Aurrera!: A Textbook for Studying Basque, Volume 1(The Basque Series)

The Basque language is one of Europe's most ancient, its origins as mysterious as those of the Basque people themselves. It is also the official language of Euskadi, the bustling, modern Basque Autonomous Region of Spain, and the preferred tongue of tens of thousands of Basques and their descendants living in the European Basque Country and in diaspora around the world. Aurrera! is a comprehensive text for beginning-level students who are learning Basque (the Batua form approved by the Academy of the Basque Language) in a classroom setting or on their own. Each chapter introduces an element of grammar and offers students new vocabulary, written and spoken exercises, dialogues, and other activities that demonstrate the language in action, plus Basque reading texts that will entertain while they illustrate the material covered in the chapter. The complexities of Basque grammar are explained in clear, easy-to-understand terms, and the dialogues and exercises introduce students to common idioms and the basics of social conversation. Volume 1 covers material for the first two semesters of college-level language-classroom work. It is also designed to give independent learners a sound foundation in the language that will allow them to make their own way in a Basque-speaking environment and to read basic Basque texts.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments How to Use This Book Chapter One: To Be or Not to Be Dialogue: Sorgina Hitz eta esaldi berriak Izan (to be) and nor (who) Affirmative word order Negative word order Singular and plural markers Yes and no questions Dialogue: Gozaen hemendik! Hitz eta esaldi berriak Ala or Edo in questions Responding to zer? nor? and nortzuk? Dialogue: Lagunak Hitz eta esaldi berriak Zenbakiak numbers 1\-20 Answers Chapter Two: Location, Location, Location Dialogue: Bulegoan Hitz eta esaldi berriak Egon (to Be) Dialogue: Non dago banpiroa Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to non? Inessive with common singular nouns Responding to nola? Answers Chapter Three: I'm Not from Around Here Dialogue: Ez naiz hemengoa Hitz eta esaldi berriak Locative -ko with inanimate nouns and place names Responding to nongoa? (where from?) More about nationalities and countries Dialogue: Nolakoa da Xurga banpiroa? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to nolakoa?/nolakoak? (what is someone like?) Building phrases with adjectives Hilabeteak (months of the year) Zenbakiak numbers 20\-40 Answers Chapter Four: Living It Up Dialogue: Non bizi zara? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Bizi izan verb (to live) Affirmative and negative sentences Inessive with proper nouns (place names) Inessive in the plural Inessive with inanimate things Inessive with inanimate proper nounsResponding to norekin? (with whom?): Associative with personal pronouns Associative with personal pronouns Dialogue: Norekin bizi da Xurga? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Answers Chapter Five: This, That and the Other Dialogue: Liburu hau garrantzitsua da! Hitz eta esaldi berriak Demonstratives\--this one, that one, and that one over there Inessive demonstratives with inanimate beings Associative demonstratives with animate and inanimate beings Dialogue: Zenbat gauza dago hormako apaletan? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Numbers with nouns Responding to zenbat? zenbat da? zenbat . . . dago? Asko (many, a lot) Zenbakiak numbers 40\-60 Answers Chapter Six: Where to We Go from Here? Dialogue: Nora zoaz, Goxo? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Joan (to go) and nor (who) Responding to nora? (where to?) Allative case in the plural with inanimate nouns Dialogue: Nola zoaz, Goxo? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Nola zoaz? Kotxez! (How are you going? By car!) Dialogue: Xurga erromantikoa, edo, Bazoaz postetxera gaur? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Egunak (days of the week) Answers Chapter Seven: Where Did That Come From? Dialogue: Nondik nora doaz Goxo eta Xurga? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Etorri (to come) Responding to Nondik? (from where?)\--ablative case with singular nouns Ablative case\--plural, inanimate Ablative and allative forms\--from this one to that one Dialogue: Zein margotakoa da Goxoren azala? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Zein margotakoa da? (What color is it?) Jakin (to know) and zer-nork (what-who) Responding to Badakizu euskaraz? (Do you Know Basque?) Zenbakiak numbers 60\-100 Answers Chapter Eight: The Haves and the Have Nots Dialogue: Burukomina Hitz eta esaldi berriak Eduki (to have, to possess) with singular objects and zer-nork (what-who): Transitive More about ergative markers on subjects Dialogue: Goxo, zer daukazu haitzuloan? