Standard Basque and dialects in the Northern Basque Country: the second part of the survey based on perceptual dialectology

In this article, we present and analyse answers to the open-ended questions from a sociolinguistic survey carried out as part of Royal Academy of the Basque Language's "Euskara eskuz esku" (Basque from Hand to Hand') project. The results and analysis of the answers to open-ended questions have already been published (Euskera, 2018, 63, 2-1, 185-208). These are some of the main results of this second set of answers: according to the respondents, standard Basque in the Northern Basque Country is not well known; it is mixed with dialects; non-Basque speakers doubt its validity. But the first problem is the general dominance of the French language in that territory. This affects the Basque language itself. The most widespread prediction among the respondents is that as dialects are not passed on in general they will be weakened, and standard Basque will be strengthened as a result of that. Answers from forty respondents (who, in one way or another, have authority to speak about Basque) give us a better understanding of the situation of Basque, Basque dialects, French and the connections between them in the Northern Basque Country. It has been taken into account that the linguistic ecosystem is complex and ever-changing in the territory.