Grammatical gender agreement in Ondarroa Basque: a triangulation study of production and attitudes

• Gorka Basterretxea Santiso ^[3] ; Ager Gondra ^[1] ; Sara Gómez Seibane ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Miami

     University of Miami

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Universidad de La Rioja

     Universidad de La Rioja

     Logroño, España

     
  3. [3] Northeastern University

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• Localización: Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo: International journal of basque linguistics and philology, ISSN 0582-6152, Vol. 59, Nº. 2, 2025, págs. 1-22
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1387/asju.27562
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• Resumen

  • Basque (Euskera) and Spanish are two languages in contact in the Basque Coun-try. One linguistic aspect both languages diverge in is grammatical gender agreement: while Spanish produces grammatical gender agreement, Basque does not. Interestingly, some western Basque varieties have been reported to exhibit Spanish-style gender marking with some adjec-tives derived from Spanish and only in oral production. However, no empirical study has cor-roborated this observation. Thus, with the aim of delimiting the (in)existence of grammatical gender agreement in Basque, this project triangulates the production of and attitudes towards grammatical gender use with 20 Ondarroa Basque speakers (a western Basque variety belong-ing to the province of Bizkaia). Results suggest that Spanish-style grammatical gender agreement is possible with Spanish-originated and Basque adjectives, and that it is perceived as natural, re-spectful, and part of Basque.