The Basque Language in Context

Europe's ____________________ are quite closely ____________________ . There are the ____________________ languages , which likely started life in southern ____________________ over ____________________ thousand years ago and now include ____________________ , Swedish , Dutch , ____________________ , English and ____________________ . The ____________________ languages such as Bulgarian , Czech , ____________________ and ____________________ came from the ____________________ , as did the ____________________ languages of Latvia and ____________________ . The ____________________ languages ( predominantly Welsh and ____________________ ) are still spoken in Wales , Scotland and ____________________ , while the ____________________ languages ( primarily Italian , ____________________ , French , Portuguese and Romanian ) have conquered more of the world that the ____________________ themselves ever did . All of these major languages belong to the ____________________ - European language family and ____________________ can track their development back through the ages to their ____________________ languages . But one European language stands completely ____________________ . Basque ( Euskara ) is the ____________________ language in Western ____________________ which is not demonstrably related to any ____________________ , making it a ? language isolate ? . Spoken by over ____________________ , 000 people ? mostly alongside ____________________ Spanish ? Basque has endured ____________________ , Romans and Franco's ____________________ and is currently enjoying a ____________________ as the Basque region finds its identity within modern ____________________ . The other regional languages in Spain are ____________________ Romance languages . Along the motorways in ____________________ , for example , it's not unusual to see one road sign in ____________________ and one in ____________________ , with over 90% of the same words . ____________________ is also similar to Castilian Spanish . But ____________________ is not . Some words have ____________________ to Basque from Spanish over the ____________________ , but the structure of the language is ____________________ . A little history of the Basque language San_Sebastian Well , it has to be a ? little ? history because we don't know how the language ____________________ . Linguists over the years have tried to find ____________________ between Basque and any number of other languages , without any real ____________________ . The language has a distinct ____________________ structure from any other European language and even this ____________________ between dialects . The Basque region itself spans a chunk of ____________________ Spain and south western ____________________ , with most of the population living in ____________________ . When the Romans took ____________________ of the Iberian Peninsula , most tribes ____________________ their own languages ____________________ and replaced them with ____________________ . But the Basques did ____________________ . The language was left in comparative peace until Francisco Franco took power in Spain and moved to ____________________ regional identities by ____________________ ____________________ languages . In the French part of the Basque Country , the state interfered long before to force ____________________ as the primary language , which may explain why the Basque language today survives mainly in ____________________ . Regional devolution is a currently a ____________________ topic in ____________________ . On the streets of Spain's ____________________ , you will still hear more ____________________ than anything else . But the regions have more ____________________ than for ____________________ while traditional culture and interest in regional languages is ____________________ . This can only be ____________________ news for the most ____________________ of European ____________________ .