"medieval times, a single language which linguists call Galician-Portuguese, Medieval Galician, or Old Portuguese, spoken in the territories initially ruled by the medieval Kingdom of Galicia. Both languages are even today united by a dialect continuum located mainly in the northern regions of Portugal. Aranese () is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in north western Catalonia on the border between Spain and France, where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish. Other languages of Spain: About 68% of Spaniards identify as belonging to"
"in schools and is more commonly heard in the cities and in the areas where it was lost. Basque is the only non-Indo-European language in all of western Europe. The origins of this language are unknown. It is thought that the language was spoken before the Romans came to the Iberian Peninsula. Galician (Galician: ""Galego"" ) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of ""historic nationality,"" located in northwestern Spain and small bordering zones in neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León. Galician and Portuguese were, in"
"1974, at the height of the guest worker in Western Europe, about 100,000 Spaniards emigrated each year. Within Spain, there are various regional populations including the Andalusians, Castilians, the Catalans, Valencians and Balearics (who speak Catalan, a distinct Romance language in eastern Spain), the Basques (who live in the Basque country and north of Navarre and speak Basque, a non-Indo-European language), and the Galicians (who speak Galician, a descendant of old Galician-Portuguese). Respect to the existing cultural pluralism is important to many Spaniards. In many regions there exist strong regional identities such as Asturias, Aragon, the Canary Islands, León, and"
"language spoken by the Basques. Linguistically, Basque is unrelated to the other languages of Europe and indeed, as a language isolate, to any other known language. The Basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, the Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. The Basque language is spoken by 27% of Basques in all territories (714,135 out of 2,648,998).[2] Of these, 93% (663,035) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 7% (51,100) are in the French portion.[2] Native speakers live in a contiguous area that"
"(Catalan of La Franja) Gascon is also (with Spanish, Navarro-Aragonese and French) one of the Romance influences in Basque language. Gascon language Gascon (, ) is a dialect of Occitan, considered by some linguists to be a separate language. It is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn in southwestern France (in parts of the following French ""départements"": Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Gers, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne, and Ariège) and in the Aran Valley of Catalonia. Aranese, a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Catalonia and has been greatly influenced recently by Catalan and Spanish. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more"
"Spain, it is co-official with Spanish (Castilian) in Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands, and it is recognized, but not official, in La Franja, and in Aragon. In addition, it is spoken by many residents of Alghero, on the island of Sardinia, and it is co-official in that city. Galician, with more than a million native speakers, is official together with Spanish in Galicia, and has legal recognition in neighbouring territories in Castilla y León. A few other languages have official recognition on a regional or otherwise limited level; for instance, Asturian and Aragonese in Spain; Mirandese in"
"a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. Lower mountains extend to the west (Cantabrian Mountains) into Galicia. The inhabitants of the Pyrenees speak Spanish, French, Catalan (in Catalonia and Andorra) and the Basque language. A few speak the Occitan language (the Gascon and Languedocien dialects in France and the Aranese dialect in the Aran Valley), and Aragonese. In the Cantabrian Mountains Basque, Asturian and the Cantabrian dialect are spoken, apart from Spanish. In fact Cantabrians have traditionally also been referred to as ""montañeses"" (highlanders or mountain people) It is thought that"
"the formation and differentiation of the contemporaneous languages of Iberia; however, most of them have become extinct or fallen into disuse. Basque is the only non-Indo-European surviving language in Iberia and Western Europe. In modern times, Spanish (cf. 30 to 40 million speakers), Portuguese (cf. around 10 million speakers), Catalan (cf. around 9 million speakers), Galician (cf. around 3 million speakers) and Basque (cf. around 1 million speakers) are the most widely spoken languages in the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish and Portuguese have expanded beyond Iberia to the rest of world, becoming global languages. Major industries include mining, tourism, small farms,"
