Revitalizing Basque: Does Gender Make a Difference?

Begoña Echeverria

Hundreds of languages are in danger of extinction; with each language that is lost, we lose an important part of our cultural heritage. Many endangered language communities try to revitalize the use of their language by teaching it in schools and requiring proficiency in it for certain occupations. Scholars who study movements to revitalize languages often assume that there will be an automatic fit between the movements’ goals and those of their target audience—that individuals will use or pass on the language if it becomes more instrumentally advantageous to do so. However, in order to fully understand the outcomes of language revitalization efforts, we must go beyond discussion of “instrumental value.” Rather “to the extent that speakers conceptualize language as socially purposive action, we must look at their ideas about the meaning, function and value of language[s]” (Woolard & Schieffelin 1994: 70). Focusing on the Basque case, this research uses a language ideology approach to examine how gender affects the linguistic, educational and occupational choices of young people in their post-secondary school years. As such, it will potentially inform revitalization efforts in hundreds of other endangered language communities—including indigenous and immigrant language communities in the United States.

About Begoña Echeverria

As the daughter of Basque immigrants to California, I have long been interested in language and identity. When I began researching this issue as an undergraduate, I noticed the gender differences that I continue to study today: young men in rural areas in both Spain and France were more likely than young women to speak Basque (Euskera). In the doctoral research I conducted in San Sebastian, I also found gender to be important. Schools privileged men in their representations of Basque identity, even though a Basque person is (ostensibly) considered to be anyone who speaks Basque. My current project examines how gendered occupational experiences and gender ideologies impact language use in the Basque Country and its diaspora. My work on these issues has appeared in Nations and Nationalism, Language in Society, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, and Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. But, inspired by the stories my informants tell, I—and two other Basque-American women—have also recorded songs in Euskera about Basque language, culture and gender (www.chinoka.com). While my research has focused on the Basque case, I am currently part of a project that studies the relationships between science curriculum, organizational culture, federal policy, and identity among ethnic minorities in the United States. I have also tried to address the educational inequities I have studied by offering free writing help with personal statements for local high school students, most of whom are ethnic minorities. I feel fortunate to hold a professional position that allows me to contribute knowledge to issues so close to my heart.