Euskara has few loans of other languages like Arabic, Germanic or Celtic. The Basque language was hypothetically in contact with Celtic since the 8th century B.C. until the 2nd-5th centuries A.D.. The cities of Lezama, Ultzama, Deba ... are in turn Celtic tononyms. The table below shows some examples of terms in those languages which Euskara has preserved to the present:

However, the language that most influence exerted over Euskara arrived in the Basque Country lands two thousand years ago, specifically in 196 B.C.: we refer to Latin. It did not influence only the vocabulary of the Basque language, but also its grammar and morphology. Some Basque suffixes and prefixes have a Latin origin since they come from Latin declensions, suffixes and prepositions.

It is thought that Latin also influenced the verbal aspect to a great extent through the development of a new way of verbal conjugation known as verbal periphrasis (verbal root + temporary morpheme + auxiliary verb), which gradually replaced the custom of building the verbs synthetically (that is to say, to introduce in a single verb all the components involved in the action).

Currently there are few verbs that are synthetically conjugated (only the forms of conjugation in present and past tenses have been preserved) and most of the verbs are conjugated periphrastically. Some Proto-Euskara researchers indicate that the verbs were already built according to this way before the Romans arrival and that this costume became widespread as Euskara went on evolving.

The influence of Latin over Euskara is perceived even in something as basic to the Basque verbal conjugation as the perfective morpheme / -tu /, which comes from the Latin participle / -tum /. Let us have a look at the following example:

* 'I have taken it' is said in Euskara 'Hartu dut', where / har / = root of the verb 'take' + / tu /= temporary morpheme of finished action + /dut /= auxiliary verb.

The table below shows and example of conjugation of the same verb 'eraman' (to carry) in both ways, synthetically ('daramat', Pre-Roman form) and periphrastically ('eramaten dut', the form used after the beginning of Romanisation). Both verbs coexist in current Euskara and they mean exactly the same.

ERAMAN to carry	SYNTHETIC VERB	( NOR? ) what do I carry? I carry it now: DARAMA-			DARAMAT I carry it
		( NORK? ) who carries it? I carry it: +T
	PERIPHRASTIC VERB	VERB # 1		VERB #2 AUXILIARY VERB	ERAMATEN DUT I carry (it)
		ERAMA- root of the verb 'Eraman'	+TEN temporary morpheme of unfinished action	( NOR?=what? ) What do I carry? I carry it now: DU--
				(NORK?=who?) Who carries (it)? I carry (it) +T

The Basque dialect that most Latin influence received is Biscayan (western dialect). This was due to its location which adjoined the Autrigones to west, who along with the Aquitanians, were the tribes that became Romanised more quickly. The Romanisation of the Aquitaines would give rise to the Gascon people, while the Autrigones would lead to the Castilian people.

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