Basque and the mystery of Europe's oldest living language

Proto-Indo-European language emerged around 4,000-5,000 BCE among nomadic pastoralists in the Eurasian Steppe. Beginning around 3000 BCE, these people dispersed widely into Europe, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Through migration and interaction with indigenous cultures, they greatly influenced the development of many major ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, Romans, Persians, and the Vedic civilization in India.

But before that, in the mountainous coastal region spanning northern Spain and southwestern France, a unique linguistic treasure has survived for millennia. It is a language that predates the arrival of Latin, the spread of the Indo-European tongues, and the very concept of the nations it now inhabits. It is Euskara, the Basque language, a true linguistic enigma and a testament to cultural resilience.

For a company like Pangeanic, which thrives on the diversity and complexity of human language, working on language technologies also for the benefit of under-resourced languages, Euskara is not just another dialect; it is a time capsule. Its history is a captivating story of isolation, survival, and recent groundbreaking discoveries that are rewriting our understanding of prehistoric Europe.

The great isolate: What makes Basque so unique?

The most striking fact about Euskara is that it is a language isolate. This means it has no known living relatives. While its neighbours speak Romance languages (Spanish and French), which belong to the vast Indo-European family tree that includes everything from English and German to Russian and Hindi, Basque stands alone.

Its grammar and vocabulary are fundamentally different. For instance, Euskara uses an ergative-absolutive alignment, a system where the subject of an intransitive verb is treated the same as the object of a transitive verb. This is a feature rare in Europe but found in languages scattered across the globe, from the Caucasus to the Americas. This unique structure is one of the key reasons linguists are sure it does not share any relation to modern European languages.

The nearest "eldest" languages we could find in Europe are Lithuanian and Latvian, located in the Baltic Sea region. They are famously considered the most archaic living Indo-European languages, often called "living fossils," and they are the closest living relatives to the original Proto-Indo-European language (the pastoralists that took over the native population in Europe). These two languages preserve many ancient features that have been lost or simplified in other branches like English, Spanish, or Hindi.

While the Baltic languages are the most dramatic example, the remnants of that ancient migration are all around us—in fact, you are reading one right now. 

The massive migrations left a clear genetic marker (specifically, Y-chromosome haplogroup R1) that is incredibly common across Europe and parts of South Asia, a lasting biological testament to the movement of these pastoralists.

Whispers from the past: Theories of origin

The origin of the Basque language has fueled centuries of intense debate. Although several theories have been proposed, recent discoveries have shed new light on the puzzle, challenging the long-standing consensus.

1. The Vasconic Substrate Theory: This influential theory, proposed by German linguist Theo Vennemann, suggests that Basque is the last surviving remnant of a large family of related languages (the Vasconic family) that were spoken across Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans around 5,000 years ago (3,000 BCE). According to this hypothesis, as Indo-European speakers expanded, they absorbed these older languages, leaving only Euskara intact in the remote and defensible Pyrenees. Place names across Europe with potential Vasconic roots are often cited as evidence, though this remains a debated topic. Studies have cited place names as far as Sardinia, sharing similarities with Basque toponomy.
   
   
2. The Iberian Connection: An older theory attempted to link Basque with Iberian, the ancient language spoken on the Iberian Peninsula before the Romans. However, as scholars successfully deciphered more of the Iberian script, it became clear that despite some superficial similarities, the two languages were structurally different. This theory is now largely dismissed by mainstream linguistics. It proves that Basques and Iberians were in close contact and thus we may find word loans and cultural influences, but not a direct linguistic relationship. Iberians entered Spain around 3,000 BCE (although some scholars propose they were inhabited Spain all along and the name is the product of the naming by Phoenicians and Greek colonizers). Celts arrived in two waves, the first one in year 900 BCE and the second from 600-500 BCE.

The most widely accepted view today is the simplest: Basque is the direct descendant of the language spoken by the inhabitants of the Basque Country and a large surrounding area, both sides of the Pyrenees, in prehistoric times. It is a pre-Indo-European relic, a survivor from a lost linguistic world.

The first words: Groundbreaking archaeological evidence

For a long time, the earliest clear written evidence of Basque was found in the Glosas Emilianenses, notes scribbled in the margins of a 10th-century Latin codex at the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, in present day wine-producing Rioja region and very close to the original Castile (land of castles) where Spanish language originated. A monk, finding the Latin text difficult, wrote clarifications in both Romance and Basque. The two short Basque phrases, “Izioqui dugu” (we have lit) and “Guec ajutu ez dugu” (we have not been helped), were cherished as the first time Euskara was put to paper.

