Dialects
On this page you will find the dialects of the areas and locations as two types of classification: traditional classification of Louis Bonaparte Loucien Koldo Zuazo current classification. By clicking on each of them, may find the description of the dialect and the towns belonging to it.
Eastern Navarrese
Situation
The speech of Salazar and Roncal is included in this dialect. Zuazo himself acknowledges that these are quite different forms of speech, although he stresses the similarities between the two.
Special mention should be made of three major aspects in this dialect:
1.- It occupies the far east of the Basque language in a very mountainous environment
2.- It has had an important relationship with Soule and Low Navarre
3.- It has also had a major relationship with the rest of Navarre
Main characteristics
Koldo Zuazo draws attention to the following distinctive features in this dialect:
Archaisms:
1/ In the first person verb forms in Roncal we find a sound in between –d / -r instead of the –t one common to all dialects.
E.g.: Xatan bitur anitx
Nik ez dakiar nola erakasi al gunien
entelegatu duna zer erran duran?
Eztura erraitan?
2/ In Salazar and Roncal, the future suffix -en is applied to any participle ending and not just when it ends in –n: asiren ‘hasiko’, itzuliren ‘itzuliko’.
E.g.: Igarrien ginzela, que ya podríamos pasar
3/ The participle structure + rik is used exclusively in Salazar and Roncal, as the more western forms -a y —ta have not been adopted: egonik, izanik...
E.g.: zonbat biaje dauket eginik
eta ni handitrik ere bai
borda altzinean bazen leku bat prestatrik hortako
ezartzen zen ESPartzitrik
egosten da lebadurara, prestatrik baitago bezperan
Innovations
4/ In Salazar, the article –a is added to words which end in an –a, resulting in -ara: –a + a > -ara: uskarara.
E.g.: eta orduan galdu zen euskarara
esertzeko kozinillara
Bai, guti egoten zen musikara, guti...
5/ The NORA case is used in Salazar to express the suffix -ala: katedrala ‘aulkira’.
E.g.: bai bordala, bordala
Erribrala fan bage
ala! bazterriala!, ala! erdiala, erdiala!
Oztekiala enaztekela xin, baia yatekiala fanen nizala.
6/ The i > x has evolved in Roncal into an inter-vowel position: anaxe ‘anaia’, lexo ‘leiho’... In Salazar, however, this becomes i > Ø: anae ‘anaia’, le(g)o ‘leiho’...
7/ -tan has entered general usage in verbal nouns in Roncal: biltan ‘biltzen’, xatan ´jaten´...
E.g.: Eta gero gizonak egitan zeia aigaria...
8/ The lexicon of both valleys is very marked: guzialen ‘lehengusua’, azaro ‘urri, udazken’, bapana ‘bakoitza’... Furthermore:
In Roncal: banak ‘batzuk’, aizto ‘labana’, bordaltu ‘ezkondu’...
In Salazar: aitaborze ‘aitona, aitabitxi’, amaborze ‘amona, amabitxi’...
E.g.: Amorziak eta aitaborziak bazakien zerbait erdara
Eastern Navarrese
Situation
The speech of Salazar and Roncal is included in this dialect. Zuazo himself acknowledges that these are quite different forms of speech, although he stresses the similarities between the two.
Special mention should be made of three major aspects in this dialect:
1.- It occupies the far east of the Basque language in a very mountainous environment
2.- It has had an important relationship with Soule and Low Navarre
3.- It has also had a major relationship with the rest of Navarre
Main characteristics
Koldo Zuazo draws attention to the following distinctive features in this dialect:
Archaisms:
1/ In the first person verb forms in Roncal we find a sound in between –d / -r instead of the –t one common to all dialects.
E.g.: Xatan bitur anitx
Nik ez dakiar nola erakasi al gunien
entelegatu duna zer erran duran?
Eztura erraitan?
2/ In Salazar and Roncal, the future suffix -en is applied to any participle ending and not just when it ends in –n: asiren ‘hasiko’, itzuliren ‘itzuliko’.
E.g.: Igarrien ginzela, que ya podríamos pasar
3/ The participle structure + rik is used exclusively in Salazar and Roncal, as the more western forms -a y —ta have not been adopted: egonik, izanik...
E.g.: zonbat biaje dauket eginik
eta ni handitrik ere bai
borda altzinean bazen leku bat prestatrik hortako
ezartzen zen ESPartzitrik
egosten da lebadurara, prestatrik baitago bezperan
Innovations
4/ In Salazar, the article –a is added to words which end in an –a, resulting in -ara: –a + a > -ara: uskarara.
E.g.: eta orduan galdu zen euskarara
esertzeko kozinillara
Bai, guti egoten zen musikara, guti...
5/ The NORA case is used in Salazar to express the suffix -ala: katedrala ‘aulkira’.
E.g.: bai bordala, bordala
Erribrala fan bage
ala! bazterriala!, ala! erdiala, erdiala!
Oztekiala enaztekela xin, baia yatekiala fanen nizala.
6/ The i > x has evolved in Roncal into an inter-vowel position: anaxe ‘anaia’, lexo ‘leiho’... In Salazar, however, this becomes i > Ø: anae ‘anaia’, le(g)o ‘leiho’...
7/ -tan has entered general usage in verbal nouns in Roncal: biltan ‘biltzen’, xatan ´jaten´...
E.g.: Eta gero gizonak egitan zeia aigaria...
8/ The lexicon of both valleys is very marked: guzialen ‘lehengusua’, azaro ‘urri, udazken’, bapana ‘bakoitza’... Furthermore:
In Roncal: banak ‘batzuk’, aizto ‘labana’, bordaltu ‘ezkondu’...
In Salazar: aitaborze ‘aitona, aitabitxi’, amaborze ‘amona, amabitxi’...
E.g.: Amorziak eta aitaborziak bazakien zerbait erdara