Name
Hazel Pullin
Class
INTA 4500
About the Project
This study seeks to explore the impact of political centralization on minority language revitalization through a comparative analysis of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) in Spain and the Northern Basque Country (NBC) in France. Both regions share a cultural and linguistic heritage, but have experienced vastly different outcomes in Basque language preservation due to differing government systems. Spain's decentralized approach has enabled the BAC to significantly invest in language policies, resulting in an 11% increase in Basque speakers from 1975 to 2021. Conversely, France's centralized governance has limited such efforts in the NBC, leading to a 15% decline in Basque speakers. This study highlights the importance of political decentralization in promoting linguistic diversity and illustrates the implications of minority language decline in the European Union.