Before that, evidence was limited to Aquitanian inscriptions from the Roman era (1st-3rd centuries AD), which contained proper names and names of deities clearly related to modern Basque (e.g., the name Nescato, meaning 'girl', is related to the modern Basque neskato).

However, the entire timeline was shattered in late 2022 by a discovery that sent shockwaves through the linguistic community.

Latest News: The Hand of Irulegi changes everything

In June 2021, archaeologists from the Aranzadi Science Society were excavating a 1st-century BCE settlement near Irulegi castle in Navarre, Spain. They unearthed a bronze artifact shaped like a right hand, intended to be hung on a door for good luck. It wasn't until January 2022 that restorers noticed faint inscriptions on its surface.

The analysis, led by linguists Javier Velaza and Joaquín Gorrochategui, was revealed to the public in November 2022. The Hand of Irulegi contains 40 characters in a variant of the Iberian script (thus proving the close relationship between both peoples), representing the earliest known text ever discovered in a language directly identifiable as a precursor to Basque (Proto-Basque).

The most significant finding was the first word, which was clearly legible: sorioneku. This is immediately recognizable even to modern Basque speakers. It is a compound of zori ('fortune' or 'luck') and on ('good'), with the suffix -ko (a grammatical case). Together, sorioneko means 'of good fortune' or 'fortunate'.

As Joaquín Gorrochategui stated in the Spanish newspaper El País, "The text confirms that the Basques in this area were using writing in their own language" over 2,100 years ago. This discovery is monumental for several reasons:

• It pushes back the written record of the Basque language by nearly a thousand years.
  
  
• It proves that the ancient Vascones were not an illiterate people before the Roman arrival, as was previously thought, but had adapted a script for their own tongue.
  
  
• It provides an undisputed link between the ancient Vasconic language and modern Euskara.

Euskara's reach: Beyond the Pyrenees and into Navarre

While the Hand of Irulegi solidifies the ancient presence of the Basque language in Navarre, academic research has long demonstrated its historical footprint well beyond its current borders, particularly to the north.

On the French side, a study published in Palaeohispanica by Michel Morvan highlights the enduring "Basque layer" in toponymy (place names) across a much wider area of southwestern France, extending into regions where Basque is no longer spoken. This includes names of mountains, rivers, and villages, suggesting a historical distribution of Vasconic speakers that gradually retreated southwards towards the Pyrenees under pressure from Romance languages. Archaeological findings in areas like Aquitaine, with their distinctive Aquitanian-Basque inscriptions from the Roman era, also serve as critical evidence, reinforcing the idea of a broader ancient Vasconic presence that gradually receded to the core mountainous regions.

Within Spain, it is believed that regions like Santander and areas further South into Castile, La Rioja and even northern Aragon spoke Basque for centuries.

The Kingdom of Navarre, for much of its history, was a trilingual realm where Basque, Occitan (a Romance language), and eventually Castilian coexisted. Euskara played a vital role in the kingdom's social fabric, with large swathes of its population being Basque speakers. Royal documents from the medieval period, though mainly in Latin or Romance, occasionally contain Basque elements or refer to Basque-speaking communities, underscoring their everyday importance. The northern parts of Navarre, in particular, remained staunchly Basque-speaking, even as the court languages shifted.

Landscape of the hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe island - Home of some well-known Game of Thrones scenes

Basque influence on early Castilian (Spanish)

The close contact between Basque and early Castilian speakers in northern Iberia led to significant linguistic exchange. While Castilian is firmly Indo-European, Euskara left its mark, particularly in phonetics:

• Loss of initial /f/: One of the most distinctive features of early Castilian, now Spanish, is the change of Latin initial /f-/ to /h-/ (which later became silent). For example, Latin farina became Spanish harina ('flour'), and Latin facere became Spanish hacer ('to do'). Many linguists attribute this sound change to the influence of a Basque substrate, as Euskara lacks the /f/ sound.
  
  
• Five-vowel system: The very simple five-vowel system of Spanish (a, e, i, o, u) is also theorized by some to have been reinforced by Basque, which shares this system, in contrast to the more complex vowel inventories of other Romance languages like Portuguese or French.
  
  
• Lexical borrowings: Although less extensive than Romance contributions, Basque has also contributed words to Spanish, such as izquierda ('left'), cencerro ('cowbell'), and potentially chatarra ('scrap metal').

