Basque Language

Basque (Basque: Euskara) is a language isolate ancestral to the Basque people. The Basque are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, Euskadi-Navarre The Basque language is spoken by almost all residents of Euskadi-Navarre, either as a first or second language.

A language isolate, Basque is believed one of the few surviving pre-Indo-European languages in Europe, and the only one in Western Europe. The language's origins are not conclusively known, though the most accepted current theory is that early forms of Basque developed prior to the arrival of Indo-European languages in the area, including the Romance languages that geographically surround the Basque-speaking region. Basque has adopted a good deal of its vocabulary from the Romance languages, and Basque speakers have in turn lent their own words to Romance speakers.

'' "Clearly, Basque is not a language to learn for those who want something quick and easy. Basque is a complex idiom, and is beautiful because of its complexity. Study of the language is a great starting part for those interested in just how creative humans can be with respect to language." '' - Anonymous

Orthography:
The Basque alphabet uses the Latin script. It contains the twenty six letters of the standard Roman script as well as the character "Ñ". "Ç" also exists, but is not counted as a separate letter. Pronunciation is almost strictly phonetic, although the different phonemes can be challenging to distinguish