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It is not easy to write a word in a language following the spelling rules of a foreign one. Writing a Basque name by using the rules of French appears obviously not a simple task. However, that was precisely the case of the notaries in charge of land registry of the French Basque population of Sainte Engrâce (Pays de Soule) both in 1838 and 1914: they had to write the names of some places in that village following the spelling rules of French, although most toponyms were Basque and consequently they could not be easily adaptable to the other language. The notaries had presumably to write these place names in spite they hardly managed with Basque language. That is why the sheets of the cadastral book of Sainte Engrâce are plenty of mistakes. First, because notaries could not understand the language they were transcribing. And second, because they wanted to transcribe the Basque place names under the rules of French spelling. This article tries to show part of the history of the contacts between Basque and French, between a subordinated language and a majority one. The author tries to reveal the rules of transcription used by notaries to achieve their aim: to write a Basque place name according to the rules of French, the only language they really knew.
