Language Differences Between Spain and Basque Country

Iberiar Penintsulan bizirik dirauen erromatarren aurreko hizkuntza bakarra da euskara. Gutxitze prozesu gogorra jasan du, etenik gabe lurraldeak eta hiztunak galduz. Nafarroa Garaian bereziki, prozesu hori nabarmena da. XIX. mendearen bukaeran eta XX. mendearen hasieran, hainbat intelektual eta politikariren eraginez (Arturo Kanpion, Sabino Arana...) nolabait biziberritu zen, abertzaletasunari estuki loturik. Frankismoan (1936-1977) jazarpen latza pairatu ondoren, XX. mendearen erdialdetik aurrera hasi da indartzen, idatzizko estandarizazioari dagokionean, batez ere.

For those of you who do not read euskara, above is a very brief explanation of the Basque language. Euskara is a pre-Roman language meaning that it has been in existence since before 218 B.C. The language went through a period where it began to lose its speakers but then came a handful of people and politicians like: Mark Kurlansky, Arturo Kanpion and Sabino Arana, that helped to preserved the language. Also, Basque nationalism plays a role in allowing the language to see so many centuries. The language has courageously stood its ground especially in respects to standardizing the written language.

Spanish is derived from Latin brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans. Here is the Spanish alphabet:

The book written by Mark Kurlansky that got him recognized in the Basque hall of fame.

Post Source:http://www.omniglot.com/writing/basque.htmhttp://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/spanish.html

This is a link to the sound file of the first paragraph of this post:

http://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/basque/smp_basque.mp3