Revitalising Basque: when Tolosa leads by example

After decades of repression under Francoism and its lingering legacy, Basque has reclaimed the streets of Tolosa. The town’s experience suggests that the revival of a minority language is not the result of isolated measures, but rather of sustained collective effort, strong political commitment, and shared social ambition.

As a teenager, Kike Amonarriz recalls that it was rare to hear Basque spoken among young people in his native Tolosa. Coming from a 64-year-old sociolinguist and a familiar face on Basque public television, such a claim is striking. After all, isn’t Tolosa considered a stronghold of the Basque language today?

To understand the scale of the transformation, we must go back to the mid-1970s. In 1975, as Franco lay dying after four decades in power, Basque—also called Euskara by its speakers—had almost disappeared from everyday life in Tolosa. Hemmed in by mountains and shaped by industry, the town had lost its ancestral language in public spaces. Spanish dominated festivals, social life and the street.

“The carnival, Tolosa’s main celebration, was openly Spanish speaking, as was the town as a whole,” Amonarriz explains during an interview in the old quarter, at the headquarters of Galtzaundi. Founded in 1990, the association has since become the main engine of linguistic revitalisation in the area, organising cultural activities, courses and public events with a clear objective: to restore Euskara to daily use.

In those years, the language survived only in small enclaves. A few families continued to speak it at home, but outside those walls it was barely audible. “Older residents could still point out the handful of houses where Euskara was spoken,” Amonarriz recalls. “In the street, it had almost vanished.”

There were, however, a few exceptions. On market days, villagers from the surrounding area brought not only produce but also their language. For a few hours, Euskara resurfaced as a shared means of communication. The market, a commercial hub since the twelfth century linking Navarre, Castile and France, became one of the last public spaces where the language endured.

Although the decline of Euskara in Tolosa had begun as early as the start of the twentieth century, the strong Basque identity of Tolosaldea proved decisive in reversing the trend. By the early twenty-first century, a turning point had been reached. “For the first time in a hundred years, Euskara is heard more often than Spanish on the streets of Tolosa,” Amunarriz notes.

Why here, when similar towns have seen the language fade away?

Slow awakening

Euskara is spoken across two states and three administratively distinct territories: the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre, south of the Pyrenees, and the Basque Country, under French administration, to the north. Of the approximately three million people living across this area, around 30 per cent speak the language. Within this context, Tolosaldea stands out today as one of the most dynamic centres for the use and revitalisation of Euskara.

According to Amonarriz, no single factor explains this success. What matters is the convergence of several elements over time. “These conditions exist elsewhere,” he says. “What distinguishes Tolosa is the consistency, coordination and continuity with which they have been applied.”

Institutional commitment has been one of the key pillars. Tolosa was among the first municipalities in the region to establish a dedicated Euskara service. The local council adopted the language for internal use and consistently supported initiatives that reinforced its presence in everyday life. Language policy, Amonarriz argues, was treated not as a symbolic gesture but as a structural priority.

The results are visible on any Saturday. Markets, parades, youth activities and communal meals fill the streets, and Euskara works naturally as the language of public interaction. This, however, did not happen spontaneously.

“None of it would be possible without coordination,” says Igor Agirre, coordinator of Galtzaundi. “You need structures that bring people together, sustain social commitment and ensure continuity.”

32-year-old Agirre describes Galtzaundi as “both a meeting point and a catalyst.” Its role has been to socialise language policy at a regional level and provide a shared framework for institutions, associations and individuals. Public awareness, he insists, is central to any revitalisation process.

Over 35 years, the organisation has evolved into a regional project. Tolosaldea includes 28 municipalities, more than any other area in Gipuzkoa, yet it is sparsely populated. Nearly half of its 48,000 residents live in Tolosa itself, while the surrounding villages remain small but well-connected.

Agirre labels the region as “a lung that has managed to revive a language nearly suffocated by decades of repression”. Once revitalised in a dense urban centre, Euskara has gradually spread to neighbouring towns.

The figures reflect this shift. Surveys show that usage rose from around 29 per cent in 1985 to 53 per cent in 2023. Among young people, the figure reaches nearly 60 per cent, and among children it exceeds 70 per cent.

Despite these results, Agirre notes that the Tolosa experience has attracted surprisingly little attention elsewhere in the Basque Country. “Interest has often come from outside rather than from within,” he observes.

Education, he adds, has been key. Adult learners, literacy programmes and comprehensive schooling in Euskara were all essential. In this respect, the ikastolas —Basque language schools created outside the official system during the dictatorship played a crucial role in normalising the language for new generations.

Language and awareness

The ikastola movement emerged in the early twentieth century and expanded rapidly in the 1960s as a form of cultural resistance. Operated by families and volunteers, these schools preserved Euskara during the years when it was banned, until their legalisation in 1978.

Itziar Zabala, born in 1964 in the nearby village of Alegia, belongs to the generation shaped by that effort. As a student, she remembers Tolosa as a town where Spanish dominated public life. She later returned to Laskorain ikastola—one of the area’s referential schools—as a teacher after graduating in Basque philology.

“When I began teaching, Euskara was the language of the classroom, but many pupils switched to Spanish as soon as they stepped outside,” she recalls. That disconnect led to the creation of Euskaraz Bizi (“Living in Euskara”), an initiative launched in 1985 to extend the language beyond academic settings.

The aim was simple but ambitious: to make Euskara the language of playgrounds, extracurricular activities and peer relationships. Zabala is blunt: “We were not just producing speakers; we were fostering conscious language agents.”

She stresses the importance of situating Euskara within a broader understanding of linguistic diversity. “Young people need to understand why minority languages disappear and why their preservation matters.”

Still, she acknowledges new challenges. Much of the content consumed by younger generations through digital platforms is in Spanish, affecting both linguistic quality and usage patterns. The pressures facing Euskara today, she notes, are different from those of the past.

Challenges

Despite progress in places such as Tolosaldea, UNESCO labels the language as “vulnerable,” particularly in Navarre, where it lacks full official status. In the northern Basque Country, under French administration, the situation is still more precarious.

Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua, a network of organisations working on language normalisation, has warned of a “linguistic emergency.” While the number of speakers continues to rise, usage is stagnating or declining in many areas. In Navarre, six out of ten students complete their schooling without any contact with the language.

These concerns were echoed recently at Galtzaundi during the presentation of Esnatu ala hil (“Wake up or die” in Basque), a recently released book on the language’s current trajectory. Its co-author, Garikoitz Goikoetxea, warned that without renewed efforts to promote everyday use, Euskara could move from stagnation to decline.

According to the researcher, intergenerational transmission is weakening. If the language ceases to be passed on in the family, even strongholds such as Tolosa could be at risk. The challenge is particularly acute in cities, where 83 per cent of Euskara speakers now live, yet where the language remains marginal in public life.

For Amonarriz, these warnings are a reminder that progress is never guaranteed. “What has worked here does not make us immune. Global social and demographic trends will reach us too,” stresses the sociolinguist.

He brings to mind a line written nearly five centuries ago by Bernat Etxepare, author of the first book printed in Basque: “Euskara, step out into the town square!”

Amonarriz believes the message remains unchanged. “It reminds us that we can never relax our efforts. Caring for a language is a responsibility that crosses generations, and above all, it must remain present in public life.”

https://www.nationalia.info/new/11739/revitalising-basque-when-tolosa-leads-by-example