Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

The Basque has been saved

The good news comes from the Faculty of Computer Science: the machine has learned Basque. Finally. Finally. The Basque has been saved. Hallelujah. In the history books of Euskal Herria, the year 2026 will be written in a golden letter, “and in that year the Basque language was saved”. In the blue sky I can hear the trumpets of angels spreading joy to all the towns, neighborhoods and houses of the Basque Country. The “last speaker” of the Basque language will never die. Let's find Txillardegi standing at the end.

All the languages that have arrived digitally healthy by 2026 have gained eternity. They have become immortal. Thank you Elhuyar, thank you Hitz, thank you Berria, thank you Wikilarien Elkartea... and all, thank you, for feeding the digital space in Basque so far. You have made the Basque language immortal. Come on, you guys.

Vascophiles can live without existential anxiety, once and for all. The machines do not die, and the machines will not forget the Basque language. From now on, and forever, there will be someone who speaks Basque, someone who teaches Basque, someone who explains what a word means. Forever and in hand. Someone with open arms. Someone from silicone, but someone. Enough people, who will respond in Basque, who will be able to bring anything from other languages to Basque, who will guarantee that in the digital field we live only in Basque.

The machines that know Basque shape the dream of the Basque language. We can order “Translate everything into Basque, please” at almost no cost, without getting bad faces back, without even having to justify it. That's liberation. And suddenly everything begins to be received only in Basque. To live in Basque, at last. All the navigation on the Internet in Basque, everything we read on the screen in Basque, all the interactions on the networks (with anyone) in Basque, and whatever comes to us in Basque (if we want). Some in English, we in Basque. Parallel to English and Basque, linguistic equality for the first time in history. Euskal lainoan euskaraz.

And then, if that’s the situation, if the Basque language has been saved. why aren’t we celebrating? Why have we not marked the date indicated in the calendar? Why don't we steal lambs in the town square? Why didn’t my heart explode?

I asked my friends. Someone told me that it's too early, that the news hasn't yet spread. It could be, but that doesn't explain why he and I haven't celebrated the news with champagne yet. Why we keep drinking black tea every day. Why aren’t we are celebrating?

I also got a cynical answer. As a variant of the substitution theory. Just as artificial intelligence will make workers unnecessary, so the Basque language has made us unnecessary. The fact that the Basque language is safe takes away the meaning of life from Basque speakers, so we prefer not to celebrate it. With what are we going to give matraca now? That it is better to silence the news than to celebrate it, so that those who do not want to learn Basque are not aware that our linguistic rights are guaranteed in the digital field.

My explanation is that we are suspicious of artificial intelligence. We're more than happy. That the concern for the future does not allow us to enjoy the moment. It's like a climate emergency. That we look at the machine that makes us in Basque the way we have looked with concern at the beautiful blue skies that we have had throughout the summer.

The Basque language has always been the Basque language, and artificial intelligence generates populist doubts. That thing that saved the Basque language, is it Basque? Its owners are not. Will it help us to strengthen the Basque Country? Or will it take us in the opposite direction?

The objective of the Euskaltzales is to speak in Basque on Basque soil, to speak in Basque with their compatriots. The Basque fog that will surround us in Basque in an autistic way will not strengthen us as a people. The Basque language has been saved in the fog, but the Basque language in the fog does not bring us closer to our fellow citizens. On the contrary, it keeps us apart. Because the Basque language we receive from the speakers of the devices does not unite the Basque Country linguistically.

The Basque language has been saved, like Latin, and that is certainly good. But, I'm afraid, at the same time, we're not feeling that the people of the earth continue to dissolve in the face of the clouds.