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Eduki (to have) with plural objects and zer-nork (what-who) Responding to Zer daukazu? (What do you have?) and Badaukazu . . .? (Do you have. . . ?) Using the partitive -rik (-ik) to express some, any Aginduak (simple commands) Answers Chapter Nine: Been There, Done That Dialogue: Zer gertatu da gaur? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Zer gertatu da? (What happened? What has happened?) Recent past with izan Ukan (to have): Transitive auxiliary verb with singular object Dialogue: Zer gehiago egin duzu gaur? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Recent past (present perfect) with ukan (singular-third-person object) Ukan and zer-nork (what-who) Responding to Zer ordu da? (What time is it?) Answers Chapter Ten: Yours, Mine and Ours Dialogue: Norena da Kotxea? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Noren . . . da? and Norena da? Possessive forms of people's names: Genitive case with proper nouns Possessive forms with living beings (not their names): Genitive case with common animate nouns Possessive forms of plural animate nouns Dialogue: Interneteko ikasgela Possessive (genitive) forms of the demonstratives More About Demonstrative Zenbakiak numbers 100\-1000 Answers Chapter Eleven: Wants and Needs Dialogue: Zer behar du Xurgak Hitz eta esaldi berriak Nahi eta behar (to want and to need) Hitz eta esaldi berriak Ahal eta ezin (can and cannot) Past tense with nahi izan, behar izan, ahal izan, and ezin izan Telling Time Numbers in the thousands: Giving the year Answers Chapter Twelve: What the Future Holds Dialogue: Zer gertatuko da, Xurga Banpiroa esnatu eta gero? Hitz eta esaldi berriak The future tense Nahi, behar, ahal and ezin in the future Responding to Noiz? (When?) Dialogue: Goxoren ipuinak jarraituko du Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Zergatik? (Why?) with -lako (because) Ordinal numbers Answers Chapter Thirteen: Living in the Here and Now Dialogue: Banpiroek ezin dute eguzkia hartu? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Habitual present (compound present) Time expressions to use with the habitual present Responding to Noizero? Practice negatives with more complex structures Dialogue: Nori buruz pentsatzen du Xurgak? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Zeri buruz? Zertari buruz? (About what?) Nori buruz? (About Who[m]?) Expressing I know how to with jakin and present participles Responding to Norentzat? (For whom?): Destinative case Responding to Zer esan duzu? with subordination marker -la Dates Answers Chapter Fourteen: Like It or Not Dialogue: Gustatzen zaizu horrrelako telesaioa? Hitz eta esaldi berriak Izan (to be) and nor-nori (who-to whom) Responding to Gustatzen zaizu? (Do you like it?) Verbal nouns from present participles Gustatzen zaio? (Is it pleasing to him? Does she like it?) Dative Case (indirect object) with pronouns and nouns Responding to Nori gustatzen zaio? (Who likes it?) Responding to Interesatzen zaizu? (Does it interest you?) and Berdin zaizu? (Is it all the same to you?) Responding to Norengana zoaz? Norengana joan zara? (To whom are you going? To whom did you go?) Hitz eta esaldi berriak Responding to Norengandik zatoz? Norengandik etorri zara? (From whom have you come? Inessive with animate beings: Saying "I believe in . . ." Demonstratives: Allative, ablative, and inessive with animate beings Zer ordu da? Telling time before the hour Norengana doa Goxo? (Where is Goxo going?) Answers Glossary Index

About the Author :
Linda White is emerita professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, Center for Basque Studies, where she taught Basque for many years. She is the coauthor of the Basque-English, English-Basque Dictionary and the English-Basque Dictionary, both published by the University of Nevada Press, and has translated numerous works from Basque and Spanish.

Review :
""This is a good, solid introduction to Basque. The explanations are clear, helpful, and appropriate for beginning students, and the overall tone is encouraging and friendly. The author provides abundant exercises for practice and clearly explains how these might be adapted for classroom or individual use, and she offers suggestions for effective learning strategies. The dialogues are excellent, with each one including many occurrences of the structure in question as well as variations on the structure, such at its negative and interrogative forms."" --Kristin Addis, translator and editor of Basque Literature