It is named as Western in the Basque dialects' classification drawn up by linguist Koldo Zuazo,[3] since it is not only spoken in Biscay but also extends slightly into the northern fringes of Alava and deeper in the western part of Gipuzkoa. The dialect's territory bears great similarity to that of the Caristii tribe, as described by Roman authors.
While it is treated as stylish to write in Biscayan and the dialect is still spoken generally in about half of Biscay and some other municipalities, it suffers from the pressure of Spanish.
Relief from 1603 in Plentzia old town, with an epigraph in the topolect of the time. Muxica areriocaz agica Butroe celangoa da Oroc daquie garaianago eria gordeago."
In the words of Georges Lacombe, because of the special features of this dialect, Euskera could well be divided into two groups of dialects: Biscayan and the rest. He argued that this dialect was so different from the rest, that the isoglosses separating it from the adjacent dialects (Gipuzkoan or central) are so close to each other that form a clear line; that is, the phonetic-phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical features of Biscayan coincide geographically to the point of creating a distinctively clear and defined dialectical border.
Because of these differences both with the rest of the Basque dialects and also with Standard Basque or Batua, and respecting their corresponding uses, the Euskaltzaindia has produced a Model for Written Biscayan (Basque: Bizkaieraren idatzizko ereduaren finkapenak), a set of rules mainly focused on morphosyntax. The official use of the dialects of Euskera is regulated through Regulation 137 of the Euskaltzaindia, according to which the use of Batua should be limited to the fields of communication, administration and teaching.
Since 1997 and according to the new dialectical classification realized by Koldo Zuazo, author of Euskalkiak. Herriaren lekukoak (Elkar, 2004), the name given to Biscayan is the Western Dialect, due to its use not being limited to the province of Biscay, but with users in some Gipuzkoan regions such as Debagoiena (mainly) and Debabarrena, and also some Alavan municipalities such as Aramaio (Aramayona) and Legutio (Villarreal).
According to a study by Yrizar, this dialect was spoken in the seventies by around 200,000 people,[4] with the number of estimated speakers approaching 300,000 by the eighties. In 1991 16% of the population of this province could speak Basque, and data gathered in 2001 data 22% of the total 1,122,710 Biscayans (i.e. 247,000) could speak and write in Basque. However, this data is only illustrative, as there is no record of how many of the Basque speakers spoke Biscayan specifically and it does not take into account Biscayan speakers in Gipuzkoan territory (Bergara, Leintz Gatzaga, Mondragon, Oñati, etc.)
Subdialects and variations
Current map of Biscayan dialects and subdialects.[5]
Biscayan is not a homogeneous dialect, it has two subdialects and eight main variations.[5]
The Biscayan used by Arana and his followers [eu] introduced several neologisms and purist forms.
They also used a spelling with characters such as ĺ and ŕ, straddling away of the Spanish-influenced tradition.
Only some of their innovations had been taken up by modern Biscayan and Standard Basque.
Dialectal variation around the border between the Western and Eastern subdialects. The territory includes: Busturialdea, Otxandio and Villarreal.
Dialectal variation happens the border between the Western dialect (Biscayan) and the Central dialect (Gipuzkoan). The territory includes: Elgoibar, Deba, Mendaro and Mutriku.
The borders of Biscayan match those of the pre-Roman tribe of the Caristii. Biscay was formerly included, along with Alava and the Valley of Amezcoa, within the ecclesiastical circumscription of Calahorra, which explains the wide influence of the Western Dialect in these regions.
Some features of Biscayan as perceived by other dialect speakers may be summed up as follows:
⟨j⟩ is realized as [d͡ʒ] or [j].
The verb root eutsi used for the dative auxiliary verb (nor-nori-nork), e.g. dosku/deusku vs. digu.
Auxiliary verb forms dot-dok-dozu most of the time, as opposed to general Basque dut.
Convergence of sibilants: z/s̻/, x /ʃ/ and s/s̺/ > x/ʃ/; tz/ts̻/, tx/tʃ/ and ts/ts̺/ > tz/ts̻/.
