A Basque Quiz

OK, everybody, let's test your knowledge of things Basque. You might be surprised at how much you already know. I'll post the answers tomorrow.

1) True or False? The name basketball doesn't come from the game's scoring goal of successfully getting the ball through the hoop or basket but from the old French term "basque au balcon". This describes the ancient courtship ritual whereby young Basque swains would toss traditional loaves of bread into baskets set out onto the balconies of hopeful Basque girls. The young man to get the most loaves into the basket of the object of his affection won her hand.

2) Probably the most famous Basque contribution to the world of fashion is...

(a) ...the béret. (b) ...espadrilles. (c) ...both "a" and "b".

3) To surpress the rebellious Basques, in 1937 Generalissimo Francisco Franco invited the powerful German and Italian air forces to use which Basque town as target practice for their new war planes?

(a) Guernica (b) Bilbao (c) Irun

4) To commemorate the terrible slaughter and destruction which resulted from the air attack described in #3, which Spanish artist painted a famous work of art which is known by the name of the unfortunate city?

(a) Salvador Dali (b) Charo (c) Pablo Picasso

5) True or False? The Basque language, or Euskara, is the oldest and sole remaining pre-Indo-European language still spoken in Western Europe.

6) The shipbuilding port city of Bilbao is where you can find a famous art museum designed by Frank Gehry and funded by...

(a) ...the Guggenheim Foundation. (b) ...the Getty Trust. (c) ...both "a" and "b".

7) Which of the following is NOT a typical suffix for a Basque name?

(a) -egui (b) -uru (c) -inski

8) The Basque country is found in the bordering provinces of which two nation states?

(a) France and Italy (b) France and Spain (c) Spain and Portugal

9) Columbus sailed to the Americas in Basque-built ships, the most advanced for deep ocean travel in the 15th century, manned primarily by Basque mariners. The Basques had long experience of traveling ever further out into the Atlantic in search of ever greater resources of...

(a) ...land. (b) ...gold. (c) ...cod.

10) Pelota is...

(a) ...a Basque cake. (b) ...a Basque sport. (c) ...a Basque soccer star.

Time's up! Pencils down! Come back tomorrow and I'll let you know the answers!

Overview

Here I am! Or here I will be, but a lot smaller and somewhere in the town itself, not looking over it like some great "Photo Booth" genie!

Why did I choose to study the Basque language? I am Basque! Or half-Basque. My mother's parents both immigrated to the United States from the French Basque country in the years preceding and following World War I.

Below is a picture of my my grandmother Marie, née Intchauspe, who came to this country probably in 1914 and my grandfather Ambrose Lascor.

My grandfather's uniform, in particular the fez, would seem to indicate that he was in the French army in North Africa before joining his brothers in the western United States. I could not find any record of my grandmother's entry into the U.S. on-line but I know from my mother that she came here aboard a ship that probably left from a southern French port. As a man and a soldier, my grandfather would have enjoyed more latitude than my grandmother. Records from Ellis Island indicate that he arrived in New York in 1922 in steerage aboard the White Star Line vessel ADRIATIC, a ship that called on the northern French port of Cherbourg, far from the Basque country of his birth.

Euskera was the language my grandparents used to communicate with each other when they didn't want their three children, Gene, Elizabeth and my mother Marie, to understand what they were saying. Nonetheless, my mother naturally picked up more than a little bit of the Basque language. She has phonetically written down for me some of the things that she remembers:

Bak ee a ema sah soo! (Give me some peace!)

No lah seera? (How are you?)

Oon cha. Eta Soo? (Fine, and you?)

Dem borra ederra da e oon. (It's lovely weather today.)

Seh na ee doo soo? (What do you want, a slap?)

One would assume that this last question was spoken in great exasperation after repeatedly making the initial demand for a little peace.

My mom and me.

Getting Ready to Go

Hello and welcome to my blog, "Pavlin in Donostia". Donostia is the Basque language (Euskara) name for the Spanish resort city of San Sebastián on the north coast of Spain, in the Basque Country, very close to the French border. (See map)

In January, 2010, I applied for and received a grant from the Fund for Teachers (www.fundforteachers.org) to spend two weeks in this beautiful city on the Bahía de Concha (Kontxako Badia in Euskara) in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa.

Long a sleepy fishing village which had briefly been an important merchant port in the thirteenth century, Donostia was given new life in the the mid-nineteenth century. Taking her cue from Napoléon III and the Empress Eugénie who'd transformed the nearby French coastal village of Biarritz into a resort of international renown, Queen Isabella II chose San Sebastían as her summer residence. Her presence brought new life and caché to Donostia and for decades, San Sebastían rivaled Biarritz, Deauville, Venice and Nice as the summer destination of choice for Europe's wealthy and royal movers and shakers. With the 20th century came the collapse of the old order and a new generation of bankers, senators, film stars and industrialists found different beaches to play on. Donostia has remained a popular destination, however, for people around the world who come here for the beauty of the town and surrounding countryside as well as for cultural events such as the San Sebastían International Film Festival, the Semana Grande which is an international fireworks constest, and Basque Week. None of these events will be taking place during the time I am in Donostia, unfortunately, but this will leave me more time to study and immerse myself in the daily life of the city.