"of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of The Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, and in the city of Alghero in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the Roussillon region of southern France, which is more or less equivalent to the ""département"" of the Pyrénées-Orientales. Basque (""Euskera"" or ""Euskara"") is a non-Indo-European language. Until the 1970s it was in recession, but since the re-establishment of democracy it has been taught"
"Aranese dialect Aranese () is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in northwestern Catalonia close to the Spanish border with France, where it is one of the three official languages beside Catalan and Spanish. In 2010, it was named the third official language of the whole of Catalonia by the Parliament of Catalonia. The official spellings of towns in Val d'Aran are Aranese; for example, the Aranese spelling ""Vielha"" is used on maps and road signs instead of the Catalan and Spanish ""Viella"". The Aran Valley is the only"
"(similar to a federal organisation) under the Spanish Constitution of 1978 is intended as a way to incorporate these communities into the state. While everyone in Spain can speak Spanish, other languages figure prominently in many areas: Basque in the Basque Country and Navarre; Catalan in Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia (where it is usually referred to as Valencian), and Galician in Galicia. Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective communities and all are major enough that there are numerous daily newspapers in these languages and, especially in Catalan, a significant"
"officially recognized, and where lack of autonomy and monolingual public schooling in French exert great pressure on the Basque language. In Navarre, Basque has been declared an endangered language, since the anti-Basque and conservative government of Navarrese People's Union opposes the symbols of Basque culture, highlighting a Spanish identity for Navarre. Basque is also spoken by immigrants in the major cities of Spain and France, in Australia, in many parts of Latin America, and in the United States, especially in Nevada, Idaho, and California. Since its articulation by Sabino Arana in the late 19th century, the more radical currents of"
"languages in Europe, and is the only one in Western Europe. The origin of the Basques and of their languages is not conclusively known, though the most accepted current theory is that early forms of Basque developed before the arrival of Indo-European languages in the area, including the Romance languages that geographically surround the Basque-speaking region. Basque has adopted a good deal of its vocabulary from the Romance languages, and Basque speakers have in turn lent their own words to Romance speakers. The Basque alphabet uses the Latin script. In Basque, the name of the language is officially ""Euskara"" (alongside"
"in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish provinces and the three ""ancient provinces"" in France. Gipuzkoa, most of Biscay, a few municipalities of Álava, and the northern area of Navarre formed the core of the remaining Basque-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen the language. By contrast, most of Álava, the western part of Biscay and central and southern areas of Navarre are predominantly populated by native speakers of Spanish, either because Basque was replaced by Spanish over the centuries, in some areas (most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it was"
"designer; Cristóbal Balenciaga, fashion designer; Xabi Alonso and Mikel Arteta, footballers; Edurne Pasaban, first woman to climb all of the fourteen eight-thousander peaks in the World; Elena Arzak, best female chef in the world (2012); Jon Kortajarena male model; Jose-Maria Cundin, artist; Fernando Savater philosopher; Miguel de Unamuno, essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher. Basque Country (autonomous community) The Basque Country (; ; ; ), officially the Basque Autonomous Community (, EAE; , CAV) is an autonomous community in northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay, and Gipuzkoa. The Basque Country or Basque Autonomous Community was granted the"
"to 20% amongst the 16–24 age group. The 2011 census showed another small increase in the percentage of Basque speakers to 11.7% (63,000 speakers) In June 2017, the Parliament approved the modification of the Basque Language Act, assigning 44 new municipalities to the transition area, where Basque language has certain recognition as a native language. Navarre Navarre (; ; ; ); officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( ; ), is an autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Nouvelle-Aquitaine in France. The capital city is Pamplona (or"
"the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC). Apart from Spanish, the other co-official languages are Basque, Catalan and Galician. In ratifying the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Sweden declared five national minority languages: Saami, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, and Yiddish. Romani and Yiddish are non-territorial minority languages in Sweden and thus their speakers were granted more limited rights than speakers of the other three. After a decade of political debate, Sweden declared Swedish the main language of Sweden with its 2009 Language Act. Language rights in the United States are usually derived from the Fourteenth Amendment, with its Equal Protection and"