Clusters -itz generally turned into -tx, e.g. gaitza > gatxa.
The conspicuous absence of past tense 3rd person mark z- at the beginning of auxiliary verbs, e.g. eban vs. zuen.
Assimilation in vowel clusters at the end of the noun phrase, notably -ea > -ie/i and -oa > -ue/u.
VñV ending words, as opposed to the Beterri Gipuzkoan VyV or standard Basque V∅V: konstituziño vs konstituziyo, standard Basque konstituzio.
In spelling, it has no h and it has -iñ- and -ill- where standard Basque has -in- and -il-.
Vocabulary
Biscayan dialect has a very rich lexicon, with vocabulary varying from region to region, and from town to town. For example, while gura ‘to want’ and txarto ‘bad’ are two words widely used in Biscayan, some Biscayan speaker might use cognates of nahi and gaizki respectively, which are generally used in other dialects.[7] One of the current main experts in local vocabulary is Iñaki Gaminde, who in the last years has extensively researched and published on this subject.[citation needed]
abade: priest (batua (Standard Basque) and other dialects: apaiz).
^Or in the unified form of this same dialect, Bizkaiko euskerea; other used names are euskera, euzkera, euskala, euskiera, uskera, according to the General Basque Dictionary.
^Iturralde, Joxemari (2005). "Hablando en vizcaíno: ¿Estamos locos o qué?"(PDF) (in European Spanish). Pendueles: Encuentros en Verines 2005. p. 2. Retrieved 15 December 2023. Acabo de pronunciar dos palabras (vizcaíno, bilbaíno) que sulfuraban a don Miguel. Aunque durante la época de Cervantes se pronunciaban así, sin diptongo, para él, quizá por eso de llevar la contraria, la pronunciación correcta era viz-cai-no y bil-bai-no. Él prefería la pronunciación con diptongo. Decía el profesor de Salamanca: "Hay dos clases de vizcaínos y hay dos clases de bilbaínos, como hay dos modos de guisar el bacalao, a la vizcaina y a la vizcaína. Pertenece a la primera el bilbaino (léase bil-bái-no) trisílabo, con salsa verde, y alegre o por lo menos agridulce, y entra en la segunda el bilbaíno cuadrisílabo, en vías de formación, "con salsa roja, que es el bilbaíno según le forjan y aun le fantasean fuera de Bilbao, el de exportación". Hay que decir esta vez a favor de don Miguel que aunque Cervantes y todos los diccionarios escriben "vizcaíno", los vascos convertimos en diptongo el "ai", sin duda por tendencia general del euskera y decimos "vizcáino, bilbáino", etc. [I just pronounced two words (vizcaíno, bilbaíno) that enraged Don Miguel. Although during Cervantes' time, they were pronounced so, with no diphthong, for him, maybe to be a contrarian, the right pronunciation was viz-cai-no and bil-bai-no. He preferred the pronunciation with a diphthong. As the Salamanca professor said: "There are two kinds of Biscayans and there are two kinds of Bilbao locals, just as there are two ways of cooking salted cod, vizcaina-style and vizcaína-style. In the first, there is the trisyllabic bilbaino (read bil-bái-no), with green sauce, and happy or at least sweet-sour, and in the second the tetrasyllabic bilbaíno, in current development, "with red sauce, being the Bilbao local as forged and even imagined out of Bilbao, the export one". It has to be said for Don Miguel that, although Cervantes and all the dictionaries write "vizcaíno", we Basques make the "ai" into a diphthong, doubtless because of the general trend of the Basque language and say "vizcáino, bilbáino", etc.]
^"El Dialecto Bizkaino". hiru.eus (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 July 2021. En el estudio llevado a cabo por Yrizar en 1970, el bizkaino era hablado por unos 200.000 hablantes.
^"mihi". Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia (in Spanish). Euskaltzaindia. Retrieved 19 May 2022. Es más frecuente entre los vizcaínos, cuya forma es mi(i)n desde el s. XVII.
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