At the end of the 19th century, and above all since the 1950s, thousands of emigrants of Castilian speech arrived massively from different areas of Spain to look for a job in the Basque industry, what made the sociolinguistic situation change. Castilian was not only the specific language of the upper and middle classes, of trained and cultured people, but also of humble people that came to the Basque Country to seek for livelihood. This new situation made Castilian loss influence gradually in the Basque society and Euskara, which once was ostracised, began to recover its prestige.

The Basque nationalism played a role of central importance in the resurgence of Euskara. This political ideology arose at the end of the 19th century as an answer to the abolition of the Basque foral system that was decreed by the Spanish government from that time. Euskara was one of the pillars of the Basque identity and therefore, it should be recovered and promoted.

 

(a) Euskadi or Western Basque Country: the political entity that includes the historic territories of Álava, Guipúzcoa and Biscay.

(b) Iparralde or Northern Basque Country: which includes the territories of Lower Navarre, Labourd and Soule.

(c) Euskal Herria or Basque Country: it comprises the territories of Álava, Biscay, Guipúzcoa, Navarre, Laboud, Lower Navarre and Soule.

(d) Bilinguals: they speak Euskara fluently as well as any other Latin language that is currently spoken in the Basque Country (Spanish, French or Gascon)..

(e) Receptive Bilinguals: they understand Euskara but can not speak it since their everyday language is a Latin language (Spanish, French or Gascon)

(f) Erdaldunak: Euskara is unknown to them. They speak any of the Latin languages (Spanish, French or Gascon).

In 1968, it was developed Euskara Batua or Standard Euskara, which is based on the literary language of the Navarrese-Labourdin dialect and the one that is spoken in Guipúzcoa, since as far as this period, there were used the different Basque dialects to write literary Euskara. This standardisation was a vital factor to ensure the continued existence of the Basque language and to become an official language in the future.

Once Fraco's regime was over and with the arrival of democracy, Euskara became an official language in Euskadi as well as in the Basque-speaking area of northern Navarre for the first time in its thousand-year-old history (except in the Spanish Civil War, although in a very small area which included especially the current province of Biscay). Now, there is a remaining question: to achieve the official status of Euskara in half and southern Navarre, as well as in Iparralde or Northern Basque Country. The linguistic situation of the Basque language was truly catastrophic when the official status was granted. Although Euskara was spoken in the 11th century from part of Cantabria to part of Catalonia, to north up to part of Aquitaine and southwards to a great part of Burgos, La Rioja and Soria, in the 1980s the Basque language only was spoken in one ninth of the whole medieval territory, just in the small historic territories of Euskadi, Northern Basque Country and Navarre.

Thanks to the new situation, 'ikastolak' or Basque schools were established throughout the Basque-speaking geography, in which classes are taught in Euskara. After forty years of Francoist prohibitions of the Basque language and culture, there arose the first generations of Basques that know how to read and write in Euskara. If the prohibition of everything linked to the Basque status served any purpose, it was precisely to make the Basque speaking population aware of the importance of the continued existence of their language and culture, a matter that many Basque speakers had not seen earlier. Euskara went on extending to the Basque free education system and it was already possible to study from preschool to the University preparation course. Furthermore, the publication of books in this language is growing each year.

There was established the public radio 'Euskadi Irratia' (Radio Euskadi) as well as the public TV channel 'Euskal Telebista' (Basque Television), whose programmes in the Basque language are daily broadcast to the seven territories of the Basque Country and via satellite to the rest of the world. We already have newspapers and magazines that are entirely published in Euskara.

The Basque language has also extended to the University and now it is possible to study for a degree in full in Euskara, and it is even reaching Engineering. Euskara is also extending to the new technologies, office suites like 'Office' and operating systems like 'Windows', which are already available in that language.

Euskara has recovered the prestige that formerly lost in the face of the Latin languages, what has caused that a significant percentage of parents chooses freely one of the current three educational models that the Basque system offers to their children, mainly the 'Model D' (the subjects are taught completely in Euskara, except Spanish Language and Spanish Literature). The 'Model B', which is chosen to a lesser extent, offers several subjects in Euskara and the remaining ones in Castilian. Finally, there is the 'Model A' (the subjects are taught in full in Castilian, except Euskara that is one of the subjects), which is falling in the ranking of the Basque population acceptance because it does not ensure the knowledge of Euskara nor the bilingualism of the students, considering that Euskara is studied like a foreign language, for example English. Once the students of this educational model reach the University, the knowledge of Euskara is completely useless since Euskara is more complex than English. With respect to Navarre, there is another model, the so-called 'Model G', which is completely developed in Castilian and there is not any subject in the Basque language.

With the official recognition of the Basque language thirty years ago, it has been possible to achieve that there is not any municipality of Euskadi without Basque speakers. The number of people that speak Euskara has increased in more than 100,000. This figure is highly satisfactory if we bear in mind the complexity of the Euskara learning process, as well as the number of inhabitants of the community.

As we have seen before, Euskara and Castilian are co-official languages in the whole territory of Euskadi. On the contrary, the Foral Community of Navarre is divided into three linguistic areas: the 'Basque-speaking area', to north of the Community, where Castilian and Euskara are co-official languages; the 'mixed area', which includes the city of Pamplona and several municipalities of central Navarre and finally, the 'non-Basque-speaking area', where only Castilian is the official language and that corresponds to middle and southern Navarre.

