Pako Aristi
06-02-2022, BERRIA.
Abstract:
The writer Pako Aristi harshly denounces in this article the attacks we Basques suffer daily for using our language. He mentions what happened to him at a petrol station: When he spoke to the local employee in Basque, this woman, angrily and in bad manners, answered him in Spanish, saying that she didn’t have to know how to speak Basque.
The feminist movement and the anti-racist movements vigorously denounce the aggressions suffered by women or immigrants, but in the face of linguistic aggressions we Basque speakers receive little support. And these types of attacks take place every day, in the whole Basque Country. A concept used by feminists can also be transferred to the linguistic field: “I have not provoked you, it is you who have assaulted me, you are the rapist”. In fact, it is common for Basque speakers who have suffered a linguistic aggression to feel guilty, and instead of being victims, they blame themselves as the aggressors for insisting on speaking in Basque.
The writer ends by requesting the immediate creation of an Office for Linguistic Attacks against the Basque Language.
