Euskaldunization and literacy, that was the dual role of Euskaltegis and night schools. Teach Euskera to the Castilian Parasites and provide Euskaldunes with tools to read and write in Basque. What was going to be alphabetized was a generation that brought the Basque from home, that had not learned in Basque at school, that had grown up at a time when there were very few media in Basque, and very numerous. In all Euskaltegis literacy groups were formed, not because they needed a degree, but because they wanted to be literate people in their language.

After a few years, as model D was being imposed on schools, and as audiovisual media in Basque grew, these groups were disappearing; there was increasing difficulty in forming literacy groups, and Euskaltegis focused mainly on Euskaldunization. In the 1990s, I would say that there were already very few literacy groups in Euskaltegis.

It is clear that ETB, for example, with all its deficiencies, has served to partially literacy the Basque people, especially the elderly who do not have much chance of attending class. Words like the scoreboard or the draw, that our parents wouldn't use otherwise, they learned by watching ETB's ball games. They probably would have used the scoreboard and speech empathy, but they knew it was told otherwise, and it didn't give them ear pain to listen like that, but they felt learning. And the same with the other media in Basque. Everyone has done this literacy work. And yet how many people are still speaking in Basque, but not able to read and write easily? Who does not enjoy reading in Basque or has many difficulties and fears to write a note?

And in this situation, I am concerned about the behavior of the literate, young as the elderly, in written communication. I've seen posters with phrases like: “At a work dinner, aim.” And let’s not say on social networks – Twitter or X, Whatsapp… – with messages like “enkargue eztola ingo”. I have heard that one of the reasons is that Euskara batua, the standard, has no sparks and, furthermore, that we are losing the vitality of the local Euskara by writing everything so formally. I have a lot of doubt.

On the one hand, I have always believed that it is better for people who do not master the written Basque language than the people who speak in Spanish to be titili-potolo, because the one who is doing it can improve it over time, and on the other hand, because a language is not a treasure to keep it in a box, but a living tool, like all languages, that is constantly renewed and changed with the use of the Basque used. But it happens that what you're writing like that is often not what you're doing in Basque, but literate people. What benefits does vitality bring? I think that little, because as everyone writes in their own way it is a huge chaos, and because it also harms what is not literate, because it leaves it without references or models.

That is not the case with the majority languages. For example, those who write in Basque using localisms, when they communicate in Spanish, do it almost always in standard Spanish, leaving localisms for very anecdotal moments. In Basque it is considered pedantic to write correctly. Perhaps I am wrong, but the problem is not that in part we do not completely overcome the feeling that the Basque language is a secondary language?