The Basque version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (BCDI-1) can be used to evaluate 8–15-month-old children’s receptive and expressive verbal skills, as well as nonverbal gesture production. This paper reports on data of 1002 children of an extended age range obtained with the BCDI-1 as a proxy measure of Basque children’s communicative competence up to 24 months. Statistical analyses revealed a large effect of age on four BCDI-1 scales: phrases understood, production of gestures, receptive vocabulary, and expressive vocabulary, while sex, amount of exposure, educational level, and birth order showed small or no effect. The strong effect of age as well as the high between-scale correlations confirmed the advantage of using the BCDI-1 instrument for the extended age range.

This exploratory study investigates sibilants in Mixean Low Navarrese, an endangered variety of Basque. This variety has been described with ten different contrastive sibilants: /s̻, s̺, ʃ, t͡s̻, t͡s̺, t͡ʃ, z̻, z̺, ʒ, d͡z̺/. The objective of the paper is to (a) provide a detailed description of the acoustics of Mixean sibilants, and (b) elucidate whether ten categories can be proposed based only on acoustical data, or whether fewer categories should be considered. The study is based on free-conversation data of ten subjects (three females, seven males) aged between 80 and 85 years. We analyze metrics reflecting the place of articulation (spectral moments, and especially the center of gravity (CoG)), including also the temporal dynamics of CoG (using the discrete cosine transform of CoG measurements of nine intervals of each phone). We also explore the acoustic correlates of the contrasts between (a) voiced and voiceless sounds and (b) fricative and affricate sounds. The results show that only seven categories can be proposed based on acoustic measurements. The lamino-alveolar series reliably contrasts with the rest, but the distinction does not hold between the apico-alveolar and the postalveolar series. We found minimal differences in the analysis of dynamic data, and none in the static analysis.

This study examines the extent to which the Basque ergative -k marker is undergoing change in the Basque Autonomous Community. The inclusion of Standard Basque in the education system since 1982 has brought a significant generational change in the mode of language acquisition: older speakers had no formal education in Basque, whereas younger speakers were educated in the Basque immersion program. Contrary to popular belief, results provide no evidence of ergative loss in apparent time; rather, they are consistent with linguistic stabilization. We claim that the differences in social constraints of gender and language use among the younger group reflect social changes, in which mode of language acquisition is responsible for the social stabilization and further stratification of ergativity. We conclude by arguing that minoritized contexts undergoing language revitalization provide important implications for sociolinguistic change, whereby social changes are embraced in assessing linguistic change.

Early neuropsychological assessment provides important information for clinical practice and research. As previously no tool for neuropsychological assessment has been developed in or adapted to Basque, the aim of this study was to adapt and validate the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities for 4 years old children. The adaptation and validation of the original instrument followed the methodological steps established by the International Test Commission. We examined the psychometric properties of the adapted instrument in 273 Basque preschool children (aged between 4 years and 4 months and 4 years and 11 months; 52.2% boys). Confirmatory factor analysis showed satisfactory fit indexes except for the General Cognitive and Memory scales. Most scales presented adequate internal consistency (Reliability coefficients ranged between .55 and .81). The Basque version also showed evidence of validity based on the relationship between neuropsychological development and sex, parental education, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-like behaviours and early neurodevelopment (p < .05; effect sizes ranged between Cohen’s d = .26 and .52 and r = .15 and 39). The Basque MSCA can be regarded as a useful tool to evaluate cognitive and psychomotor development in preschool children.

Ideophones are described as expressive marked linguistic units with a dramaturgic depictive function. Although commonly regarded in traditional general linguistics as rare and marginal, recent research on this topic has shown that these elements are pervasive in all languages and that they might share some linguistic characteristics across languages. This article analyses Basque ideophones from a typological perspective. The main goal is to describe the structure, meaning and function of Basque ideophones and to discuss how the Basque ideophonic system fits into the cross-linguistic characterisation of these linguistic units.

This study analyzes gender assignment in Spanish–Basque mixed nominal constructions with nouns in Basque (a language that lacks gender) and determiners in Spanish (a language that marks gender) by using a multi-task approach: (i) naturalistic data, (ii) an elicitation task, and (iii) an auditory judgment task. Naturalistic data suggest cross-language effects under which a morphological marker of Basque (-a determiner) is interpreted as a morphophonological expression of gender marking in Spanish. A preference for feminine determiners was observed in the judgment task, which differs from the masculine default trend observed in Spanish–English bilinguals (Jake, Myers-Scotton & Gross, 2002). Our results point to feminine gender as default in Spanish–Basque mixed DPs, indicating that the resources that bilinguals use for gender assignment can be different from those of monolinguals. We argue that this is an outcome of interacting processes which take place at the interfaces (lexicon, phonology, morphosyntax) of both languages, resulting in cross-language effects.

