Forms and Speakers from Dialect Bordering Areas in North-Western Soule

• Published in: Fontes linguae vasconum Vol. 41; no. 111; pp. 153 - 218
• Main Author: Camino, Inaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Basque
• Published: 01-07-2009
• ISSN: 0046-435X

Our paper deals with the complex lectal behavior shown by speakers living in dialect bordering areas. In this kind of geolectal contexts, we find a high degree of linguistic polymorphism in the varieties being used by the speakers. The area we have explored is rather unknown for dialectology & takes the towns situated in the plain going from Saint-Palais to Mauleon & in the mountainous area which constitute crucially the dividing line between Mixe valley & the province of Soule. The divergence between the dialects spoken in Mixe valiev & Soule gradually decreases as we move away from the central towns of each territory, but it is still possible to draw a dividing line between the two dialects: we can consider the dialect spoken in Charrite-de-Bas & Oyhercq as the initiation point of the Souletin dialect, whereas the variety employed in Undurein & Ainharp can be taken as totally Souletin. The town of Atone locates better in the Mixe dialect region, but its speakers also use many Souletin forms. The variety of the town of Lohitzun is more characteristic of the Mixe dialect. Nowadays, it is Pagola the town in which we find more polymorphism, since speakers living there use both Souletin & Mixe dialect forms. Adapted from the source document