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Nabarralde | About Nabarra
The
Official Language Policy in the Territories
The language policy
in Nabarra's truncated territories in France after the French Revolution
has been one of active opposition to any language other than French.
This policy has been enforced through the educational system, the media,
and legislation.
Nowdays when Basque
is slowly disappearing from Behe-Nafarroa, Lapurdi and Zuberoa, under
French jurisdiction, there is some slight official support in the form
of scarce economic aid to schools teaching Basque to children and adults.
But the official support is very little. There is the urgent need of
an official general plan of support for the recovery of Basque in Nabarra's
territories in France. Short of this is the slow death of Basque in
this area.
In residual Nabarra,
official support to the Basque language is designed to maintain
the agony of the language in this territory. The `ley del vascuence'
or `Basque law' of 1986, divides Nabarra into three separate
linguistic zones--a measure that runs counter to every socio-linguistic
policy. The area where Basque is used is broken up and divided,
thus, preventing the social use of the language and its normalization.
Araba, Bizkaia and
Gipuzkoa have a more active policy towards the Basque language, the
result of popular pressure by a larger population. An example of the
lack of support to Basque by the regional government of these three
Basque provinces is the lack of official recognition and support to
AEK (Coordinator for Basque Language Teaching and Literacy), the largest
non-governmental organization for the teaching of Basque to adults.
The setting in motion
of a policy for achieving adult literacy began in 1966 with the association
"Gau Eskolen Elkartea" which later gave rise to the popular organization
AEK. AEK has teaching centers in all the Basque territories.
This government attitude
towards AEK, disapproved by the majority of the people in Araba, Bizkaia
and Gipuzkoa, most likely is the result of AEK not being aligned with
the ruling Basque Nationalist Party, and because the adult literacy
organization's radical approach. Fortunately
to Basque, the regional government of these three Spanish Basque provinces
changed its policy towards AEK in 1994 and reached an agreement of cooperation
with the organization's leadership.
Another similar example,
and because of the same reason, was the lack of any kind of economic
support to the newspaper Egunkaria, the only daily published entirely
in Basque and distributed throughout the Basque territories. However,
until 1994, the local government did not place publicity in Egunkaria
but from Spanish newspapers.
The Udako Euskal Unibertsitaea
or Basque Summer University (UEU hereafter) is another example of the
lack of official support to the Basque language. UEU's summer programs
take place mainly in Iruñea, Nabarra, the city capital of Nabarra.
UEU was created in 1972. Thanks
to the UEU initiative, more than 180 university text books in Basque
have been published. However, UEU receives very little government support.
These three examples
(AEK, Egunkaria, UEU) reflect the lack of solidarity and responsibility
towards Basque from the the government authorities and as in the past,
support to the Basque language has come entirely from an enthusiastic
population which does everything possible to prevent the extinction
of their language.
As
Nuñez Astrain points out, "although the Ikastolas movement has
been recently hit by government economic pressure, the popular movement
that created them remains, as in the past, committed to the transmission
of Basque during extremely difficult periods."
Sources:
Jokin Apalategi, Euskadi Guduan (Ekin, 1987); Nuñez Astrain,
La Razón Vasca (Txalaparta, 1995); Marianne Heiberg,
The Making of the Basque Nation (Cambridge University Press,
1989).
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