Basque

Not much is known about the roots of the Basque language. It is spoken throughout regions of Spain and southwestern France, but it is largely unrelated to the other languages of the region. It is considered a language isolate, meaning precisely that it shares little or no origin with its surrounding languages. Throughout history, the Basque region has been under the influence of several powers such as the Romans and several medieval kingdoms, yet the language has persisted, nevertheless.

In the previous century, Spanish efforts under the Franco regime attempted to suppress the Basque language in order to promote Spanish as the official language of the region, but the language resisted these efforts as well. More recently, stronger efforts have been taken to preserve the language, and it is considered the official language of the Basque Autonomous Community.

Anyone who has tried to make translations between languages knows that direct translations don’t always make too much sense. Languages form in their own contexts to describe specific experiences, so two languages that formed in different contexts don’t necessarily translate very easily between the other. With Basque, the language isn’t even necessarily similar to other languages in the region.

This is what makes cultural understanding so important in accurate translations. It’s important to understand the nuances of either language, so that information that is expressed in a certain way in one language can be expressed appropriately in the other language. Without this understanding, translations can often come off as silly, inaccurate, or just plain incoherent.