Dialects are a treasure of language and color the common box when we are given the opportunity to choose the word we like. In the pronunciation, however, there are two consonants that confuse unity, the Spanish ‘j’ in the South and the French ‘rr’ in the North. The phonetics call them the herb and the uvula, respectively, and both sounds are severe, from the throat. They are phonetically close to each other and, politically, I see them as symmetric symbols of the division of the two sides of the border.

These bizarre sounds are so widespread that we hardly notice them, especially if they are uttered by the voiceless whores of the Shades. They appear more raw when they are taken out by the new generations, especially when they dedicate themselves to the like: they are young and glorious, they are firm and they tighten the bellows with force. A scratch on their throat or something is noticed by the listeners – some of them for sure – and suffering in their ear.

The word ‘j’ and the word ‘rr’ have been introduced into Basque quite recently. For the first time, Larramendi wrote that it did not belong to the Basque language, but was contaminated (pegadiza), and that in the middle of the 18th century it was known in few places in the South. Since then it has been a huge success and today it is very much internalised by many Basques. Once, in a little while ago, when I realized that a Vizcaya from the West was constantly using it, I dared to ask him why he did it; he replied that, unlike his home, he, along with his literacy and his inclusion in the official dialect, accepted the “united” form, which is the ‘j’ of giving birth. Soon after, the Basque Government preferred and advised the roofer ‘j’ [y], and then I remembered the Biscayan, who would return to his homemade habit, since he had the prestige of the academy. Also, this year I had the opportunity to listen again and continue the first slate, subject to the sum in question. Like some Navarrese.

The French ‘rr’ enters the Northern Basque Country much later, as it is not even old in France. It has been condemned by the Basque Government and has not been assimilated by the many elderly people of the interior, starting with Bardoz, Urdiñarbe, Izuran, Bidarro... The sociolinguist Erramun Baxok gives a very nice explanation of this: in his region, in Suhuskun, everyone pronounced the Basque ‘rr’ and called to do it in a French way “Greek” (this “Greek” also has a sense of “totel”). They considered it a special way of speaking, in gold, but now the whole North has been taken over by Parisian fashion and doing otherwise is a mark of Southness, they say, so much so that some of the children of the South's parents have chosen a sound that they have never heard at home, even better North, in order to show their originality. Some of these parents do the same, and the more virtuous ones even join the ‘j’ ear and the ‘rr’ uvular in the same word; listening to their ‘put’, ‘jorra’, ‘follow’ and the like is truly memorable.
There are those who inevitably speak Greek – famous writers, bertsolaris, politicians – or who have not had the opportunity to learn it in any other way. It is not the problem here, it is obvious, but the exaltation and prioritization of such things.
It is important to know the history of the pronunciation of the Basque language, especially so that young people can learn what it was like in the time of Larramendi, “mostly warm and rude”, and how until recently the ‘j’ and ‘rr’ have been; for those who can choose to see it, or at least not to disdain in their friends the activities that go towards unity.