Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language Contact in a Southern Basque Town

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. John Singler, Mr. William Haddican will conduct fieldwork for his doctoral dissertation. He will interview residents of the Basque town of Oiartzun in the local language, Basque. This research will investigate whether important social changes in the Southern Basque Country over the last two centuries have led to grammatical change in local Basque dialects. Mr. Haddican will use quantitative methods to assess the influences of Spanish and Batua, the new linguistic standard, on the local dialect. He will also study how the linguistic practices of speakers are connected with their identities, language attitudes, and the sociopolitical context of the contemporary Basque Country. The present study capitalizes on a rare opportunity to study the effects of standardization on language at the earliest stages. This project will contribute to the understanding of social constraints on grammatical borrowing. The project is also of practical relevance to Basque language planning efforts, in that it explores how local dialects are changing and what social factors bear on these processes of change. A more thorough understanding of these processes may inform current language planning strategies in the schools and the media, and thereby contribute to efforts to preserve linguistic diversity more generally. The results of this study will be made available both on-line and in Basque and international print publications.