Basques

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Basques
Euskaldunak  (Basque)
Total population
c. 3 million
Languages
BasqueSpanishFrench
Religion
Christianity (mostly Catholicism)

The Basques are an ethnic group from the western Pyrenees.[1] Basques speak the Basque language and share ancestry with ancient Vascones and Aquitanians.[2][3]

Basques are indigenous to area known as the Euskal Herria, located on the coast of the Bay of Biscay on the Iberian Peninsula and south-western France.[3]

Culture[change | change source]

Language[change | change source]

The Basque language (endonym: euskara) is spoken by 25%-30%[4] of people in Basque Country. Basque is a language isolate and is unlike other languages.

Sports[change | change source]

Basque pelota is a sport played in Basque Country and other places of the world. Jai Alai, a type of Basque pelota, can be found in the United States and Macau.

Religion[change | change source]

Traditionally, Basques are Catholic. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, was a Basque.

References[change | change source]

  1. "Basque". Oxford Reference online. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  2. Günther, Torsten; et al. (2015). "Ancient genomes link early farmers from Atapuerca in Spain to modern-day Basques". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (38): 11917–11922. Bibcode:2015PNAS..11211917G. doi:10.1073/pnas.1509851112. PMC 4586848. PMID 26351665.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Olalde, Iñigo; et al. (2019). "The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years". Science. 363 (6432): 1230–1234. Bibcode:2019Sci...363.1230O. doi:10.1126/science.aav4040. PMC 6436108. PMID 30872528.
  4. "Basque sociolinguistics". Eke.eus. Archived from the original on 2019-08-02. Retrieved 2019-10-21.