You are now entering a new room called: ‘Euskara, gehituz dago eginda’, ‘Basque, a language that joins rather than divides’.

Here, you will discover how our language works. You will see how Basque describes the world in a very direct and creative way. Because it makes new words from the words it already has.

You will also see how Basque borrows words from many other languages, but also, how it lends its words to them.

When you are ready, come and discover all this and more.

The first stop is the compound word game. Here, you will see that Basque is a language based on joining.

Why do we say that? Because many of its words are formed by joining two or more other words. And the best thing is that the clue to the meaning of this new word generally lies in the words themselves.

For example: ‘elkar’ means ‘together’ and ‘hizketa’ means ‘talk’. If we join these two words together, we get the term ‘elkarrizketa’, which means ‘conversation’. Or to put it another way, and as the words themselves indicate: ‘talking together’.

Makes sense, right?

We now invite you to play around with the language on the touchscreens. First, choose your language and then start joining words together. To join words together, simply press on their files, do not drag them.
You’ll discover lots of new words!

After you’ve finished, continue charting the evolution of Basque over the centuries.