Gipuzkoan dialect
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Gipuzkoan ( eu, Gipuzkera; es, Guipuzcoano) is a
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
of the Basque language spoken mainly in the central and eastern parts of the province of
Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...
in Basque Country and also in the northernmost part of Navarre. It is a central dialect of Basque according to the traditional dialectal classification of the language based on research carried out by
Lucien Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 ...
in the 19th century. He included varieties spoken in the Sakana and Burunda valleys also in the Gipuzkoan dialect, however this approach has been disputed by modern Basque linguists.


Area

Gipuzkoan is spoken not in all of Gipuzkoa but in the area between the
Deba River The Deba River ( eu, Deba ibaia; es, río Deva) is a river in the Basque Country, Spain. It rises in Arlaban, into Araba province lands, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean, in the Bay of Biscay, in Deba Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzc ...
and the River Oiartzun. The strip of
Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...
from Leintz-Gatzaga to Elgoibar is part of the Biscayan (Western) dialect area, and the River Oiartzun flowing past
Errenteria Errenteria ( eu, Errenteria/Orereta, es, Rentería) is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, in the north of Spain, near the French border. The river Oiartzun (rive ...
outlines the border with the Upper Navarrese dialect. However, borders between Gipuzkoan and High Navarrese are gradually disappearing, as Standard Basque is beginning to blur the differences among traditional dialects, especially for younger Basques.


Features

Some of the features of Gipuzkoan, as perceived by speakers of other dialect, are the following: * The
grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called '' graphemi ...
, which is highly variable among Basque dialects, is generally (e.g. vs , ). * The verb for 'to go' is pronounced (), as opposed to the general (). * The auxiliary verb forms are , , etc., as opposed to general Basque ( Biscayan: ). * Verb infinitives end with , (, , etc.), frequent in central dialects, as opposed to the older (, etc.). * The root ending of nouns is often interpreted as an article and dropped in indefinite phrases: vs (). * The postalveolar affricate (spelled ) replaces the lamino-dental fricative (spelled ) at the beginning of words. For example: vs , vs .


Variants

Gipuzkoan had four main variants: * The Beterri variant (from the area surrounding Tolosa, towards San Sebastián). * The Goierri variant. * The Urola variant (from Zarautz to
Mutriku Mutriku ( es, Motrico) is a coastal town located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country in northern Spain. It has a population of around 5000 and provides access to the Bay of Biscay. It is the site of the worl ...
). * Navarrese Gipuzkoan ( Burunda, Echarri-Aranaz).


Historical role

Gipuzkoan is one of the four dialects known as the ''literary dialects'' of Basque ( Biscayan,
Lapurdian Navarro-Labourdin or Navarro-Lapurdian ( eu, nafar-lapurtera) is a Basque dialect spoken in the Lower Navarre and Labourd (Lapurdi) former provinces of the French Basque Country (in the Pyrénées Atlantiques ''département''). It consists of ...
, Souletin and Gipuzkoan). It was used in Basque literature from the 17th century onward, but like Souletin and Biscayan, it had only a minor role because of the Lapurdian dialect's dominance. That was because the centre of Basque literary production was in Labourd from the 16th century to most of the 18th century.


Source of Standard Basque

Gipuzkoan
vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
was used as the main source for Standard Basque, the standardised dialect of Basque that is used in schools and the media.


See also

*
Basque dialects Basque dialects are linguistic varieties of the Basque language which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar from each other and from Standard Basque. Between six and nine Basque dialects have been historically distinguished: * Biscay ...
* Batua (Standard Basque) * Euskaltzaindia, the Royal Academy of the Basque Language


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gipuzkoan Dialect Basque dialects Gipuzkoa