Wiktionary:About Basque

This is an editable draft of Wiktionary:About Basque with no policy authority. It is intended to help the Wiktionary community develop new and perhaps better approaches. Please feel free to edit this page conscientiously, as you would any document on a wiki. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Note 1: This guide is intended to provide guidelines both for creating Basque entries on English Wiktionary as well as for adding Basque translations to English words. The main guidelines for creating any entry on English Wiktionary is set forth in Wiktionary:Entry layout explained; this page is an addition to that page, not a replacement.

Note 2: If a change occurs in the basic wiktionary template (currently at Wiktionary:Entry layout explained that affects Basque entries, then that change should be reflected here.

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Pronunciation

For pronunciation, Template:eu-IPA is available. Basque spelling is highly regular, so usually it won't need any parameters (see the template documentation for more). The pronunciation generated by the template corresponds quite closely to the prescriptive pronunciation of Standard Basque, with some minor adjustments (such as giving the pronunciation of ⟨j⟩ as /x/ in Southern dialects).

As the prescribed pronunciation allows for dialectal variation, when necessary the template will give two different pronunciations: "generic" Southern and "generic" Northern. Dialectal pronunciations can be included, but they have to be entered manually.

Stress

Most dialects (and Standard Basque) don't have phonemic stress, so it shouldn't be included in phonemic transcriptions. In the case of dialects with non-contrastive stress, it can be added in the phonetic transcription.

The only exception is the Souletin dialect, which does have phonemic stress. When adding Souletin pronounciations, it is therefore strongly recommended to add stress in the phonemic transcription (see for example txakhür).

Parts of speech

Nouns

• In Basque, nouns can be inanimate or animate. Animate nouns refer to humans and animals, while the rest are inanimate. Both types differ only in the form and meaning of some declined forms. Some nouns can both inanimate and animate depending on the meaning (for example, katu); and some inanimate nouns can be declined as animate for stylistic purposes or personification.
• The headword template for nouns is {{eu-noun}}. The first parameter is used to specify the animacy of the noun.
• In Basque, nouns are declined for a variety of cases. There is only one basic declension pattern, with minor variations depending on the ending of the noun. For adding declension tables, use the templates {{eu-decl-anim}}, {{eu-decl-both}} and {{eu-decl-inanim}}; in most cases they don't require any parameters. For proper nouns, the similar templates {{eu-decl-proper-anim}}, {{eu-decl-proper-inanim}} and {{eu-decl-proper-both}} are used.
• For example, for an inanimate noun:

===Noun===
{{eu-noun|in}}

# definition

====Declension====
{{eu-decl-inanim}}

Adjectives

In Basque, there are two types of adjectives: izenondo and izenlagun. The first type is more common, so it can be translated "adjective" for simplicity; while the second is usually translated as "adnominal" or "indeclinable adjective".

Izenondo

• This is the most numerous class of adjectives. They are always placed after the noun they modify, and they are fully declinable.
• The headword template for nouns is {{eu-adj}}. The template will generate the comparative forms automatically. If the adjective is not comparable, use it as {{eu-adj|-}}.
• In Basque, adjectives are declined for a variety of cases. For the inflection table, the template {{eu-decl-adj}} is used, in most cases it won't require any parameters.
• For example, for a comparable adjective:

===Adjective===
{{eu-adj}}

# definition

====Declension====
{{eu-decl-adj}}

Izenlagun

• They are placed before the noun they modify, and cannot be declined. Adnominals are not comparable.
• The headword template for adnominals/indeclinable adjectives is {{eu-adn}}, it doesn't take any parameters. Despite using a different template, the POS header is Adjective as in the previous case.
• The layout is:

===Adjective===
{{eu-adn}}

# definition

Determiners

In Basque, determiners (determinatzaileak) are often classified as follows:

• Mugatzaileak
  • the article -a
  • erakusleak (“demonstratives”): hau, hori, hura...
• Zenbatzaileak (“Numerals”)
  • definite: bat (“one”), bi (“two”), hiru (“three”)...
  • indefinite: bizpahiru (“two or three”), zenbait (“some”)...
  • general: guzti (“all”)...
• Indefinite: zer (“what”)...

Here, definite numerals are placed under the POS header Numerals, while all others use Determiner.

Dialects

Despite being spoken in a small area, Basque has probably a larger dialectal variation than its neighboring languages. Dialectal entries are listed under the ==Basque== heading as normal, and their status as dialectal should be marked using the template {{lb}}. Note that most regional/dialectal terms are included in Standard Basque, so these entries can use Template:eu-IPA and the normal declension templates (see for example zuhamuxka).

In the case of dialectal terms not present in the standard language (such as txakhür), pronunciation should be added manually only for the dialect(s) in which the term is used. Declension templates shouldn't be added to these entries, because the generated inflectional suffixes might not be the same as in the dialect in which the particular word is found. However, dialectal declension templates might be created in the future.

Lemmatisation

For nouns, the lemma is the absolutive indefinite form. However, there are some proper nouns (such as Jaungoikoa (“God”), Ternua (“Newfoundland”), Estatu Batuak (“United States”)...) which include an article (either in the singular or in the plural). In such cases, the lemma form should include the article; compare the formatting of lur (“earth, soil”) and Lurra (“the Earth”).

Alphabet

Basque uses these letters:

• (Latin-script letters) A a, B b, C c, (Ç ç), D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L, l, M m, N n, Ñ ñ, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, (Ü ü), V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

They have these names:

• (Latin-script letter names) a, be, ze, de, e, efe, ge, hatxe, i, jota, ka, ele, eme, ene, eñe, o, pe, ku, erre, ese, te, u, uve, uve bikoitz, ixa, i greko, zeta