What is the origin of the Basque language? Why is it so very different from the other European languages?
If anyone has the definitive answer to this question, they should be given a Ph. D. in linguistics on the spot!
To elucidate, Basque is considered an isolate language, meaning we’ve been unable to find or extrapolate any related languages. Nobody knows where the hell it came from.
Genetic studies of Basque speakers suggest that they were the original inhabitants of Europe. They were presumably nearly wiped out by the next inhabitants, Celtic speakers. Then came Germanic tribes, Romans and all the rest. Of course, this is all inferential, but it represents the best that we can do at least now.
Well, the origin of the Basque langauage is probably no more a mystery than the origin of any of the language groups like Indo-European, etc. We really don’t know where any of them originated. Basque just happens to be the only extant member of its language group. But it sure does add an interesting and significant dimension to European prehistory.
From what I remember, Basque, Finnish, and Korean are some of the more well-known isolate languages.
They seem to have appeared out of no where, with no linguistic connection with the languages around them, which is very odd.
[hijack]
Aren’t there a number of similarities between Basque and Finnish, syntaxically at least?
[/hijack]
WRS
Some people think it might be most closely related–but still very distantly–to Chinese and the Trans-Caucasian languages:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=120820
Intriguing speculation, but the fact remains: No one knows for sure.
Finnish is not an isolate. It’s a Uralic language, and thus related to Hungarian and Estonian.
Finnish is not an Isolate, it’s a member of the Uralic (of which Finno-Ugric is one of the main branches) family and is related to Hungarian and Estonian(and several others), Korean is an isolate though it’s thought it could be a member oif Altaic family which includes Turkish.
Basque is believed to be the language spoken in south-west Europe before the various Indo-European invasions (Hellenic, Latin, Celtic, Germanic, etc.).
An excellent book on the subject as well as a history of the Basque people is written by Mark Kurlansky.
There probably used to be dozens if not hundreds of these languages in Europe, but they almost all got replaced by Indo-European languages. Basque is simply one of the languages that survived.
Celtic is an indo-european language?
The Celtic language family, which includes Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton, is a branch of the Indo-European language family, yes.