Basque - A Language of Mystery 

Hi, I'm a native Basque speaker and I must admit I'm really impressed. Everything you've said is accurate af. Congratulations, this is an amazing video and it is clear that you have made a great deal of research. I hope you continue making such good videos.

Some interesting facts about basque (I'm basque): "Water" is said "ur" in modern basque, but in the ancient basque it was said "iz". Modern basque words including "iz" are: "izerdi", in english "sweat" (literally "half water"); "izotz", in english "ice" (literally "cold water"); "izurde", in english "dolphin" (literally "water pig"). Basques had its own 'pagan' religion (with its mythology). But betwen 10th and 17th century the Church supressed basque religion. Its said that the basque lenguage was alredy spoken when men were living in caves. Its easy to imagine the people back then saying: ur/iz (water), su (fire), zur (wood), aiz (rock), lur (ground), ke (smoke), jo (hit), jan (eat), lan (work), lor (achieve)... Actually "axe" is said "aizkora", which includes the word "aiz" (rock) on it. So its posible that when basque was ""created"" the axes were still made out of rocks.

I have mad respect for the Basque speakers, not only did they survive for 12,000 years of constant speaking. But they survived the Indo European expansion, The Celtic Expansion, the Roman Expansion, The Spanish speaking World, the Arab expansion, and now the English speaking world, if I’m not wrong I think the Germanic tribe invasion after the fall of Rome. And possible many more invasive things. Your people probably went through hell to keep this amazing language alive and active. Mad respect

It’s been over 7 years since this video was uploaded, and I’m very proud of how far this channel has come in reach, and stayed very authentic and consistent. You’re a legend, Paul.

"Emakume", in english "woman", is made up of two words : "eman" (in english "give") + "(k)ume" (in english "child). Almost all the words in basque are compound words by base-words (which are usually monosyllabic). The meaning of the compound word is the relationship between the meanings of the base words.

I found this video today, 3 years after it was published, celebrating 50,000 subs. The channel is now at 700,000. Dude, nice job. :-)

I'm a native Basque speaker as well, I also speak Spanish and English like most of the Basque speakers in this comment section. I really like how basque and non-basque people are interacting and asking questions in this comment section, it's nice to be able to talk about this with people around the world :) Cheers, y'all!

I'm Japanese, and had a sense of affinity for Basque language. The Basque grammar is like SOV, just like Japanese.

Now we get to Basque in the glory of this language.

I am basque, I speak basque thanks to school. A lot of students complain about the fact that it's almost compulsory to study every subject in that language. I think it's great, even if sometimes people whose mother tongue is spanish hace difficulties to express fully with the teachers or in essays and exams. The only way to protect it is by making it a big part of our culture, it's fragile, it's beautiful and very special. Euskara babestu!

I am Basque and I have to admit that I love to see people from other countries that are not spain speak about our language so that more people know it

Long-timer Langfocus fan here. I was just revisiting this video. I had totally forgot that it opened with you rejoicing and reflecting on hitting 50,000 subscribers. It's January 2023 right now and you're up to 1.4 million - incredible! You must have put in so much time and hard work to get here, Paul. I for one (as well as at least 1.4 million others) appreciate and enjoy your videos. Grazie mille, danke schön, terih makasih, merci, harigato and thank you!!!

There is a pretty large Basque community in the US (Boise, Idaho specifically) that have basque language preschools and festivals ( and some really good restaurants too).

I'm Basque and very proud because of your video, you did a very good job describing this beautiful lenguage! _Eskerrik asko, adiskide!_

As Spaniard from a region without any other language than Castillian, I think it would be really cool if every school teaches as a third language one of the other co-oficial languages of the country. I think that would be very enriching. And basque, of course, is so cool and weird and unique! A pity they didn't teach me that!

The suppression of a language should be considered a crime against Humanity.

Dude, I am basque, so proud of it, and I do speak basque, it is compulsory to learn it in school, and we always try not to loose our language. Thanks for showin it to the world

Hello! I'm a basque native speaker, I have spoken Basque and Spanish since I was little. I came across your video and I loved it 😄 It's great that a person who lives far from here can explain the language in such a good way. Basque is really difficult to learn, it requires patience and effort; however, I encourage people to do it, because it is beautiful!

