Alavese ( eu, Arabako euskara, es, euskera alavés) is an extinct dialect of the
Basque language spoken formerly in
Álava
Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see.
Its ca ...
, one of the provinces of the
Basque Country
Basque Country may refer to:
* Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map)
* French Basque Country o ...
of
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. The modern-day communities of
Aramaio and
Legutio
Legutio (also known as ''Legutiano''; ''Villarreal de Álava'' in Spanish) is a town and municipality located in the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat ...
along the northern border with
Biscay
Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao.
B ...
do not speak the Alavese dialect but a variant of the
Biscayan dialect
Biscayan, sometimes Bizkaian ( eu, Bizkaiera, es, Vizcaíno) is a dialect of the Basque language spoken mainly in Biscay, one of the provinces of the Basque Country of Spain.
It is named as ''Western'' in the Basque dialects' classification ...
instead and while overall some 25% of people in Álava today are Basque speakers, the majority of these are speakers of
Standard Basque
Standard Basque ( eu, euskara batua or simply ''batua'') is a standardised version of the Basque language, developed by the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s, which nowadays is the most widely and commonly spoken Basque-language version ...
who acquired Basque via the education system or moved there from other parts of the Basque Country.
Classification and features
In 1997, Professor
Koldo Zuazo
Koldo Zuazo ( Eibar, Gipuzkoa, 1956) is a Basque linguist, professor at the University of the Basque Country and specialist in Basque language dialectology and sociolinguistics.
The dialects of the Basque language
Since 1998, Zuazo's work o ...
published research carried out on scattered recorded evidence and papers drawn up especially by
Koldo Mitxelena. He outlines three main linguistic areas running north to south, where features related to Western and Navarrese dialects mix up to different degrees according to their geographical position.
His work focuses mainly on relevant lexico-morphological differences, such as
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
-gaz/rekin and
ablative -rean/tik case markers and sound variations such as barria/berria (= 'new'), elexea/elizea (= 'church'), padura/madura (= 'swamp').
Attestation
The Alavese dialect is not well attested. Prior to the discovery of the
Lazarraga manuscript in 2004, to date the only known piece of prose written in the Alavese dialect, the only sources were:
*
substrate terms in Alavese Spanish
* a handful of terms found on
Basque funeral steles
* a 16th century vocabulary written by the Italian Nicolao Landuchio in 1562 in
Vitoria-Gasteiz
es, vitoriano, vitoriana,
, population_density_km2 = auto
, blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s)
, blank_info_sec1 = Spanish, Basque
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
entitled ''Dictionarium linguae cantabricae - Bocabularioa ezqueraz jaquiteco eta ezqueraz verba eguiteco''
* the 1596 ''Doctrina Christiana en Romanze y Basquenze'' by Joan Perez Betolatza from
Betolaza.
Pottery shards with apparently Basque inscriptions discovered at an archeological dig in
Iruña-Veleia
Veleia was a Roman town in Hispania, now located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. The site is located in the municipality of Iruña de Oca, 10 kilometers west of Vitoria. The town was an important station on the Roman road ''ab Ast ...
west of Vitoria-Gasteiz were later discovered to be forgeries.
See also
*
Basque dialects
Notes
References
{{reflist
Álava
Basque dialects
Extinct languages of Europe