"adscribed to the Galician-Portuguese group; Cantabrian and Extremaduran, two Astur-Leonese dialects also regarded as Spanish dialects; Eonavian, a dialect between Asturian and Galician, closer to the latter according to several linguists; and Benasquese, a Ribagorçan dialect that was formerly classified as Catalan, later as Aragonese, and which is now often regarded as a transitional language of its own. Asturian and Leonese are closely related to the local Mirandese which is spoken on an adjacent territory but over the border into Portugal. Mirandese is recognised and has some local official status. With the exception of Basque, which appears to be a"
"Basque dialects are Biscayan, Gipuzkoan, and Upper Navarrese in Spain, and Navarrese–Lapurdian and Souletin in France. They take their names from the historic Basque provinces, but the dialect boundaries are not congruent with province boundaries. Euskara Batua was created so that Basque language could be used—and easily understood by all Basque speakers—in formal situations (education, mass media, literature), and this is its main use today. In both Spain and France, the use of Basque for education varies from region to region and from school to school. A language isolate, Basque is believed to be one of the few surviving pre-Indo-European"
"Pyrénées Atlantiques, France. The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish Constitution of 1978) known as ""Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa"" or EAE in Basque and as ""Comunidad Autónoma Vasca"" or CAV in Spanish (in English: ""Basque Autonomous Community"" or BAC), is made up of the three Spanish provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. The corresponding Basque names of these territories are ""Araba"", ""Bizkaia"" and ""Gipuzkoa"", and their Spanish names are ""Álava"", ""Vizcaya"" and ""Guipúzcoa"". The BAC only includes three of the seven provinces of the currently called historical territories. It is sometimes referred to simply as ""the Basque Country"" (or"
"Aranese is co-official with Catalan and Spanish in Catalonia (before, this status was valid for the Aran Valley only). The majority of scholars think that Occitan constitutes a single language. Some authors reject this opinion and even the name ""Occitan"", thinking that there is a family of distinct ""lengas d'òc"" rather than dialects of a single language. Gascon, in particular, is distinct enough linguistically that it has been described as a language of its own. The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the Basque dialectal continuum (see Aquitanian language); the fact that the word 'Gascon' comes"
"of Autonomy of the bilingual communities, use the term ""own language"", or ""language proper to a community"", to refer to a language other than Spanish that originated or had historical roots in that particular territory. The Statutes of Autonomy of the respective autonomous communities have declared Basque the language proper to the Basque Country and Navarre, Catalan the language proper to Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community—where it is historically, traditionally and officially known as Valencian—and Galician to be the language proper to Galicia. There are other protected regional languages in other autonomous communities. As a percentage of"
"for years advocating for the creation of a separate Basque département, while these demands have gone unheard by the French administration. There are 2,123,000 people living in the Basque Autonomous Community (279,000 in Alava, 1,160,000 in Biscay and 684,000 in Gipuzkoa). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centers, are Bilbao (in Biscay), San Sebastián (in Gipuzkoa) and Vitoria-Gasteiz (in Álava). The official languages are Basque and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory under the Spanish constitution (article no. 3), and knowledge and usage of Basque is a right under the Statute of Autonomy"
"(article no. 6), so only knowledge of Spanish is virtually universal. Knowledge of Basque, after declining for many years during Franco's dictatorship owing to official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 33 percent of the population in the Basque Autonomous Community speaks Basque. Navarre has a population of 601,000; its administrative capital and main city, also regarded by many nationalist Basques as the Basques' historical capital, is Pamplona (""Iruñea"" in modern Basque). Only Spanish is an official language of Navarre, and the Basque language is only co-official in the"
"Catalan, and Galician surviving and developing in their respective regions with different levels of recognition since 1980. Other minorized languages (Asturian, Aragonese) have also seen some recognition in the early 21st century. Catalan, sharing with Basque a strong link between language and identity, enjoys a fairly sound status. Basque competence levels have picked up during the last decades, but everyday use does not go up accordingly. Asturian has been classified by the Endangered Languages Project as being at risk, and Aragonese as an endangered language. Taiwanese aborigines used only Austronesian languages before other ethnic groups conquered Taiwan. After widespread migration"
