Learn more about Basque Studies
"During the darkest day of the Franco era when we were denied our language, our culture and our identity, we were consoled by the knowledge that an American university in Nevada had lit one small candle in the night."
- Basque President Jose Antonio Ardanza
In 1967, a small Basque studies program was established within the social sciences division of the Great Basin Institute. Originally established to study the Basques as an integral part of the sheep industry that had influenced the development of the Intermountain West, over time (and since incorporated officially into the University of Nevada, Reno), the Center for Basque Studies has become the leading research and educational institute of its kind outside the European Basque homeland.
The primary mission of the Center for Basque Studies is to conduct research on the Basques and to disseminate the results of interdisciplinary research on the Basques to a local, national and international audience through publications (including those produced by the Center for Basque Studies Press), conference presentations, lectures for the general public and creative activities. Research and outreach have been the highest priorities of the center since its founding. Service constitutes an important mission in promoting knowledge about the Basques through a range of academic and non-academic initiatives in cooperation with other departments at the University of Nevada, Reno, as well as at other American and foreign universities and by collaboration with the University Studies Abroad Consortium to provide a quality educational experience for students desirous of studying and living in the Basque Country of Europe.
Visiting the center
Visitors are always welcome to the Center for Basque Studies.
The Basque Library is available for use by any interested persons, although if you are conducting research it is recommended that you first contact the Basque Studies Library to determine if the collection has sufficient materials available on your research topic and to verify dates and hours of operation. The library phone number is (775) 682-5590.
The Center for Basque Studies is located on the third floor (north entrance) of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center.
The Basques: Origins and language
Find answers to frequently asked questions about Basque culture and language.
The Basques are a people who live in a small region (about the size of Rhode Island) that straddles the border of Spain and France from the sea in the west into the Pyrenees in the east. This area is called Euskal Herria (comprising seven provinces, historically: Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarra on the Spanish side; Laburdi, Zuberoa and Behe-Nafarroa on the French side). Basques speak a language called Euskara, but today only about 25% of the population is fluent in that tongue. Even so, the word for a Basque person, euskaldun, means "possessor of the Basque language." The Basque population is distinguished physically by a high incidence of Rh Negative factor in the blood.
No one knows exactly where the Basques came from. Some say they have lived in that area since Cro-Magnon man first roamed Europe. Estimates of how long they have lived there vary from 10,000 to 75,000 years. Some say they are descended from the original Iberians. More fanciful theories exist, as well. One is that the Basques are the descendents of the survivors of Atlantis.
Just as no one is sure about the origins of the Basques themselves, linguists are not in agreement over the origins of Euskara, the Basque language, either. (In Basque, the word euskara is not capitalized, but when using it in English, it is customary to capitalize it, just as we capitalize the names of other languages.) Although there are theories (none of them proven beyond a doubt) that Basque is related to other languages (such as the Georgian family of languages in the Caucasus, or the Berber language family of Africa, or even the Quechua language of Latin America), so far the only thing most experts agree on is that Euskara is in a language family by itself. That is, it is not related to any other language in the world. It is, therefore, not an Indo-European language (the large group to which English, French, Spanish and Russian belong).
There are less than 600,000 fluent speakers in the autonomous community of Euskadi (Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa) and about 400,000 more who have learned some Basque but are not considered fluent. Since most of the Basque speakers of the world live in that area, these numbers give us a close estimate of the number worldwide. There are perhaps 15,000 speakers in Iparralde (the three provinces on the French side of the border) and it is estimated that about 10% of the people in Navarre speak Basque. There are also pockets of Basque speakers in Latin America and in North America. Basque speakers are called Euskaldunak, possessors of Euskara, and those who learn the language later in life are called Euskaldun berriak, "new Basques."
Yes, indeed! A Basque book series (all in English) is published by the University of Nevada Press. You can see them and order them. You can also visit the Basque Library online and search the library catalog for titles in English.