Zaraitzuera aztertzeko ekarpen berriak (7 – Orontze)

Abstract

Continuing with this study of the Basque spoken in the Valley of Salazar, this new instalment contains material –oral phrases and accounts for the most part– collected a few years ago from two sources from the village of Oronz. The material is to be published in one single instalment, it being, as was the case with Escároz, of a lesser scale than the material collected from other neighbouring villages. The accounts collected include reference to the transportation of timber by river, a method of work to which, although it fell into disuse about half a century ago, more space shall be devoted in one of the instalments centring on the speech of Esparza, in which more detailed information concerning the components of the “almadía” (the name given to the local system of transportation of timber by river) supplied by our sources shall be presented. The Basque language from Salazar, it should be remembered, was included within the Eastern “Basse Navarre” (Lower Navarran) dialect by the scholar of Basque, Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte in his commendable map. One of the main reasons for such a decision was, it would appear, the use in this version of the language of the respectful speech forms common to Eastern dialects.