🍃In my closest group of friends, we don't usually speak in Basque. This makes me feel guilty from time to time, like I am not doing enough, because we all know Basque. We all have had the privilege to study in Basque. However, the language is barely present in our daily interactions (if it is not for expressions or greetings). The reality is that we all come from (mostly) Spanish-speaking households and we live in a town where Spanish is predominant.🏘️ According to EUSTAT, 30% of the population of our town knows Basque. Nevertheless, only half of them employ it daily. 📊
✨Yesterday was one of those weird nights where two worlds merged. ✨As every regular Summer, we have weekly Basque festivities where everyone goes out and different people gather. Yesterday, I was also meeting some of my always-Basque-speaking friends, mostly peers who also studied Basque Studies or people from cultural Basque organizations. Since we always speak in Basque, I feared that the presence of my close friends would change our dynamics to Spanish. However, having strong Basque speakers present actually favored the use of Basque in the group. Being with people with whom I always speak in Basque gave me the confidence to speak in Basque to my close friends or people I would run into.💪🏼 Their presence activated a language shift on everyone that made yesterday's night linguistically magical. 🎆 In sociolinguistics these people are called "activators" due to that power. 🔋
🌻In short, I wanted to say eskerrik asko (thank you) to those who never gave up on Basque, and especially to those who decided to give it a try.🌻
Thank you: @julenan #ibai @juneeher #iker @mkl.algrt
Have you ever tried to change your linguistic habits?
Do you ever feel bad for not speaking your minority language(s) "enough"?
Share it below, I read you! 🤓
#basque #minority #minorized #language #activator #shift #jaiak #festivity #catalan #venetian #kurdish #gaelic #mohawk #tamazight etc etc
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