La lengua vasca en Navarra. Creencias, actitudes e ideología

The sociolinguistic situation of the community of Navarra is specially interesting because there are two different languages (Basque and Spanish) which have a different legal status and have had a different evolution in which the Basque language has been progressively reduced. Historical, socio-structural, sociolinguistic and psicolinguistic factors determine many of the attitudes that come out when speaking about the Basque language in this community. All these factors have a bearing on many declarations of politicians or the multiple reivindications of Basque language in our society...

Little research has been done in this field. Most of the studies focus on linguistic competence and the use of the language but they haven"t gone deeply into linguistic attitudes towards the languages involved. However, the study of linguistic attitudes has become an essential subject in Sociolinguistics research. These attitudes are usually interrelated with competence and linguistic use and give evidence of the perception speakers have about different linguistic matters.

The present study is a sociolinguistic research which investigates beliefs, attitudes and ideas about the Basque language using a statistical sample of today" s population in Navarra.

According to this general aim, a sociolinguistic survey has been carried out. In this survey there are different features that have been taken into account: linguistic competence, use and attitudes. The selection of people taking part in the study has been made according to a specific tipology, which has been elaborated taking some relevant variables into account: sex, age, level of studies, linguistic competence and linguistic area.

The research is dealt with in four chapters. In the first one there is a retrospective view of the different ideas and opinions which have been expressed about Basque language in the last centuries. The second chapter contains a sociolinguistic description of the community of Navarra and the third one sets out the aims, objectives and methodology used in the study. In the fourth one there is an analysis of the main conclusions of the research.

As a conclusion of the research, we can say that, in general, there is a positive attitude towards Basque language in this community. This attitude is closely related with historical, affective and moral reasons. Practical reasons, on the contrary, are mentioned as the most important to speak Spanish. This positive attitude is conditioned by two facts: linguistic competence of speakers and linguistic distribution set up by the Law of Basque. Other factors determine this attitude as well, such as sex, age, education and the increasing learning of Basque as a second language.

As a result of the study, we can state that the situation of the Basque language in Navarra is slowly changing. The positive attitude towards this language, mostly among young people, and the consideration of this language as capable of transmitting scientific knowledge and, in the end, as a language of culture gives way to an optimistic view of the situation. Even so, we cannot forget the deeply different perception of the same facts related to language among bilingual or monolingual people