bascophone

Etymology

From French bascophone, from basque + -phone. By surface analysis, Basco- + -phone.

Why this word is great

**Bascophone** (adj.) — Speaking the Basque language. From French *bascophone*, combining *Basque* (referring to the Basque people or their language) and *-phone* ("speaking"). Unlike *francophone*, which denotes French speakers, or *hispanophone*, which refers to Spanish, *bascophone* isolates the last surviving pre-Indo-European tongue of Western Europe. A bascophone might recite verses in Bilbao, haggle in Bayonne’s markets, or sing lullabies in Gipuzkoan farmhouses—each utterance a defiance of time, geography, and the Tower of Babel.

adj

  1. Speaking the Basque language.“The capital of Álava, Vitoria is the largest and least Bascophone of the three Basque provinces and the seat of the autonomous Basque government.”

noun

  1. A speaker of the Basque language.“However, the Bascophones have their worldly moments, in which they indulge in their national dances, their sad, sweet songs, set in a minor key, and the Souletin dramas, known as “pastorales,” the representation of which may last for seven or eight hours.”