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Doing a Dictionary by Linda White The telephone rings in the Basque Studies office. A staff member answers and is met with one of our most frequent requests. “Do you have a Basque dictionary?” “Yes, we have several,” the staff member replies cautiously, already anticipating the outcome of the conversation. “Do you speak Spanish or French?” There is disappointed silence for a moment, then the question, “Don’t you have one in English?” The answer, as it has been for several years, is that a Basque-English dictionary is forthcoming but not yet available. Unfortunately, this hopeful response does not help those who are seeking immediate help with their language studies. But the waiting period for the first volume (Basque-English) of the dictionary is growing shorter. This rather vague response to a telephoned request represents the accomplishments of years of work and effort on the part of several individuals to make such a dictionary available. The creation of a Basque-English/English-Basque dictionary has been one of the goals of the Basque Studies Program since its earliest days. The need for such a work, as well as a Basque-English grammar, has been paramount for many years. Although occasional wordlists and vocabularies have been prepared, there is still no comprehensive dictionary to aid the English speaker in the task of learning Basque. Even for those who read Spanish or French, the available dictionaries are startlingly inadequate in some ways. Many of them give no indication of part of speech for the Basque words. This can be a nightmare for a student or scholar who knows that adjectives in one language cannot possibly all be expressed as adjectives in another. Just how long does it take to write a dictionary? In 1975 it appeared as if a Basque-English dictionary would become a reality at last. The Program received $14,000 from the Hilliard Committee for the Humanities of the University of Nevada-Reno, and $34,465 from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the project. Work was to commence in September of 1975. The noted linguist Professor Luis Michelena of the University of Salamanca was to direct the project, aided by Ms. Yoshiko Hendricks of the University of Nevada library staff and Basque Studies Program consultant. At that time the decision had already been made to produce a comprehensive Basque-English dictionary. Dr. William Douglass and Jon Bilbao visited the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to consult with the members of a project there who were preparing a dictionary for Old Spanish. A major setback occurred, however, when Professor Michelena was unable to make the trip due both to health reasons and difficulty in obtaining the necessary leave of absence from his teaching position. The Basque Studies Program was forced to resign the grants it had received. It was a dismal moment. Still the Program was committed to the idea of a Basque-English dictionary and work continued toward that goal. Then, in 1976, Gorka Aulestia joined the staff of the BSP. Initially, under the auspices of the Foreign Language department, he taught elementary Basque language courses while completing his Master’s Degrees in French and Spanish literature. In 1979 he began preparation of a Basque-English dictionary. Although he spent a year in Pullman, Washington, he continued his efforts, aided by his wife Dr. Mertxe de Renobales. Then in August 1980 he returned to the Basque Studies Program. Supported at that time by a grant from the Hilliard Committee, Mr. Aulestia brought with him the fruits of a year’s labor on a Basque-English dictionary. Although Mr. Aulestia’s original intention was a rather humble one, he soon expanded the scope of his project to 50,000 entries, including vocabulary from five major dialects and Euskera Batua or Unified Basque. He is also the first to tackle the major problem of indicating parts of speech for the Basque words. He decided to include examples from modern and classic literary works, proverbs, popular expressions and song lyrics in order to make the dictionary more useful to the student of Basque. These examples also impart a distinct cultural flavor to the dictionary. The dictionary was at last on its way to becoming a reality. In the summer of 1981 Mr. Aulestia went to the Basque country to consult with scholars on the structure of the dictionary. But funding was still a critical problem. During that same year, Ernest Richart and John Miller, from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, visited the Program to review the status of the dictionary project. Based on that visit, the Institute subsequently donated $9,000 to the project at a time when it was badly needed, and work