Finally I managed to do the Basque Intensive Course offered by the Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translatology (IALT) at the University of Leipzig. The course is intensive, you need to work hard, but in return you get lots and loads of fun. Here are a few impressions:
Step 1 (2019/03/04)
Get a Basque Identity.
Ba...nire euskal izena Alaia Etxeberria da eta ni Eltziegokoa naiz. Eltziego Araban dago.
Nire erdal izena Felicity da eta ni Hintersteinaukoa naiz. Hintersteinau Hessenen dago. Connewitzen bizi naiz eta orain Neues Augusteumen nago. Connewitz eta Neues Augusteum Leipzigen daude.
Erdal, known in Germany as a brand for stuff you clean shoes with, is Basque for foreign or in a foreign language. It comes from erdi, which translates into middle but also half. The idea behind this is that any foreign language, i.e. any language other than Basque, is not a 'full' language in its own right but a 'half-language', erdara.
Usually the names a language L has for a nation or a people derive from the tribes within that nation that the speakers of language L had to do with. In Spanish, for example, my native land is named after the Alemannic tribe (Alemania), while the Finnish name, Saksa, obviously derives from the Saxons.
The Basques, however, name nations and people after their languages. Let's see an example. The Basque name for Basque language is euskara or euskera, and the corresponding adjective is euskal (see above: nire euskal izena - 'my Basque name'). Now the Basque word for 'Basque person' is euskaldun. You get this by taking the adjective euskal and adding the suffix -dun, which translates into 'bearer of something' or 'someone who has something'. Bizar, for instance, means beard, and a bizardun is someone who has a beard. Following this pattern, an euskaldun is someone who has Basque, i.e. a Basque speaker.
Now with erdara meaning 'foreign language' and erdal being the corresponding adjective, guess what the Basque for 'foreigner' is...
Step 2 (2019/03/05)
Learn the difference between Emakumeak ez dira Adela eta Rebeka and Adela eta Rebeka ez dira emakumeak.
Step 3 (2019/03/07)
Think about a way of analysing luzea eta garbia in Hondartza luzea eta garbia da as attributive and luze eta garbia in [Hondartza luze eta garbia] ederra da as predicative adjectives. Might take you years. I haven't got a clue myself. Yet.
Unai - the lecturer - wrote these two
phrases on the blackboard (the poor glossing attempt is mine):
(1) Zarautz-ko hondartza luze-a eta garbi-a da
Zarautz -GEN beach long-AGR and clean-AGR
is
'The beach of Zarautz is long and clean'.
(2) [Zarautz-ko hondartza luze eta garbi-a] eder-r-a da.
[Zarautz-GEN beach long and clean-AGR]
beautiful-AGR is
'The long and clean beach of Zarautz is beautiful'.
He also said that "luzea eta
garbia" in (1) and "ederra" in (2) were attributive (!)
adjectives. When I asked him what "luze eta garbia" in (2) would be,
he said two things:
- ' "Zarautzko hondartza" and
"luze eta garbia" belong together' (from which I infer they form a
constituent excluding "ederra da", that's why I put that part in
brackets).
- ' "Luze eta garbia", that's the
predicate, no, wait, that's also an attribute, no, I don't remember it
correctly, but "ederra" is attributive'.
Now
in (1) both 'luze' and 'garbi' bear the affix -a which has the same form
as the determiner clitic.
So what if we assume the -a attached to
'luze' and 'garbi' is not some agreement suffix that is accideeentally
homophonic to the determiner clitic but the determiner clitic itself, as shown
in (1') and (2') ?
(1') Zarautz-ko hondartza luze-a eta garbi-a da
Zarautz -GEN beach long-DET and clean-DET
is
'The beach of Zarautz is long and clean'.
(2') [Zarautz-ko hondartza luze eta garbi-a] eder-r-a da.
[Zarautz-GEN beach long and clean-DET]
beautiful-DET is
Then an analysis of "luzea eta
garbia" in (1') and "ederra" in (2') as attributive adjectives
could make sense, with a structure as in
(3a-b), i.e. with "luze eta garbia da" still being a nominal
predicate but the adjectives themselves being attributive:
(3)
a. "The beach of Zarautz is the long
one and the clean one"
b. "The long and clean beach of
Zarautz is the beautiful one"
But
what do we do with "luze eta garbia" in (2')?
Step 4 (2019/03/07-11)
Learn your declensions.
Ablative: -tik (-etik after consonants, -dik after nasals and laterals)
Allative: -ra (-era after consonants)
Don't Ero and Carbona sound like names of places in Spain?
Step 5 (2019/03/14) - Oral Exam
Have a basic conversation with another student in front of the examinators using the grammatical structures and vocabulary learnt in class:
Egun on, zer moduz zaude? Zu oso ederra zara, niri oso gustatzen zatzaizkit. Ni hiri zentroan bakarrik bizi naiz. Nik putetxe bat eta asko kokain dauzkat. Begira, gizona hau alarguna dago, bere emaztea hil duelako!
Also, find out Italian Google Translate renders putetxe as pentola ('pot'). Is pentola a slang expression for brothel or is Google Translate just doing localization for the Catholic target text addressees?
Step 6 (2019/03/15) - Written Exam
Write a post card using the grammar structures and vocabulary learnt in class:
Kaixo, nire lagunak!
Zer moduz zaudete?
Gaur oso nekatuta nago. Oso lodia nago, herenegun eta atzo oso asko jan dudalako. Alkohol asko edan dut ere. Eguraldi oso gaizki da. Orain unibertsitatean nago, eta unibertsitatea ez daukat itsasorik, baina komun asko badaukat eta komunak garbiak dira. Hemen dituzue argazki bat. Argazkian liburutegian ikusi dudan mutil dago. Mutil hori lo egiten ari da ala hilda dago? Ez dakit eta ez interesatzen zait: Mutila ez da oso ederra. Nire eskerrean zuzenbideko liburuak daude. Oso handiak dira, baina ez dira interesgarriak. Liburu hauek ez irakurriko dut. Ez naiz inozoa.
Besarkada bat,
Felicity
