| Vasconic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
France, Spain |
| Linguistic classification: | Language isolate |
| Proto-language: | Proto-Basque |
| Subdivisions: |
Aquitanian (ancestral)
|
The modern Basque dialects[1]
Biscayan
Gipuzkoan
Western Upper Navarrese
Eastern Upper Navarrese
Navarro-Lapurdian
Souletin (Zuberoan)
|
|
Vasconic languages (from Late Latin vasconĭce, from which Basque is derived) is a term sometimes encountered in the literature to describe a putative family of languages that includes Basque.
This approach argues that Aquitanian may not be a direct ancestor of Basque (which would be descended from a hypothesized Proto-Basque) but a close relative, and/or that the modern varieties of Basque are themselves distinct languages rather than dialects of a single language.
However, in Basque linguistics they are always seen as dialects with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility;[2] this view is held by scholars including Koldo Zuazo, Koldo Mitxelena and Larry Trask. Trask states: "None the less the diversification should not be exaggerated, as has often been done in the literature: the dialects are overwhelmingly congruent in their fundamentals and differ chiefly in vocabulary and in a few low-level phonological rules."[3]
The only widely-accepted extinct relative in Basque linguistics is Aquitanian, which is today considered the ancestor of Basque. As Trask puts it, "Aquitanian is so closely related to Basque that we can, for practical purposes, regard it as being the more-or-less direct ancestor of Basque."[3]
Various attempts have been made to tie other languages, modern or extinct, to the Vasconic group of languages such as Iberian, the language of the Cantabri, and various others. None of these theories have been able to provide convincing data and are rejected by mainstream Basque linguists.[3] There are also claimed traces of Vasconic in Irish, which are taken as evidence that the Irish (but not the Welsh) migrated to the British Isles from the Iberian Peninsula and had been in contact with Vasconic languages there.
The concept of the Vasconic languages is often linked to the Vasconic substratum hypothesis of Theo Vennemann, who speculates that the ancestors of the Basque spread across Europe at the end of the last Ice Age when the Cro-Magnons entered Europe and left traces in the modern languages of Europe. Along with other theories that seek to relate Basque to other languages of the world, this hypothesis is widely rejected by historical linguists.[4]