I’ve been watching your videos for a few years and I’m very very impressed with your knowledge of so many languages. I was born in California from Mexican parents. My great grandfather moved to Sinaloa Mexico from the Basque country. I was lucky enough to visit the Spain and drive north all the way to San Sebastián. It is a beautiful area of Spain and I can see people that reminds me of my family.. thank you for all your fantastic work…!

We, Basque people, will never give up, if our language dies, our land dies

Good video. Very well explained. I'm Basque and native Basque speaker and I can say that all explanations were perfect. Anyways, the efforts on reviving Basque is not being done by this post-Francoist government we have, but by the Basque government. Thanks a lot! Eskerrik asko!

I need this language to be available in Duolingo.

Thank you for bringing light to Euskera. We need more people like you that are lovers of language in this world. I am a Basque American, have only learned about half of the language, but have immersed myself deeply in our culture and history. Many many thanks. Eskerrik asko

Congratulations!! I am thirth generation, My second last name is Ureta from Bilbao! I love this Language, thank you for teaching this! All my support from 🇨🇱. And obviosly I will follow you

Im from Andalucia(south Spain) and for me, the Basque language and folklore is the native culture of all the peninsule before the celtic and roman invasion, im proud of have this people in my country and the rest of the country should learn about them

The best comment section I've ever seen with so many fascinating contributions. Thank you people - Basque culture is amazing

I know it sounds very awkward to many people. However, the order of words is so amazingly similar to Korean which is known to be another isolated language. Both languages have S+O+V structure. The perfect aspect and the ending with "da" (is) and its variables like dio and du are so similar too. Take one sentence for example from your clip, "The Child fell in the street." could be translated to "Ai-ka Kil-wuie Numeo-jud-da." 아이가 길위에 넘어졌다. Ai(child)+ka(case for subject) Kil(street)+wuie(on, or upon for original meaning but like "in" for your term) Numeo (fall or fell)+jud(perfect aspect)+da(is). "The man has given the book to the child." could be translated into Korean, 아저씨가 아이에게 책을 주었다. Ajeosi-ka Ai-eoke Chaek-ul Ju-eod-da. It is Ajeosi(the man)+ka (case for subject) Ai (child)+eoke(to), Chaek(book)+ul(case for object) Ju(give)-eod(perfect aspect)+da(is). Anyway, it is very interesting.

Interesting comparisons could be made with the structure of languages such as Korean and Japanese. Definitely worth a study.

There should have been an honorable mention to Boise, Idaho. The place with one of the largest Basque communities outside of Basque country. I see a Basque flag everyday on my way to and from work.

as basque, i'm grateful to you. Thank you for uploading this video

Watching this again after passing one million subscribers puts a smile on my face. Love your videos.

I'm watching this in the beginning of 2022 and I've always loved your channel! Learning about other languages always fascinated me and you're really one of the best language channels out there. Also you were happy to be celebrating 50,000 subscribers and now you've got 1.29 million!!!

I was in Spain(Galicia) to much times and I visited 'Pais Basco' several times (San Sebastian) and I have to say they are pretty, honestly and proud people..Greeting from Croatia! ;)

One of Spain's problems starting in the nineteenth century and continuing was that the Basque country and its centers like Bilbao and San Sebastian were economic and industrial powerhouses along with Catalonia with Barcelona. Madrid and Castille may have held the center and political power, but the two outlier regions had the money and the industry.

I'm not a Basque. I'm albanian. Respect for this ancient and unique language. Respect all the unique peoples who have been able to preserve their language and culture during this mess of history.

" They were left alone for thousand of years" what a blessing

Howdy. You may be interested to know that there's a large and very proud Basque community here in Idaho. In Boise, there's a "Basque Quarter" that includes festivals, a museum, and a community center. Pretty interesting!

The sentence structure is so unique. I like to think of it as a play. In Basque, you first place the individuals/locations involved in the sentence, and then the verbs in order of activity.

I clicked on this video after watching a basque movie on Netflix. After hearing about the ban of the language, it makes me really happy that a movie completely in this interesting language exists and that I watched it with the original basque audio and english subtitles

Spanish (Castilian to be precise) phonology is based on Basque. I've heard the phrase: "Castilian is what came out of a Basque trying to speak Latin".

