Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

Chris Bates wrote:
>1) Just how many verbs are widely found in finite forms? [snip] I'd like
to know how many there are in Total.
>
>2)The language actually sounds quite nice, nicer than I imagined for
>some reason... although I have difficulty getting the distinction
>between s, z and x right.
_________________________________
Alan R. King's "The Basque Language: A Practical Introduction" lists nine
such verbs in the modern spoken language with an additional six verbs in
literary Basque.  The verbs are:

eduki 'have/hold' (simple present 3rd sg. + 3rd sg. object: dauka)
egon  'be/stay'  (dago)
esan/erran  'say  (dio)
etorri  'come'  (dator)
ibili  'go about'  (dabil)
izan  'be' (da)
jakin  'know'  (daki)
joan  'go'  (doa)
ukan/izan  'have'  (du)

From the literary language:
ekarri  'bring' (dakar)
erabili  'use'  (darabil)
eraman/eroan  'carry/take'  (darama/daroa)
etzan  'lie'  (datza)
iraun  'last'  (dirau)
irudi  'seem' (dirudi)

As for Basque 3-way sibilant distinction z, s, and x (X-SAMPA /s/, /s`/
and /S/) and their affricate counterparts (tz, ts, tx), the same 3-way
distinction for both sibilants and affricates is found in Mandarin.  For
those interested in descriptions and audio files of these sounds, Ithkuil
also makes these distinctions, and mp3 sound files for all of them can be
found in the phonology chapter of the Ithkuil website (the Ithkuil
romanized spellings are s, s+cedilla, and s+hacek; the affricates are c,
c+superposed dot, and c+hacek).

--John Quijada

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