The History of Basque

Robert Lawrence Trask

Routledge Chapman & Hall, 1997 - Foreign Language Study - 458 pages

Basque is the sole survivor of the very ancient languages of western Europe. Due to its unusual structure and its seeming lack of relatives, the language has long been the object of curiosity and speculation. More than a century of specialist work has succeeded in shedding a great deal of light on the history and especially the prehistory of Basque, but this work has up until now been almost entirely confined to the specialist literature, and has not been available to general historical linguists. This book, written by an internationally renowned specialist in Basque, finally rectifies the problem. It provides a comprehensive survey of all that is known about the prehistory of the language, including pronunciation, the grammar and the vocabulary. It also provides a long critical evaluation of the search for relatives, as well as a thumbnail sketch of the language, a summary of its typological features, an external history and an extensive bibliography.

What people are saying

User Review -

A complete description of the history of basque language. Nearly all the research done is classified and assessed, and the language itself is depicted to fine-grain detail. The established conclusions about basque go back to Roman times. Invaluable. There is a minor error in the history of Basque nationalism in Navarre. 

User Review -

A etimologia para o topónimo da cidade de Beja, que eu estava convencido de ter origem muçulmana, aquando da ocupação arabe, na etnia dos povos beja oriundos do sul da arabia parece-me agora estar mais clara e em concordância com a teoria mais aceite de que teve origem na palavra latina Pax, topónimo dado á cidade; Pax Julia, a já esquecida Conistorgis pré-romana. Com efeito, no basco esta palavra; pace, evoluiu para bake tal como terá evoluido para os povos que habitavam na actual região de Beja, e depois com a influencia arabe para a actual Beja. 

About the author

One of the most celebrated linguists of his time, R. L. Trask was a brilliant lecturer and the author of many popular works, including "The Penguin Guide to Punctuation" and "The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar". Born in New York State in 1944, he lived in England after 1970, and was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex until his death in 2004.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The History of Basque
• Author: Robert Lawrence Trask
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Routledge Chapman & Hall, 1997
• ISBN: 0415131162, 9780415131162
• Length: 458 pages
• Subjects: Foreign Language Study / Miscellaneous; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Reference / General