http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/18282196

Being basque, speaking Basque : the politics of language and identity in the Basque country

A major source of political conflict in the Basque Country and much of Western Europe today revolves around the demands of national minorities not only for political autonomy, but also for cultural sovereignty. One of the most important ways in which minorities are seeking to obtain cultural sovereignty is through language planning, the deliberate reform and regulation of language practices in the schools, public administration and mass media. Basque cultural activists argue that language planning is absolutely essential to ensure the continuity of their language and identity. This dissertation combines historical and ethnographic data on the Spanish Basque Country to examine the conditions under which language differences came to be perceived as a problem to be solved through planning, the methods proposed, and what some of the effects have been.

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