Unique languages like this are so amazing and fascinating to me.

Your videos are so in-depth and informative. Thank you!

As a basque and native basque speaker I am I just wanted to thank you for showing one of most valuable treasures that our culture has and for explaining it so well. Eskerrik asko! 🤜🤛

My old Spanish teacher is a native Basque speaker.

Basqologist Vahan Sarkisian was a Academician, Linguist, Translator, Poet, Member of the International Association of Hispanics, Director of the Basque-Armenian international journal Araxes, Author of Basque-Armenian dictionary, His book on Internal Reconstruction of the Basque language was published by German authorities, Proficient in more than 5 languages, published more than 66 books and articles and almost all his books were published by Basque and Spanish governments and institutions.... published numerous books and studies between Armenian-Basque connection including a first ever Armenian-Basque dictionary in 2001 (identified almost 600-shared parallel words between the two languages. In the end you find a extract of it with 26 words as a example (at the end of this text). Basque linguist Edward Spencer Dodgson says the same and by studies from German philologist Joseph Karst in 1928 who discovered more than 300 Basque-Armenian lexical, grammatical and phonetic matches in both languages. Legend of the Basque people of a folklore in Rapcal valley, in Province of Navarra tells us that the leader of Basque was called „Haytor“ arrived from Armenia with seven sons found seven settlings in Navarra.... ancient manuscript found in that village gives evidence of its historic chronic and confirmed the spoken legend. In Basque language the name of their ancestor Haytor means „Received from Haya“ which exactly corresponds to Armenian „Hay tor“ meaning „a Grandson of Armenian“. The well-known German scientist Joseph Karst mentioned that too. Armenians ancestor Hayk had a grandson named Pask (in other Armenian dialects Bask). In Basque language an expression „haytoren seme“ exists which means „the son of Haytor“. I can recommend this presentation of Armenian-Basque connection for more Informations on youtube: "Armenian Origins of Basque: a presentation by Vahan Setyan" here the link to the video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fKXnz9YMa9A.html Quote: „If they asked the Basque people where they are from, they would answer - Armenac, which is the same as saying - from Armenia, from where the Basque orginated“ -Echave the Elder (17th Century) Quote „City of Armenac`s ancient inhabitants near Spain are our people and in our Basque language Armenac means Armenians“ -Baltasar de Echave Orio (17th Century) Quote: „House of Angegh (Angh/ Vulture) originates from a grandson of Hayk named Basqam“ Movses Khorenatsi (5th Century) -Ashtarak (town in Armenia) -Astarak (settlement in south of France) -Goris (city in Armenia) -Goris (settlement in Baskonia) -Deba (river in Armenia) -Deba (name of river in Baskonia)
-Shubria (Ancient name to provinces Sasun/Armenia) -Shuberoa (name to basque province in France) -Araks (famous river in Armenia) - Arakses (famous river in Baskonia) -Aran (name of terrain in Armenia) -Aran (widespread toponym in Baskonia) -Karkar (name of terrain in Armenia) -Karkar (famous toponym in Baskonia) In Basque In Armenian char (bad, evil) char (bad, evil) anti (from there) anti (from there) zati (separate) zat (separate) tegi (place) tegi (place) jelki (exit) jelk (exist) ete (if) ete (if) jaraunci (inherit) jarangel (inherit) muruncha (growl) merenchoc (growl) murtci (first) murts (first) orma (wall) orm (wall) tuil (weak) tuil (weak) lajno (size, width) lajn (wide)
 erorden (third) 
irurden (third) hastadun (weighty) hastatun (firm) urti (water-bearing) urti (water-bearing) hastatu (to prove) hastatel (to prove) gari (millet) gari (barley) harich (oak) harich (oak) hasi (to grow) hasnel (to grow) enchauz (nut) enkoiz (nut) herqa (furrow) herqel (to furrow) orots (calf) oroch (lamb) ardi (sheep) ardi (sheep) ajnts (goat) ajts (goat) hato (herd, flock) hot (herd, flock) matoin (sour milk) matsun (sour milk)

This subject deserves a deeper review. Thanks !

I don't know why it took RU-vid 4 years to recommend this. I'm fascinated about the movement of peoples across Europe and the world. Thanks for this great video!

