It is not a typographical error that the title has been so written, V. A brief review of the Sociolinguistic Survey. In fact, one of the conclusions of the study just published by the Vice-Ministry of Language Policy is that: “In the CAV, more and more people use the Basque language and fewer and fewer people use it exclusively in Spanish”. That's what the hopeful and hopeful vision of these sociolinguistic outcomes is. See if that optimism can be confirmed with the street use data that will be published by the Sociolinguistics Cluster in the coming months. If so, congratulations to us, the Basque people; fortunate to all of us, the Basques.

Anyone who wants to see a half-empty bottle certainly has something to do with that survey; but at the beginning of the first outline of these lines I have banned myself from using it. In fact, the question that was asked in the blog of Communication (h)egia came to mind: What would be the affective consequences if we increased the percentage of good news about Euskera in the Basque Country and in the others? Yes, both sincere Euskaldun and Euskalgintza need positive news at the cost of many years of effort.

That is why I have made this question the reason for these lines. In fact, I am sure that the Basque Country will help you much more with a joyful smile than the unintentional and dark gesture. In this dispute of lights and shadows, LIGHT will help us further than the darkness of shadows.

The results of this survey show some signs that point to the strength of progress: the increased use of Euskera in the relationships between local administration and health services, as well as, individually, in the three territories of the CAPV. Likewise, the dissemination of knowledge is satisfactory, as it is an essential condition for use.

Once these advances have been accepted, consideration will have to be given to shortcomings, not before. And it is clear that on the road to the normalization of the Basque country there are/have things to correct or improve, among other things, the reversal of the use of the Euskaldunes areas or the failure of the transmission by a third of the mixed families, as well as the reflection on the possibilities of strengthening and accelerating the process.

Beyond the results of this survey, there are other aspects to be solved or reoriented in the Basque country. One of them is the symbolic violence suffered by the Basques, the dependence of the Spanish world that we have unconsciously internalized. Examples: for all the interlocutors to speak in Spanish before a single erdaldun (or quasi euskaldun); for the first word to be spoken in Spanish to the unknown; for the most important issues (doctor, work, money...) to be translated into Spanish, etc. In order to free ourselves from this dependence and subvert these self-destructive behaviors, a number of objective and subjective conditions must be met; for example: to increase the number of Euskaldunes; to raise the Basques' awareness of the situation of dependency we suffer and to gain confidence and legitimacy to do so in Euskera. In spite of that, if this first condition is gradually being fulfilled, we now give priority to others.

But these aspects to be corrected should be analyzed in the ILT of what was achieved, that is, as an improvement in the process, not as a criticism that questions the efforts of years.