Teresa Larruzea, Basque language and culture lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle Université

Teresa Larruzea has been teaching Basque language and culture at Sorbonne Nouvelle Université (Paris) since the 2021/2022 academic year. In this interview, we talked to her about the ‘minor’ or specialisation that Sorbonne Nouvelle will be offering. We also asked her about the interest among students in Paris in Basque studies. Larruzea believes that French public opinion increasingly values regional languages, but that there are still major challenges in the transmission of these languages, in their everyday use and in public recognition.

Teresa Larruzea, you’re a lecturer in Basque language and culture at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, in the Department of Iberian and Latin American Studies. When did you start working there?
I started in the 2021/22 academic year.

Beginning next academic year, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle will introduce a specialisation in the languages and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula regions. Could you tell us about this specialisation, or ‘minor’?
Yes, of course. The ‘minor’ in Languages and cultures of the regions of the Iberian Peninsula will be offered in the Spanish, Portuguese and Linguistics degree programmes. Students will be able to complete 35% of their degree subjects in this specialization. Those who enrol in the minor will receive training over the three years of their studies related to the languages and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula regions, with a focus on Basque, Catalan, and Galician, as well as the history and cultural expressions of these areas.

Four required subjects will be taught in the first year: History of the regional languages of the Iberian Peninsula, History of the cultures of the regions of the Iberian Peninsula, Regional literature of the Iberian Peninsula and Audiovisual Art of the regions of the Iberian Peninsula. In the second and third years, students will choose eight of the following subjects: Basque Language and Culture I, II and III; Catalan Language and Culture I, II and III; Galician Language and Culture I, II and III; and Research and Methodology I and II.
Together with the students enrolled in these three degree programmes, these subjects will be offered as optional to students at any level of any degree programme.

From the students´ point of view, what will this minor bring?
The minor will offer students the chance to study languages, history, literature and other artistic expressions of the Iberian Peninsula. Students who prepare for competitive examinations such as the agrégation or CAPES after completing their degree will have the chance to gain a strong understanding of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Iberian Peninsula. And for students focused on researching the comparative analysis of language and culture, it will be a unique opportunity to explore a new field.

So, besides their regular degree courses, they’ll also be able to learn Basque, Galician and Catalan and specialise in these cultures. What kind of students might be interested in this?
We’ll have students of Spanish and Portuguese Language and Linguistics degrees, but also students from any level of university degree programmes, who can choose these subjects as electives.
We still don´t have any data on next year’s enrolment, but judging by the profile of students who’ve studied subjects related to Basque language, culture and civilisation at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle so far, we have students with an intellectual interest in Basque language training and in the history and anthropology of the Basque Country, especially in Spanish, linguistics, literature, cultural and media studies. It´s common for students from Basque-speaking families to show interest in our subjects. For instance, those with Basque-speaking grandparents may not have learned the language from their parents, yet they still feel a strong connection to Basque culture and language and wish to reclaim their lost heritage.

Would you say that in Paris, there is a general interest in minority languages?
Yes, clearly. Although the French Constitution recognises French as the only official language, several surveys show that 70% of the French population is in favour of recognising linguistic diversity. This percentage rises to 85% in regions that have their own languages.
In fact, the situation is alarming: at the end of the 19th century, over 40% of the population of France spoke one of the regional languages. Today, linguistic centralisation policies have led to a considerable reduction in the use of these languages. According to the VII Sociolinguistic Survey, the percentage of people who speak Basque in Iparralde, the French Basque region, is declining, reaching 20.5% in 2021. Furthermore, only 12.6% of the population uses Basque in everyday life, with a higher presence in family and community settings than in work or institutional contexts.
The data, therefore, show that French public opinion increasingly values regional languages, but that there are still major challenges in the transmission of these languages, in their everyday use and in public recognition. For example, in April 2021, the French National Assembly passed the Regional Languages Protection Act. The law sought to promote language immersion in public schools in regions where Basque, Catalan, Occitan, Corsican, Alsatian and Breton are spoken, allowing them to be the primary languages of instruction in some schools. However, in May 2021 the Constitutional Council rejected the article of the law concerning regional language immersion programmes on the grounds that language immersion left French in a secondary role in public education, contrary to Article 2 of the French Constitution which establishes that French is the language of the Republic. Another example of this challenge is the fact that last November, at the presentation of the new edition of the dictionary of the French Academy, French President Manuel Macron described regional languages as a ‘tool to divide the nation’.
What this makes clear, on the one hand, is the contradiction between the interest of French citizens in regional languages and the attitude of the president towards these languages. And, on the other hand, the tension between the efforts to promote these minority languages and the French constitutional framework. In other words, despite public opinion being largely in favour, there is a significant lack of institutional support for Basque, Catalan, Occitan, Corsican, Alsatian, and Breton languages in France.

What aspects of the Basque language or culture are of particular interest to your students?
I teach subjects related to the political history of the Basque Country and the Basque language. The interests vary among students, but those from philology and linguistics backgrounds are primarily focused on the history and grammar of the Basque language. Students from fields like literature, cultural studies, and cultural mediation are more interested in subjects related to culture and civilization, including contemporary politics and history.

In February you organised the round table ‘linguistic ideologies and Basque. From modernity to the present day’. How did it go?
Really well. We were joined by Miren Artetxe Sarasola, sociolinguist and professor at the University of the Basque Country, and Haritz Azurmendi Arrue, editor of the magazine Jakin and PhD in social sciences. The round table discussed the social history of the Basque language and the challenges of its standardisation, from the perspective of political philosophy and sociolinguistics. Haritz analysed the discourses that took place in the Basque Country on Basqueness throughout the Modern Age. In turn, Miren spoke to us about the influence that linguistic ideologies can have on the revitalisation of the Basque language: how linguistic ideologies influence practices and vice versa, and how we should take them into account when thinking about and undertaking processes of linguistic revitalisation. The audience displayed great interest. Participants included students and researchers from Sorbonne Nouvelle, as well as members and users of the Euskal Etxea Basque centre in Paris.