"Galicia (Spain) Galicia (; Galician: ""Galicia"" , ""Galiza"" ; ; ) is an autonomous community of Spain and historic nationality under Spanish law. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it comprises the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra, being bordered by Portugal (Braga District, Bragança District, Viana do Castelo District and Vila Real District) to the south, the Spanish autonomous communities of Castile and León and Asturias to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Cantabrian Sea to the north. It had a population of 2,718,525 in 2016 and has a total area"
"marriage to Irumberry y de Salaberry. Some cognate forms resulting from dialectal distribution and adaptation to other languages are: Original location: Spain, Navarre, Bilboa, Spanish Navarre in the Valle De Mija, in the parish of Beguioir (Navarre). Basque (Euskara) Basque is a language with no known linguistic relatives spoken by about 660,000 people mainly in the Basque country (Euskal Herria) in the north of Spain and the south west of France. An ancestral form of Basque known as Aquitanian appears in Roman inscriptions in Aquitaine, in the southwest of France. Basque (/bæsk/ or /bɑːsk/; Basque: Euskara, IPA: [eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is the"
"includes parts of four Spanish territories and the three ""ancient provinces"" in France. Gipuzkoa, most of Biscay, a few municipalities of Álava, and the northern area of Navarre formed the core of the remaining Basque-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen the language. By contrast, most of Álava, the western part of Biscay and central and southern areas of Navarre are predominantly populated by native speakers of Spanish, either because Basque was replaced by Spanish over the centuries, in some areas (most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it was possibly never spoken there, in"
"Gascon language Gascon (, ) is a dialect of Occitan, considered by some linguists to be a separate language. It is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn in southwestern France (in parts of the following French ""départements"": Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Gers, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne, and Ariège) and in the Aran Valley of Catalonia. Aranese, a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Catalonia and has been greatly influenced recently by Catalan and Spanish. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more and more from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Since the 2006 adoption of the new statute of Catalonia,"
"official recognition of Spain's other written languages – Catalan, Basque, and Galician – legally allowed the autonomous communities to re-establish their vernacular social identity, including the legal use of personal names in the local languages and written traditions – banned since 1938 – sometimes via the re-spelling of names from Castilian Spanish to their original languages. The Basque-speaking territories (the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre) usually follow Spanish naming customs (given names + two family names, the two family names being usually the father's and the mother's). The given names are officially in one language (Basque or Spanish) but often"
"French, or Latin were preferred for the administration and high education. By the 16th century, the Basque-speaking area was reduced basically to the present-day seven provinces of the Basque Country, excluding the southern part of Navarre, the southwestern part of Álava, and the western part of Biscay, and including some parts of Béarn. In 1807, Basque was still spoken in the northern half of Álava—including its capital city Vitoria-Gasteiz—and a vast area in central Navarre, but in these two provinces, Basque experienced a rapid decline that pushed its border northwards. In the French Basque Country, Basque was still spoken in"
"total population in Spain, Basque is spoken by 2%, Catalan/Valencian by 17%, and Galician by 7% of all Spaniards. A 2016 Basque Government census revealed 700,000 fluent speakers in Spain (51,000 in Basque counties in France) and 1,185.000 total when passive speakers are included. The Spanish constitution recognizes the municipalities and guarantees their autonomy. Municipal, or city, councils are in charge of the municipalities' government and administration, and they are integrated by a mayor and councillors, the latter elected by universal suffrage, and the former elected either by the councillor or by suffrage. Provinces are groups of municipalities and recognized"
"extremity of geographical Europe. The Basque language of the western Pyrenees is an isolate unrelated to any other group, while Maltese is the only Semitic language in Europe with national language status. The European Union (EU), which currently excludes many European countries (i.e. Norway, Russia and Switzerland), recognises 23 official languages as of 2007. According to the same source, the eight most natively spoken languages in the EU are (percentage of total EU population): These figures change when foreign language skills are taken into account. The list below shows the top eight European languages ordered by total number of speakers"