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The Basque Language: A Practical Introduction
Since its first publication in 1994, Alan R. King’s introduction to the Basque language has become the standard textbook for classroom language students and individuals learning this unique language on their own. It offers clear explanations of grammatical structure, exercises that allow students to practice grammatical and communication skills, dialogues and narrative texts that provide a glimpse into Basque social and family life. It also provides exercises in pronunciation and tips for instructors and students to help them achieve fluency in modern Basque.
480 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1994
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September 8, 2020
King opts for the "modern", dialogue-heavy approach to language instruction, which, as I've complained before, Does Not Work for languages that have particularly complex or exotic grammars, and Basque's grammar is both, to a truly ridiculous degree.
Within the constraints of that approach, however, The Basque Language is probably as good as it could have been, with copious relevant and useful exercises (with answer key!), a good amount of texts for reading, and a separate if somewhat poorly structured grammar reference (too terse to be used to the exclusion of the main body of the book, unfortunately). King teaches the artificial standardised form of Basque, but his primary target audience is people who know people who speak Basque who want to be able to speak Basque to those people, so he does also occasionally acknowledge the significant dialectical variation, which is nice even if the focus is almost exclusively on Gipuzkoan and Biscayan. My biggest problem with the book is that the section on pronunciation is almost mendaciously unhelpful, with King suggesting that you go and listen to Basque speakers instead; presumably plumping for an unambiguous phonology would tie the book to a specific region too much?
Basque really is a tremendous language, anyway, and while The Basque Language can't really do it justice also due to size constraints, it's certainly more than acceptable as an introduction.
Within the constraints of that approach, however, The Basque Language is probably as good as it could have been, with copious relevant and useful exercises (with answer key!), a good amount of texts for reading, and a separate if somewhat poorly structured grammar reference (too terse to be used to the exclusion of the main body of the book, unfortunately). King teaches the artificial standardised form of Basque, but his primary target audience is people who know people who speak Basque who want to be able to speak Basque to those people, so he does also occasionally acknowledge the significant dialectical variation, which is nice even if the focus is almost exclusively on Gipuzkoan and Biscayan. My biggest problem with the book is that the section on pronunciation is almost mendaciously unhelpful, with King suggesting that you go and listen to Basque speakers instead; presumably plumping for an unambiguous phonology would tie the book to a specific region too much?
Basque really is a tremendous language, anyway, and while The Basque Language can't really do it justice also due to size constraints, it's certainly more than acceptable as an introduction.
Displaying 1 of 1 review