continued. As the bulk of the dictionary grew, more donations were received. The University Foundation donated $5,000 to the dictionary project, the Hilliard Foundation provided $14,000 and an anonymous donor gave $20,000. Although a proposal for support of the dictionary project was rejected by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1983, a resubmittal is planned in the future. The Friends of the Basque Studies Program initiated a fundraiser in early 1985 to supply funding for the dictionary, as well as other projects. These are just some of the many ways in which the effort to create a much-needed Basque-English dictionary has been supported. Much of that support has come in the form of hours of collaboration and assistance by other people. Dr. William Douglass’ administrative support and commitment to the project have been unflagging and greatly responsible for the success of the project. Over the years Mr. Aulestia has been assisted by Linda White, Gretchen Holbert, Dr. Mertxe de Renobales, Mateo Osa, Dr. William H. Jacobsen, Jr., and Darlene Ammons. Others have volunteered many hours to read through the text in the hope of catching a few more typos or misspellings missed by already blurry eyes. Among those, Patxi Garmendia, Mertxe de Renobales, Eugene Azpeitia, Martzel Inda, and Andolin Eguzkitza have donated much time. The thought of writing a dictionary may evoke images of cluttered rooms stacked high with teetering towers of lexicographical notes waiting to be alphabetized, ancient scrolls stubbornly divulging musty secrets, and perhaps even Dickensian surroundings. In reality, the Basque-English dictionary project is definitely a twentieth-century creation. Microcomputers and their paraphernalia have become part of the Program décor. Lloyd Olsen of the University of Nevada System Computing Center, Las Vegas, wrote a program to enable us to input the dictionary on computer diskettes. Hundreds of hours have already been spent in front of a CRT by Jill Berner and Linda White, writing the dictionary onto diskettes. This technology eliminates the need to retype whole pages if something should be omitted or misplaced. Mr. Olsen is also deeply involved in the machinations necessary to convert the microcomputer files into a large mainframe file which will eventually produce the printed pages of the dictionary. This space-age approach to the physical production of the dictionary has, naturally, presented its own challenges. One of those is something people seldom even notice when reading a book. The typesetting machines that turn out the thousands of books published every year in this country have built-in sets of rules concerning hyphenation and word breaks at the end of a line. These rules for Basque must be provided for a typesetter who must then approach the Herculean task of coaxing his machine to use both the English set of rules and the Basque…at the same time. These and other challenges must be met in order to publish the Basque-English dictionary. Thus, obviously, much more goes into a dictionary than words and definitions, that aspect, too, has provided unique challenges. The first is, of course, to provide the English translation for the Basque word. But that is not enough. Many students of Basque can attest to that. Take, for instance, the poor student who wants to know the meaning of the Basque word egin. A search in a Basque-Spanish dictionary chosen at random reveals seven meanings for egin, all of them in Spanish. The student is faced with seven more searches in the Spanish-English dictionary in order to explore the possibilities of the word egin. If one wishes to locate the equivalent of a common English expression, even greater obstacles are encountered. Let’s assume the phrase in question is “to make enemies” (which many dictionaries seem to do). The steps involved are: 1. Look up “enemy” in an English/Spanish dictionary. The Spanish equivalent is enemigo. No clue is given as to the Spanish equivalent of “to make enemies.” 2. Consult a Spanish/Basque dictionary for enemigo. The Basque equivalents are arerio and etsai. The Spanish speaker will learn the difference between those two words; the English speaker probably will not wade through the Spanish explanation to find out. 3. Next, check the Basque section for arerio. (We are still looking for “to make enemies,” remember?) There is no indication that arerio means anything more than “enemy.” 