Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Linguistic Identity Among New Speakers Of Basque, Ane Ortega, Jacqueline Urla, Estibalitz Amorrortu

Jacqueline L. Urla

The increase in Basque speakers in the last 30 years has been due in large part to ‘new speakers’ or euskaldunberri, a term that will be used here to refer to those who have learned the language by means other than family transmission. While very significant in numbers, to date this group has not been the object of much study. Little is known about their attitudes and motivations, how they perceive themselves as Basque speakers, or their language use and transmission patterns. Acquiring answers to these questions is of strategic importance for developing an effective evidence-based language policy for the …