A Basque Quiz - The Answers

A Basque Quiz - The Answers

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.

FALSE! Made the whole thing up. But I'll bet SOME of you believed it.

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

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

(c) ...both "a" and "b" The béarnais from the Béarn region of France which neighbors the French Basque country also claim to have been the originators of the béret.

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

(a) Guernica The Luftwaffe and their Italian allies attacked the unsuspecting town on market day when the open air market was at its busiest. Incendiary and shrapnel bombs left the town a flaming ruin and claimed over 1600 lives.

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

(c) Pablo Picasso This famous painting now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

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

True No one knows for sure where this mysterious language, entirely unrelated to any of the languages spoken by surrounding peoples, or the Basques who speak it come from.

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".

(a) ...the Guggenheim Foundation The museum is considered to be one of the greatest architectural monuments of the past half century.

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

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

(c) -inski The answer "c" is more typical of a name ending of a person of eastern European extraction. Names like Jauregui and Carricaburu are common Basque names as are names that end in -aga (Cristobal Balenciaga) and -aray and -erria.

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

(b) France and Spain Of the seven Basque provinces, the four largest are in Spain and the three smallest in France.

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.

(c) ...cod In an early example of man's plundering the Earth's natural resources and upsetting the balance of nature, Basque fishermen and whale hunters depleted the whale and cod populations in the Bay of Biscay, making ever stronger ships to travel ever farther out to sea in search of their prey. Inspired by Viking ship construction, the Basques greatly developed a sturdy and flexible type of ship construction called clinker-building. While in search of their lucrative catch, the Basques were very likely the first Europeans in centuries to have an intimation that there was land beyond the sea.

10) Pelota is...

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

(b) ...a Basque sport. A sort of handball but played with a scoop-like bat, the ball is bounced off a high and wide wall. The sport is often played in teams.

How did you do?