Sonarrat,
Even if Basque and Spanish are completely different gramatically, they are
VERY similar phonetically. In fact one of the reasons why spanish phonetic
system is simpler than let's say Italian, French (and even Catalonian and
Galician - that are in the same family of languages) may be that Spanish may
have been strongly influenced by Basque speakers in its origin. Spanish was
born in the northern part of Castille, and particularly in a region that
would include the wine region of La Rioja (that includes an small portion of
and has boundary with the basque country). Of course, then spanish has also
strongly influenced basque current use phonetics (and you will notice the
difference if you hear a french-basque speaker).
Also, even if basque is confined to an small territory, there are multiple
dialects (some of them exclusive to a village) , and in some villages you
may find people that pronounce the S closer to SH as you describe, but that
would uncommon (so maybe it was excesive to say the sound does not exist). I
think you may found a very 'liquid' S in words that start with X such as in
the name Xabier closer to the SH sound that any other.
The basque language used in the media and schools and universities has been
standarized by the basque language academy in a form know as Batua
(unified), that is strongly influence by the dialect that is spoken in the
province of Guipuzcoa. Now, most young people has learnt basque language
taht follows that "standard". If you lisen to Basque TV or Radio(and they
are a good source of cyling information)
I you want to get a feeling for how basque sounds (batua) (and how it is
written), you can listen to the Public Basque Broadcasting Corporation
(Eusko Irratia).
http://www.eitb.com/euskara/
Then click on the Euskadi Irratia or the Euskadi Gaztea buttons on the top
right-hand online frame. Check it out!
Also:
I had never hear about the relationship with mongolian... Recently there has
been claims that basques may have been related to the Berber in north
africa, but the language is considered a family by itself, not related to
any other Indoeuropean language. Probably basques are what is left of some
of the people that lived in the Iberian peninsula before the
Fenicians/Greeks/Romans arrived. It is possible that there would be other
peoples that spoke similar languages but they were little by little
assimilated.
"Sonarrat" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:in article [email hidden], alex at
[email hidden] wrote on 5/19/04 5:36 PM:
Quoted message said:It is pronounced this way because it is a typical Basque name. It is
quite
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:straightforward, it is pronounced [Yose:ba ]. The same applies for
other
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:cyclist like Somarriba (Joanne) that is pronounced aproximately Yoanne.
Regarding the SH sound, it does not exist neither in basque or spanish
phonetics.
Are you sure? I have access to a guide to the Basque language, complete
with audio tape, through my library. According to the guide, the authors
of
Quoted message said:which are Basque, the letter 's' carries a 'sh' sound, and the letter 'z'
sounds like our 's', i.e. straight through the teeth, and not with an
added
Quoted message said:vibration like the English 'z'.
I don't know exactly how the accenting works, but "Haimar Zubeldia" is
probably pronounced something like "AIY-mahr SU-bel-di'-a," based on this
guide. "Aitor Silloniz" - "AIY-tor shiy-O-nis." "Joseba Beloki" -
"Yo-SHAY-bah Beh-LOW-key."
I may have my recollection of the time I spent studying this book all
wrong,
Quoted message said:but it wasn't THAT long ago. Also the Basque language really has next to
nothing to do with Spanish. It has more in common with traditional
Mongolian than Spanish, if you can believe that...
-Sonarrat.
