The Basque Dialects

Level 5

The same sentence can sound different across the Basque Country: Ikusi dut (standard), ikusi dot (Western), ikusi düt (Souletin). All three mean "I have seen it."

How It Works

1. The five groups. This is the classification of the dialectologist Koldo Zuazo:

  • Western (mendebalekoa, often called Bizkaian): Bizkaia, the Deba valley in western Gipuzkoa, and northern Araba
  • Central (erdialdekoa, often called Gipuzkoan): most of Gipuzkoa
  • Navarrese (nafarra): northern and central Navarre
  • Navarro-Lapurdian (nafar-lapurtarra): Lapurdi and Lower Navarre, in the North
  • Souletin (zuberera): Zuberoa, the easternmost province

Older maps, such as Louis-Lucien Bonaparte's from 1863, drew more dialects, so you will also see names such as lapurtera and behe-nafarrera.

2. Sounds. Northern dialects pronounce h; southern ones mostly do not. Souletin has an extra vowel, ü: düt for dut. The letter j is pronounced in several ways, from an English y sound to a sound like Spanish j.

3. Auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary is where dialects differ most:

  • "I am": standard naiz, Western naz, Souletin niz
  • "I have": standard dut, Western dot, older Gipuzkoan det, Souletin düt
  • "they have": standard dute, Western dabe, Souletin düe

See Western forms, older Gipuzkoan forms and Souletin features.

4. Words. Some everyday words change too: "to speak" is hitz egin in most places but berba egin in the West; "a lot" is asko in the South and anitz in the North; "to want" is nahi in the standard and gura in the West. See Northern vocabulary.

5. Dialects and the standard. Dialect forms are not mistakes. They are the natural speech of many native speakers. Euskara Batua gives everyone one shared form for writing and for talking across regions. Learn batua first, and learn to recognise the rest.

Examples (5)

  1. Nire amona Zuberoakoa da, eta zubereraz hitz egiten du.

    My grandmother is from Zuberoa, and she speaks Souletin.

  2. Bizkaian «dot» esaten dute, eta batuan «dut».

    In Bizkaia they say dot, and in the standard, dut.

  3. Iparraldean h letra ahoskatzen dute.

    In the North they pronounce the letter h.

  4. Lekeition «berba egin» esaten da; Donostian, «hitz egin».

    In Lekeitio people say berba egin; in Donostia, hitz egin.

    Both mean "to speak". Lekeitio is in the Western dialect area.

  5. Euskalki bakoitzak bere hitzak eta doinua ditu.

    Each dialect has its own words and its own melody.

How It Connects

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The Basque DialectsLevel 5

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Dialects follow Batua.

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Patterns that build on this one.