euskalkultura.eus

Santa Barbara, California, USA.  The Basque language was featured at this year’s observance of International Mother Language Day at UC Santa Barbara just as it was at Boise State University in Idaho.  The center organized a conference that was attended by experts and linguists from various countries with Basque being prominent. 

The conference was entitled, “Protecting Identity and Diversity: Language and Cultural Rights,” and provided an opportunity to address the situation of minority languages from a legal stand point, as well as linguistic. Three Basque Country born professors participated: Xabier Irujo, professor at the University of Nevada, Reno who spoke on the history of the legalization of the language; Oscar Alvarez, professor at the University of the Basque Country who spoke on Baptism laws and Basque names; and finally Eneritz Zabaleta from the University of Pau who gave an overview of the status of the Basque language in France.

“Throughout history, it has been, and is very important, to keep the Basque language at the university level to ensure its survival and development.  The first time this happened was in South America in the 1940s and since then, it has been studied in many universities, which is the case at the University of California Santa Barbara,” Irujo said.