Basque Country, which is currently subject to a more oppressive language policy than Spanish Basque Country. The number of Basque-speaking bilinguals in the French Basque Country is decreasing and attitudes regarding instruction of the language have become more apathetic. I explore governmental, community, and combined efforts to preserve and encourage use of the language and draw several conclusions about viable future revitalization efforts.