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Basque Language Classes at Reno by William H. Jacobsen, Jr. During the spring semester of 1969, the University of Nevada, Reno offered for the first time an introductory course in the Basque Language. This was catalogued as Basque 150, Elementary Basque, a 3-credit course. There had previously been a few classes in the Basque language offered in this country, notably those taught by Mr. Joe V. Eiguren in Boise, Idaho, but as far as we could determine, this seems to have been the first time a course in this language was offered on the college level here for full academic credit. The instructor in this course was Professor Jon Bilbao who came from Spain last January to join the staff of the Basque Studies Program at Reno. Professor Bilbao is well known among students of the Basques for his many years of research, teaching and writing in varied facets of Basque studies, notably bibliography, biography, history and linguistics. This class was scheduled in the evenings so as to allow residents of Reno and nearby areas who are not full-time students at the University to attend. The number of students was so great that it was necessary to divide the class into two sections – one meeting Monday evenings and one Thursday evenings – so as to permit an adequate amount of individual attention to be given. Although a few students were unable to devote the amount of study necessary to master the assigned material in this distinctively different language, and hence dropped out of the course, still students successfully completed the semester. About one-third of the students were of Basque descent. The textbook used was a recent one, Euskera, Ire Laguna! By Patxi Altuna, S.J., published in Bilbao, Spain in 1967. The title may be translated as “Basque, Your Companion.” This book, which is modeled after a textbook for teaching English as a foreign language, is almost entirely in Basque, the only exception being the Basque-Spanish vocabulary list at the end. Thus, Professor Bilbao was forced to prepare supplementary lists of vocabulary items and other materials, showing their meanings in English. The dialect presented represents an attempt at a common denominator that might be called “Literary Basque;” that is, basically Guipuzcoan, but with some words taken from other dialects, Labourdin and Vizcayan. Positive features of this textbook are its careful grading of vocabulary items and grammatical points, and its well designed drills, but it gives no explanation whatsoever of the various grammatical points that arise so that the burden of explaining the grammar was placed entirely on the instructor. Additional drill material was available for use in the language laboratory. Although the greater part of the class time was spent on drill work, Professor Bilbao often used the final portion of the class period for the presentation and discussion of background topics, such as the pattern of Basque dialects, etymologies of Basque words, useful expressions, common suffixes, and grammatical analysis (especially of verb forms). In the fall semester, beginning in September, a second semester class will be offered and many of the students are planning to avail themselves of this opportunity for continuing their study of the Basque language. In addition, another first semester class will also be offered. |
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