In the mist of words, uses knowledge.
Many years ago, when I was a student in Boston, I experienced an incident that turned my back on me. While working in the office, a stranger appeared at the door and asked in English where he could find Itziar Laka. When I told him that I was in English, he began to take a meaningless applause from the mouth of the stranger, who in a second became Basque, legally in a miracle. This man was speaking to me in Basque! He caught my Basque in a state of lethargy, so deep a lethargy that it took him a long time to reach my consciousness to wake up in a mess. In that moment that I will remember forever, my mother tongue became incomprehensible, a strange experience that has helped me to understand many questions about language.
This anecdote teaches us that the languages we know are not always equally available in our minds. The languages we use are easier to understand. In fact, frequency governs our mind and, as a result, we find the most frequently used words and structures more quickly. In other words, they are easier for us because we have to make less effort to use them.
In fact, when it comes to language, use and knowledge are inseparable, because use determines knowledge, not the other way around. Let’s take Latin as an example to explain this. I studied Latin for eight years, like many others, starting in school and continuing in college. Thanks to the long hours of schooling given to Latina I can say that I know something about Latina but, I can’t say that I know Latin. For what reason? Just because knowing Latin is being able to do it in Latin.
Therefore, in order to promote the Basque language, we must influence the use of the Basque language in all possible ways. We must realize that the use is not only what we say and hear out loud throughout the day. There is a silent use, and I think we have room for influence there. In bilingual texts, it is crucial that the Basque language is where the eye or ear first strikes. For example, if I go to the post office, although most of what I read there is written in Spanish and Basque, Spanish is the language that my eyes play first because it is written on the left. So, automatically and with nothing I can do to the contrary, my mind activates Spanish and inhibits Basque. As soon as you see the Basque text that is written to the right, it is late in the game of mental frequencies, because this game is played in milliseconds. If the Basque language were presented to the left, it would activate the Basque language and inhibit the Spanish language, there would be one more drop in favor of the Basque language in the game of frequencies.
The mist generated by these drops that favor the frequency of the Basque language in our daily surroundings makes the Basque language easier for everyone, both those of us who have the Basque language as the main language and those who have embarked on the path of the Basque language. Let’s take care, then, that this silent mist, which bathes our minds daily and constantly, falls into Basque as often as possible.
Buletina
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