I'm basque and proud of it

I'm basque, and all I have to say is thank you! this video is masterpiece.

Hi from old Iberia (Georgia). The video was quiote interesting for me as a Georgian. Our languages don't look like each other, which i'm not surprised. If this theory about our common roots is true, we seppareted thousands of years ago, which caused much differencies between us. The thing that confuses me is your poliphonic songs and voicies, which reminds me the Georgian ones a lot. Our voice is our heritage which we are proud of. And when I hear your songs somewhy it feels me as proud as hearing Georgian ones. I don't personally know Basque people but You guys have my respect ❤

France has a long way to go before embracing regional languages and dialects again, hopefully it will before it is too late. I always think about how patois Norman died a little more each generation in my own family. Grandparents could speak it but didn’t. My dad could understand it in his youth (but probably can’t anymore) because his grandparents spoke it, and definitely couldn’t speak it. I can neither speak it nor understand it.

I'm so happy for this guy. When he says at the start of the video that he reached 50K subs, I was like "dude, you've come far"

I' m not basque but I really appreciate their culture and way of life!

Each language is a window. If you lose that language you lose that view of the world.

I've found this 6 years later, and thank you so much for researching our language so well :)) a lot of new research has actually come to light ^^

As a basque I have to thank you.The spread of information of the basque language (as well as culture...) helps us to get more speakers and improve the situation of the language. Nowadays the percentage of speakers has gone up, i think 48% of basques are capable of speaking basque (as well as another language such as spanish or french).But we have to work harder. Eskerrik asko eta ondo izan :) "Thanks and have a nice day" PD:Zorionak 50000 baino harpidetzaile gehiago lortzeagatik!! "Congratulations for getting more than 50000 subscribers"

Sir, now you have more subscibers than there are native speakers of Basquie :)

Wow I’ve been studying ancient history of many the world over and this caught my eye, so glad I clicked on it. Very fascinating stuff thanks for sharing

when am off from work i sit and go to youtube to see your posts. i love your english dialect/slang, you say many things i didn't know about my language....amharic from ethiopia, ,,,,,love you more

im basque and im proud of it!

You should definitely do a video on the Finnish language, and the Uralic Language family as a whole. I've been waiting for that video for quite a while actually. x(

really loved the video! was impressed how different their language is when i visited the country

Amazing video, congrats. I'm not a fan of linguistics but I was so interested in everything you said and it was perfectly explained as well

Why France doesn't recognize the minoritarian languages spoken in it while its bordering countries do? France does not recognize occitan and basque while Italy and Spain do, why?

I al from the basque country and here we call it EUSKERA

I was designing a lesson to teach my elementary students how que is one of the five ways to pronounce /k/. They have already studied c, k, and ck. I am about to start ch and que as forms of the sound that do not happen as often as the first three. Using Basque as one of the example words, I knew I would be asked what the word means. I went into a rabbit hole of research and landed here. I can't wait to show this video to my students. This is about to become a social studies focus also. They will love it! Thank you!

I am so impressed by Paul's professional knowledge of many languages. What an educational journey for me!

Hi, I'm Basque and I thank you for making our language known, Euskera, good video and very well explained Greetings from Bilbao

Thanks for giving visibility to our language! Eskerrik asko Langfocus!!!

I love it when I come across videos celebrating achievements like reaching 50,000 subscribers. And, at this time, I see that Paul has 1.32 MILLION subscribers. :) Great content deserves recognition.

I moved a lot during my life and at one time I spent a year teaching English in Euskadia but I learned almost no euskera. One word I did learn from one of my 5-year-old students was *agur* which means "goodbye" but I will never forget him nor all my students who were so welcoming and I wish I did not have to learn agur.

Hello! I'm from the Basque Country and I speak Euskera. It was pretty intereting to look how other people talk about your own language, and all the information given was correct. And now, I'll write down some useful sentences that you can use: -Kaixo, zer moduz? ~Hello, how are you? -Ondo nago, eta zu? ~I'm fine, and you? -Zer ordu da? ~What time is it? -Non dago __ kalea? ~Where is the __ street? -Eskerrik asko! ~Thank you! I'll continue if you want!