A peculiar tongue: Basque in literature

The distinctiveness of Euskara was noticeable even in the broader Spanish-speaking world centuries ago. A vivid example appears in Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote. In Chapter IX, after a heated duel, Don Quixote encounters a "Vizcaíno" (a man from Biscay, a Basque province). Their exchange is famously portrayed as a linguistic challenge:

"The Biscayan answered him in his jargon, which was a mixture of his Basque and the Castilian..."

Cervantes describes the Vizcaíno's speech as "bad Castilian" and a "jargon," making a point of its strangeness to the Castilian ear. When the Vizcaíno demands "Let me go, caballero, and if not, you die, or I kill you!" it is immediately translated into proper Castilian, underscoring its exotic nature. This literary portrayal, though not a precise linguistic analysis, captures the perception of Basque as an already incomprehensible, exotic and unique language within the Iberian Peninsula.

Basque seafaring and the New World

Despite linguistic isolation, the Basque people were never truly insular. Their strong seafaring tradition made them indispensable to the burgeoning maritime powers of Castile and later Spain. From fishing cod in the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic to whaling off the coasts of Canada, Basque sailors were renowned for their skill and bravery.

This expertise naturally led them to play a significant role in the Age of Exploration and the Conquest of the Americas. Basque mariners, pilots, and shipwrights were fundamental to the expeditions that charted old and new worlds:

• Elite troops and sailors within the Castilian navy in the invasion and sacking of the South of England as part of the 100 Years' War.
  
• Juan Sebastián Elcano, a Basque from Getaria, completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth after Magellan's death. He crossed the Atlantic and was the first man to sail the Magellan Strait (the southernmost point in South America, sail across the Pacific, reach the Philippines and South East Asia, trade and sail back west across the Indian Ocean, around the whole of the African continent, whilst being chased by Portuguese ships (he could barely land for water and supplies). The only ship that made it back to Seville carried famished and starving sailors who could barely stand. But it had so many spices (a rare commodity in those days) that made each sailor a rich man for generations.
  
  
• Many of the ships that sailed to the Americas, including some of Columbus's fleet, were built in Basque shipyards, and their crews often included a substantial number of Basque sailors.
  
  

• Admiral Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta (1689–1741) was a distinguished Spanish naval officer, famed for his decisive victory over a much larger British fleet at the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1741), led by Admiral Edward Vernon, who had already started minting coins with his victory. 
  Over his career, he endured severe injuries (lost an eye, the use of an arm, and a leg, which gained him the nickname "half-man"), yet wore these wounds as symbols of honor, earning the respect of his men. He rejected concealing his disabilities, insisting that courage outweighed physical loss, and often cited Dutch admiral Cornelis Jol as proof that disability did not limit greatness at sea. His triumph at Cartagena cemented his reputation as one of Spain’s greatest military commanders and finest naval officers, remembered for his resilience, strategic brilliance, and unyielding spirit. He never lost a battle on land or at sea.

• Basque settlers and administrators also played a role in the establishment of colonial territories, particularly in areas like Chile and parts of Mexico.

Their language, though not exported in the same way as Spanish or Portuguese, was undoubtedly heard in the bustling ports of Seville and Cadiz, and on the decks of ships crossing the Atlantic, a testament to a people whose influence far outstripped their numbers.

Survival, repression, and revival

The history of the Basque language is not just ancient; it's a story of modern survival. For centuries, it was a purely oral language for most of its speakers, facing increasing pressure from the dominant administrative languages of Spanish and French. During the Franco dictatorship in Spain (1939-1975), the public use of Euskara was brutally suppressed, seen as a threat to national unity. Other regional languages like Catalan or Galician were also repressed.

However, the language refused to die. In the 1960s, a movement led by the Royal Academy of the Basque Language (Euskaltzaindia) began to standardize the language from its various dialects. This new standard, Euskara Batua (Unified Basque), allowed the language to be used effectively in education, media, and literature, fueling a powerful cultural revival.

Today, Euskara is co-official in the Basque Autonomous Community and parts of Navarre and some 900.000 people speak it. While still considered endangered by UNESCO, intensive revitalisation efforts, including immersion schools (ikastolak), have created a new generation of speakers.

A language looking to the future

The story of Euskara is a profound reminder of the depth of human history and the preciousness of linguistic diversity. Discoveries like the Hand of Irulegi prove that there is still so much to learn from our most ancient voices that shape European identity.

For us at Pangeanic, Basque represents the ultimate challenge and inspiration. It shows that even the most complex, isolated languages can thrive in the modern world with passion and dedication. It is a living link to our European past, and its survival is a victory for the shared cultural heritage of all humanity. We not only offer Basque translation services, but also Basque machine translation even with our Deep Adaptive AI Translation.