From Fireside Talk to TikTok: Living through Basque in a Multilingual World

About the event

The future of many of the world’s languages appears bleak. According to UNESCO, every two weeks a language somewhere in the world loses its last speaker, and up to half of the planet’s languages may be lost by the end of the century. University language departments are under threat across the UK as funding is cut and foreign language knowledge deemed dispensable.

These are worrying global trends, it is easy to miss a reverse movement. Minority languages are experiencing a boom in many places, and among the countless examples of such "language revitalisation" around the world, the movement to preserve the minority Basque language – Euskara – stands out for its innovation, grassroots participation and impressive results.

Euskara has been spoken in the Western Pyrenees since before the Roman Empire, and is the oldest living language in Western Europe. For over 500 years, successive French and Spanish governments have attempted to marginalise and ban it, and yet not only has it survived, but the number of Euskara speakers has almost doubled to a million in a few decades. Language initiatives employed in the Basque country have attracted huge participation and have been adopted by many other language communities across the world.

In this talk, sociolinguist and television presenter Izaro Arruti will discuss her own personal journey through multilingual life as a young Basque, as well as her experiences at the forefront of language activism.

The talk will be in English and is part of celebrations of the International Day of the Basque Language. For those that wish to learn more about Basque language and culture, the talk will be followed by a light lunch, a quiz and a musical concert from a band of Basques living in Scotland.

This event is generously sponsored by the Etxepare Basque Institute.

About the speaker

Izaro Arruti Agirreurreta was born in Andoain, Gipuzkoa, and lives now in the coastal town of Zarautz. She grew up speaking Euskara at home, with friends and at school.

Following her growing interest in foreign languages and cultures, Izaro lived in Calgary (Canada), Barcelona (Catalonia) and Toulouse (France), where she completed a double degree in French and English Studies, and during which time she learnt other local languages such as Catalan and Occitan. She then returned to the Basque country where she completed a masters in Sociolinguistic Education in Basque and became increasingly engaged in Basque activism.

Izaro worked for several years as a team leader at EuskarAbentura, a walking expedition that promotes Euskara among hundreds of teenagers from across the Basque country, and as a cultural specialist in the Spanish expedition Ruta Inti in Morocco and the Peruvian Amazon. She has also worked at the language innovation centre Badalab, near San Sebastian, a specialised think tank that explores new techniques and the psychology of language use.

She is now also the co-presenter of the popular Basque TV series Tribuaren Berbak, where she joins Kike Amonarriz in exploring topics linked to languages and culture in the Basque Country and beyond.

How to attend

This event is open to all and free to attend. No registration is required - just come along!

Are you interested in studying Basque?

Basque is spoken by over a million people worldwide, mainly on both sides of the western Pyrenees in Spain and France. It is a modern language, and is used in a very wide range of social and cultural contexts, styles, and registers.

We offer a Level 8, 20-credit course on the Basque Language for Beginners, available to all students at the University of Edinburgh. It aims to develop good oral, listening, reading, and writing skills in the language, as well as providing some examples of Basque culture and society as contexts for the language.