4. Check for etsai. Luck intervenes here. Just below etsai is a Basque verb form etsai(tu). The Spanish equivalent is enemistarse, which (finally) means “to make enemies.” However, there is no hint about how to use etsaitu, whether it’s transitive or intransitive, etc. Faced with these difficulties it is amazing that so many people are struggling to learn Basque. The need for a straightforward comprehensive Basque-English dictionary becomes even more apparent. The structure of the Basque-English dictionary now in progress will greatly simplify the searches described above. In addition to providing the dictionary user with the Basque part of speech, Mr. Aulestia will include a lengthy foreword in the dictionary explaining certain major aspects of Basque grammar. This foreword will also include information on the Basque Academy’s rulings concerning the use of “h” in spelling, provide verb charts, etc. The entries will also contain dialect information. The dictionary includes words from the Vizcayan, Guipuzcoan, Labourdin, Low Navarrese, Zuberoan and Unified Basque (Batua) dialects. The following abbreviations are being used: B Biscay (Vizcay) G Guipuzcoa L Labourd LN Low Navarra Z Zuberoa U Unified Basque (Batua) The words common to at least five dialects will be followed by (C) for “common.” Using the text already completed for the Basque-English dictionary, let’s look up the entry for egin once more (in which v.t. means transitive verb and v.i. means intransitive verb). We discover: egin (C) 1. v.t. to create. Jainkoak egin zuen mundua. God created the world. 2. v.t. to make, to do, to perform. Era askotara egin dezakezu lan hori. You can do that job in many ways. Egin beza bakoitzak ahal duena. Have each one do what he can. Mirari bat egin du. He has performed a miracle. 3. v.t. to build. Etxe berria egin dute. They have built a new house. Cf. eraiki. 4. v.t. to fulfill, to accomplish, to keep. Esanak egin al dituzu? Have you kept your word? Cf. bete. 5. v.t. to speak, to talk. Ez dut euskeraz ondo egiten. I don’t speak Basque well. 6. v.t. to spend time. Oporretan bi aste egin ditut. I have spent two weeks on vacation. 7. v.t. Aux. verb used with nouns to make verbal phrases. Negar egin. To cry. Lo egin. To sleep. Eztul egin. To cough. Lan egin. To work. 8. v.t. to die. Horrenak egin du. He has died. Gureak egin du. This is it for us. 9. v.t. to suppose, to assume; to seem to. Egin dezagun egia dela. Let’s suppose it is true. Aita dela egin dut. He seemed like a father to me. 10. v.t. to get used to, to become accustomed to. Lanera egin al zara? Did you get used to your work? 11. v.t. to bet. Bost dollar engingo nuke hori ez dela amerikanoa. I would bet five dollars that he is not American. 12. v.t. to be (related with weather). Bero egiten du. It is hot. Euria egin du. It has rained. 13. v.t. Emphasizes the main verb in the past tenses. Jan egin dut. I have eaten. (lit.) What I have done precisely is to eat. 14. v.i. to grow up, to become. Zure alaba txikiena handia egin da. Your youngest daughter has grown up. This dictionary provides fourteen different uses for egin and examples for each. Best of all, no further searching is needed. Now let’s look up “enemy” in the English to Basque section (in which n. means noun). enemy n. arerio (B,U) etsai (C). To make enemies of, to make an enemy. Areriotu, v.t. (B,U) To become enemies, to become (someone’s) enemy. Areriotu, v.i. (B,U) “Enemy” has two equivalents in Basque, arerio (used in Vizcayan and Unified Basque) and etsai (common to at least five dialects). The same verb can be used to say “make enemies” and “become enemies” but a different auxiliary verb is needed to distinguish them (one v.t. – transitive, the other v.i. – intransitive). A great deal of information has been packed into this small entry. Other types of information will also be supplied in the forthcoming Basque-English dictionary. Family names are included, their meanings given, and each clearly marked “Used as a last name.” The names of the towns and villages of the Basque country are also included, along with the province in which they are located. Basque customs, such as ram fighting and stone lifting, are explained briefly. After six years of continual effort, the first volume of the dictionary (Basque-English) is nearing completion. The publication of it will herald the passing of the half-way mark. Even now, work is underway on the second half of the dictionary (English-Basque). The earlier doubts concerning completion of the project remain, but we are determined to carry on. The problems of funding, of course, will be with us until the end, but great energy will continue to be devoted to that aspect of the project. The day is fast approaching when staff members will be able to respond in the affirmative to the request for a Basque-English dictionary. We are confident that the final product will be of lasting value and provide Basque scholars and Basque-Americans interested in preserving their heritage alike with an invaluable reference work. |
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