Apparently I'm descended from Basque conquistadors in the Caribbean, so I'm very happy to be learning about this very resilient people! Love to the Euskara, my newly found cousins!

with great respect from Georgia to the Basques. 🍷🇬🇪

Wow, fascinating! Also, congratulations on your channel. You were celebrating 50k and now you have over a million! Well, now you have one more :)

Very similar language arrangement to korean or japaneses. Umea Karlean erori da 애.가 길.에 넘어졌. 다. child.the street.at fall is Gisonak Umeari iburua eman dio 남자.가 애.에게 책.을 주었. 다. man.the. child.to book.the give has Emakumeak gisona ikusi du 여자.가 남자.를 보았다 woman.the man.the seen has As a korean, I know that most of korean can learn speak japanese almost fluently in 1 or 2 years of study due to many similar words, and sentence structures. Korean alphabets actually supercedes that of Japanese, and bit more difficult for japanese to master korean. Korean or Japaneses can probably learn basque with ease as it seems it just requires simple replacement with basques word in sentence. Maybe Basque originated from Central Eurasia as far eastern asians had. Best of luck with Basque people and keep on rocking with Basque heritage.

Basque, the treasure of ancient Europe

I watching it 8 years later and you have almost 1.5 million subscribers😊

I watched with a great interest. I remember, that years ago there were long disputes and discussions about relation between Basque and Georgian languages and one of the reasons was existence of ergative case. In Georgian, we also have ergative.

Native language to Yoda.

Well, Basque is a lot older than the English, Spanish, Latin, Basque is the ibero, not if Basque know, if you do not know you should learn it, because it is a very healthy language, I am Basque, and live in a village in the Basque country

Saw this video after 5 yrs of being published, but I am glad I did!! Good to know about this unique language!

Eneba, ez nekien horrelako bideo bat aurkitzea hemen egia izan. I'm glad there is a video like that from a English speaker. More than two million people saw it, it's amazing. Thank you very much for making this type of video👍🏻

I'm basque and I can say that this vidéo is very well-done because I learnt some things 👍👏

some more interesting observations: Earlier today I watched a youtube video on the origins of the very first settlers in the Island of Ireland, bronze age DNA found in a Cave in Ireland links the first settlers there to the Basque DNA. Facial features of modern day people in Ireland are very similar to Basque faces. One other interesting observation is Basque traditions, one style of dancing strongly resembles traditional Irish dances. One interesting observation links one Basque dance and dress to English Morris dancing, which may have come from the county of Cornwall, Morris dancing origins are unknown but Cornwall was a Celtic region of England, but England has many Celtic regions currently. Just thought you may be interested in looking into it!

"50 thousand subscribers seemed like the pinnacle" - that statement has aged exceedingly well 😂. You earned every single subscriber because your videos are top notch!

Paul, I very do appreciate your efforts to promote less known languages and thus helping them to survive!

You know, Duolingo has started a language revival program, the already have Hawaiian and Navajo, why not add Basque? I know saying it here probably won't do anything, but anyone who uses Duolingo and sees this comment should suggest the idea to the Duolingo team

The part about Franco made me so angry. It's like ISIS destroying the centuries-old Syrian and world heritage in museums in Syria. Crime against civilisation. Languages are no different to material heritage here. And the mentions in the comments about nationalistic strategies to suppress minority languages in other countries... man, this takes me into a very anti-nationalistic mood. My country is also quite guilty of that.

And now well over a million subscribers. This is a great channel I really enjoyed this video. The Basque language is fascinating.

Good afternoon!! Im a basque person and im impressed of how well you explaines everything, good job!

I hate extinction of languages as I do hate extinction of kind.

The French contempt for their non-French languages within their territory continues to disgust everyone.

Love watching this knowing you've got over a million now. You deserve all your success.

Very interesting vídeo. A friend of mine was studying Euskera. I always found it tremendously difficult. And interesting

I guess he felt like he had to basque in his 50,000 subscriber glory.

You have reminded me how proud I feel to be one of the few in the world who speaks Basque or what we call it here "euskera"

It sure looks like your efforts were well rewarded. 1.14 million subs. Good work, excellent. You should know too that I was never interested in languages until I stumbled across your channel. Fascinating.

50K subs back in the days. You're awesome man!

It is so cool to see basque being analyzed so deeply and accurately from the prespective of an English speaker.