Language variation in Goizueta Basque

Abstract

This research is concerned with linguistic change in progress in Goizueta, a Basque-speaking Navarrese village. Goizueta is a transitional area between two major Basque dialects, High Navarrese and Central or Gipuzkoan. In the investigation of language variation, transitional dialects are particularly interesting. In addition, in our case, the diffusion of Standard Basque in the last few deca- des has created new sociolinguistic complexities. This topic, however, has so far received little attention in the Basque Country. We report on linguistic choices by two generations of speakers, who received schooling before and after Standard Basque was introduced in the school system. Each of our 19 participants was interviewed twice, by a speaker of Goizueta Basque and by a speaker of the Gipuzkoan dialect. Both age group and the identity of the interviewer affected linguistic choices significantly: participants used more local variants when the interviewer was also from Goizueta and older speakers used more local variants than younger speakers. Overall, the use of local variants was very high, indicating considerable loyalty to the local dialect.