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Wall Street Journalean sasi kazetari batek euskara eta euskaldunekiko topikoz beteriko artikulu iraingarria publikatu du aurreko astean. Gaiak dexenteko zalaparta sortu duela euskal blogosferan esatea ere, soberan dago.

Keith Johnson "kazetariak" mezu zaparradea jasoko zuen bere posta elektronikoan, Keith.Johnson@wsj.com ta horren ondorioz bere burua zuritzeko mezua elarazi digu mezua bidali genion euskal blogariei.
Bart bidali nion mezuarekin batera, azpikaldean bere erantzuna luzatzne dizuet. Aidanez denoi mezu berdina bidali digu. Joan dadila popatik hartzera.

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Hi there.

This message goes as a response to your article in the WSJ attacking Basque language and it' s speakers.
I would like to respond you with the full text that Mikel Morris, author of the leading English-Basque dictionary has already sent to you.
I give full support to Mr. Morris' articles.

By the way: Joan adi popatik hartzera.

Xabier Eskisabel

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Dear Mr. Johnson, My name is Mikel Morris and am the author of the leading English-Basque dictionary (which you can see at www.euskadi.net/morris. Thus, I feel that I am qualified to speak on this subject. It is a shame that you did not contact expert people who are actually familiar with languages in general and with Basque in particular. To begin with, Leopoldo Barrera is hardly an authority to have an informed opinion of Basque since he knows hardly any Basque (and I am skeptical as to whether he could get by in any other language other than Spanish). It is scientifically false to say that a language is more ancient than another and wholly inaccurate to say that a language such as Basque is little suited to modern life. Every bona fide linguist knows that any language can express any idea, especially when language planning has taken place.

I fail to understand what you mean by "newly minted" words such as aireportu, zientzia, demokrazia. Every language creates neologisms when new concepts come up. You should study the case of Icelandic or even French. Basque is no exception.

Your observation on shepherd is an example of gross ignorance of not only Basque but of English as well. The origin of the word shepherd is sceaphierde, (From Old English) from sceap "sheep" + hierde "herder," from heord "a herd" ( Cf. M.L.G., M.Du. schaphirde, M.H.G. schafhirte, Ger. dial. schafhirt.) The Webster dictionary defines "shepherd" as "1 : a person who tends sheep" Thus, you probably meant "herder" or "drover" rather than "shepherd", but then again that term is too general in English and is usually combined with the animal being driven.

You mention that Basque numbers have no relationship to Indo-European and that would seem to be a disadvantage. Are European children in Finland, Hungary, Estonia and Turkey at an equal disadvantage? I think not. Finns pray to "Jumala", is that bad or equally as bad as "Jainkoa"? Why?

I am especially amazed at Joseba Arregi (who writes his surname as Arregi not Arregui as you write it though you could have written it as Arregy to make it more palatable to an English-speaking readership;-)). If you quoted him correctly, he has turned full circle in what he had been working for when he basked in power in the PNV. He helped me with my own dictionary project.

As for statistics, I fail to see where you got the figure 450,000,000 speakers for Spanish. Are you including Anglos who speak "Taco Bell" English in the States? German tourists who can order a beer in pidgin Spanish in the Costa Brava? George Bush? Indians in Guatemala who can barely utter a sentence in intelligible Spanish? An authoritative estimate from the Ethnologue Survey (SIL) gave a figure of 332,000,000 in 1999. Has Spanish acquired an extra 120,000,000 since 1999? If so, that is truly amazing but hardly plausible.

Finally, we get to the crux of the problem: is Basque an official language? If so, it should be equal in every way to Spanish. If not, that should be so stated and either be accepted as a fact or changed. Swedish is still official in Finland even though a small minority actually uses it as their mother tongue. I can hardly feel sorry for Spanish-speaking teachers who refused to learn Basque before. I myself, a native speaker of English, was able to give classes in Basque and Spanish at a High School.

It is a shame that you won't answer me but at least you are confronted with some facts and questions. Although I understand your rabidly pro-Spanish leanings, you should, in the name of good journalism, get your facts straight and talk to competent people who know something about languages.

Sincerely Yours

Mikel Morris

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Ta anormal honek bidalitako erantzuna:

Dear All:

First of all, I wanted to thank you for taking the time and trouble to write. And forgive the mass nature of the reply, but the sheer volume of mail makes individual responses physically impossible.

Second, for the many non-English speakers among you, I appreciate the effort made to write in English.
While there were a variety of opinions regarding the article, a common complaint was that it denigrated Euskera. I think that some people have seen only local press summaries which, I feel, presented a distorted view of what I wrote, but even some readers who saw the original version took umbrage at certain aspects.

I wanted to stress that I never set out to denigrate Euskera, and regret any offense it may have caused to Basque speakers. As in any article, I tried to gather a variety of different voices and present their opinions, rather than my own.

Which brings me to two smaller points that many readers complained about. First, the headline, “Inquisition.”  That is an unfortunate choice of words; but in U.S. newspapers, journalists don’t write their own headlines.

Secondly, many readers complained that the article somehow is related to an editorial agenda of News Corp., and drew a link with one member of the News Corp. board, Jose Maria Aznar. I just wanted to stress that whatever errors there are in the article are mine; there is never any interference from above at any time, and certainly not when the editorial independence of the newspaper has been the key concern during the whole takeover process.

Best regards
Keith Johnson