This article was published in error in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18 (2), 304–323.

The publisher apologizes for this error.

This study analyzes gender assignment in Spanish–Basque mixed nominal constructions with nouns in Basque (a language that lacks gender) and determiners in Spanish (a language that marks gender) by using a multi-task approach: (i) naturalistic data, (ii) an elicitation task, and (iii) an auditory judgment task. Naturalistic data suggest cross-language effects under which a morphological marker of Basque (-a determiner) is interpreted as a morphophonological expression of gender marking in Spanish. A preference for feminine determiners was observed in the judgment task, which differs from the masculine default trend observed in Spanish–English bilinguals (Jake, Myers-Scotton & Gross, 2002). Our results point to feminine gender as default in Spanish–Basque mixed DPs, indicating that the resources that bilinguals use for gender assignment can be different from those of monolinguals. We argue that this is an outcome of interacting processes which take place at the interfaces (lexicon, phonology, morphosyntax) of both languages, resulting in cross-language effects.

This article considers the acquisition of three English syntax–discourse interface constructions: Topicalization, Focus Fronting and Left Dislocation. We use data from Basque–Spanish bilinguals learning English as a third language (L3) as a test case for the Interface Hypothesis (IH, Sorace, 2011). The IH has made specific predictions about second language (L2) acquisition and such predictions can be extrapolated to L3 on the basis of interface delay explanations. Thirty contexts and embedded test sentences with and without pronouns were used; participants had to rate the acceptability of each audio stimulus sentence in the context on a seven-point scale. We tested Basque–Spanish bilinguals dominant in Basque (n = 23), Basque–Spanish bilinguals dominant in Spanish (n = 24), Spanish L2 English learners (n = 39) as well as native English speakers (n = 24). Findings provide evidence against current L3 acquisition models and potential arguments for both cumulative enhancement as well as cumulative inhibition as possible processes in L3 acquisition.

The aim of this study was to validate the Basque version of the CDS (Children's Depression Scale, Lang & Tisher, 1978), one of the most widely used questionnaires for the assessment of childhood depression, which has already been proved to be a valid and reliable tool in different cultures. The questionnaire was administered to a community sample of 886 participants (432 males and 454 females) aged between 8 and 16. A two-factor solution was obtained (Depressive dimension and Positive Dimension), which accounted for 29.86 % of the variance. Reliability with regard to internal consistency level and long-term stability was good (α = .95 and .79; and R = .73 and .59 for Depressive and Positive dimensions, respectively). Analysis of Differential Item Functioning with respect to age and gender showed that 91% and 88% of the items, respectively, did not present DIF. External validity evidence for the questionnaire was also obtained. We consider that the present work offers researchers and professionals interested in this area of study a valid and reliable tool for assessing depressive symptoms in Basque-speaking children and adolescents.

This article reports on a study of standardization and language change in the Basque town of Oiartzun. It presents apparent time evidence suggesting that, while certain local features are giving way to competing standard forms, other emblematic features of the local dialect are not undergoing change. It is argued that the absence of change in the case of emblematic local forms is related to community members' ambivalence toward recent economic and social changes in the town. In particular, in the spirit of Labov's Martha's Vineyard study, it is argued that younger Oiartzuners' retention of emblematic local forms is a way of staking a claim to a local identity undercut by recent housing development and suburbanization. In so doing, this article contributes to a growing body of work on the often unique behavior of emblematic local features in language change, particularly in speech communities undergoing rapid social and economic change.I am grateful to the people of Oiartzun for their support and hospitality during the fieldwork portion of this study. I am also grateful to John Singler, Renée Blake, Ricardo Etxepare, Gregory Guy, Richard Kayne, Bambi Schieffelin, Jaqueline Urla, Koldo Zuazo, an anonymous reviewer, and audiences at the University of York, the University of Ottawa, and NWAV 34 for comments pertaining to some of the data presented here. Special thanks also to Iñaki Arbelaitz, Maider Lekuona, Jabi Elizasu, Ana Arruti, and José Luis Erkizia. All errors are my own. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0317842 and by a Fulbright grant. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.