While Euskara is increasing in the Basque Autonomous Coummunity, Navarre, on the contrary, has managed to stop the loss of Euskara. The recovery of the Basque language has not been so spectacular in that region, basically due to its non-officiality in the whole territory.

The current status of the Basque language is regulated by two laws: the Organic Law 13/1982 of August 10, on the Improvement of the Navarrese Foral Status ('Reintegración y Amejoramiento del Régimen Foral de Navarra', which is the statute of autonomy of Navarre itself) and the Foral Law 18/1986 of December 15, on the Basque language.

The 'Basque-speaking area' is inhabited by only 11% of the Navarrese population and lacks basic facilities like general administrative services, hospitals, courthouse or university. Regarding the recognized rights like schooling in Euskara, the Navarreses have different options according to the area in which they reside. In the 'non-Basque-speaking area', there is not possible to study in Euskara at the public primary and secondary schools, while there is a chance to be able to accede to this right in the 'mixed area' of Navarre.

These measures impose obstacles to the development of the language and the growth of the linguistic community, especially in the areas in which it is absolutely crucial to ensure them. Since 1999, the recognized rights to the Basque-speakers have been reduced by means of several decrees as well as administrative resolutions and orders, like the Foral Decree 372/2000 of December 11, which regulates the usage of Euskara in the Navarrese public administrations. This decree restricts the administrative use of the Basque language and in practice, it turns the 'mixed area', as defined in the Law of the Basque Language of 1986, into a 'non-Basque-speaking area'.

It should also be mentioned the Foral Decree 203/2001 of July, 30 which details the jobs of the organic staff in the administration of the Navarrese Foral Community and its self-governing bodies for which the knowledge of the Basque language is required (except educational staff dependent on the Departament of Education and Culture), and the jobs for which this knowledge is considered a merit, among others. The Government of Navarre has reduced the bilingual jobs of its staff by means of the above-mentioned decree, where they represent 1% of the whole staff (153 out of 14,000 officials) This action increases with no doubt the inability of the Administration to provide services to all the citizens as well as the infringement of the linguistic rights of the Navarrese Basque-speakers.

The plans of action, which entered into force after the approval of the Foral Decree 372/2000 (the agreements of January 8, 2001 and February 5, 2001), provides the immediate removal of Euskara from documents, pictures, stamps, labels, signposting, etc. For example, the article 3.2 of 'The Plan of Action for the enforcement of the regulation on the use of the Basque language in the Mixed Area', approved by agreement of Jaunary 8, 2001 with regard to signposting, labels and official stamps, provides that: 'It should be ensured the immediate compliance with that the indicative labels existing on the facade of the buildings and head offices, in the offices and in any department of the Administration of the Foral Community of Navarre and its self-governing bodies, as well as its official stamps and all its signal and identification elements should be drafted exclusively in Castilian, and should immediately be replaced the existing ones that do not meet this requirement' (the bilingual ones: Spanish-Euskara).

The different social partners (associations, trade unions) as well as many local corporations filed administrative appeals against the Foral Decree 372/2000. In 26th June, 2002, the High Court of Justice of Navarre imposed two sentences: firstly, the action plan of the Basque-speaking area was invalidated and afterwards, the Foral Decree itself. Later on, the action plan of the so-called 'mixed area' was invalidated as well. However, the Government of Navarre continued to implement the decree although it was already annulled. In order to achieve this, the Navarrese government appealed the sentence and this way, avoided it to become final and began to carry out the necessary administrative tasks to put into effect a new Foral Decree. Finally, it was approved the Foral Decree 29/2003 of February 12, 2003 which regulates the use of Euskara in the Public Administration of Navarre. The content of that decree is almost the same as the one of the invalidated Foral Decree 372/2002.

The Basque language is spoken by 9.6% of the Navarrese population. 9.8% of them understands it, but cannot speak it and the remaining 80.6% only speaks Castilian. At present, more than half of the Navarrese parents have chosen freely that their children study all the subjects in Euskara, or at least that they study the language as a subject. However, nobody knows what the future holds for the 'lingua navarrorum' in the region that saw its birth, with the increasingly restrictive policies that are carried out by the successive governments of Navarre concerning the learning process and use of the Basque language.

Euskara is not an official language yet in Iparralde or Northern Basque Country. At the end of the 19th century, 65% of the Basque population in that region spoke Euskara. Now, the situation is very critical since only 26.4% of the whole population speaks it (mainly elderly people and in the rural areas for the most part) 9.3% understands it, but cannot speak it and the remaining 64.2% is monolingual French or speaks Gascon. If the co-official status of the Basque language together with French is not achieved and Euskara does not receive any support for education, it is estimated that the language will have completely disappeared from the northern Basque Country within 40-50 years

Despite the uncertain recovery and permanence of Euskara in Navarre as well as in the Northern Basque Country, the auguries for the language in the territory of Euskadi (which includes 75% of the population of the Basque Country) are good, with a promising future in the millennium that is now beginning. At last, Euskara is not only the vehicle of the Basque traditional culture, but also a vehicle of culture, science and arts. The recovery and permanence of our language depend on our daily work As rightly said by the first writer in Euskara, Bernard Etxepare:

Heuscara, 
ialgui adi mundura!

( Euskara, get out into the world! )

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