The Dynamics between Unified Basque & Dialects in the Northern Basque Country: A Survey Based on Perceptual Dialectology – Second part

This article presents and analyses the answers to the open-ended questions in a sociolinguistic survey carried out as part of the Academy of the Basque Language's Euskara Eskuz Esku (Basque from Hand to Hand) project. The results and analysis of the answers to the closed questions have already been published (IJLL, 2019, 6-1, 115-125). Some of the main results of this second group of answers are as follows: according to the respondents, Unified Basque is not well known in the North Basque Country, it is mixed with dialects and it poses difficulties for Basque speakers who have not been educated in Basque. However, the main problem is French, the ultra-dominant language in this territory. It influences the Basque language itself. The most widespread prediction among the respondents is that in the future, because they are not widely passed on, the dialects will weaken and Unified Basque will become stronger. Thanks to the answers of these forty respondents, all of whom are prescribers of the Basque language in one way or another, we have a better understanding of the situation and relationships between Unified Basque, the dialects and French in the Northern Basque Country, taking into account the fact that it is a complex and changing linguistic ecosystem. This paper presents the second set of results from the survey carried out as part of the Euskara Eskuz Esku (EEE) 1 project 2. Forty respondents answered thirteen questions during the first six months of 2018, via a form or a recorded interview. 1.1. Survey's overall aims & perceptual dialectology The aims of this survey were, amongst other things, to examine the interaction between Unified Basque and the dialects in the Northern Basque Country, the extent to which Unified Basque is recognised, the status of dialects and people's attachment to the dialects, how the respondents saw the future of both Unified Basque and the dialects... In other words, how the respondents in this territory view Basque's language ecosystem , taking into account the fact that there is also at least one third participant: the dominant language, French. The first data set with the answers to seven closed questions has already been published (summary cf. 1.3.) 3. In order to study these subjects and create the survey, we applied the principles of perceptual dialectology. Perceptual dialectology studies how non-linguists understand dialectal variation (their own speech, in a local or larger area) and its status (correctness, pleasure, prestige, etc) and which are seen as better. Rather than studying language events, perceptual dialectology studies language awareness