Aurrera!: A Textbook for Studying Basque, Volume 2

Pronunciation Guide

xvi h ow to use th is book without looking at the translations. If you desire a mo re difficult challenge, work from the English equivalents and try to produce the Basque lines. The Hitz eta esal di berriak (New words and phrases) sections consist of lists of words used in the initial text along with other vocabulary and phrases that will be encountered in the drills and activities of each chapter. Chapters often contain two and sometimes three separate texts, and most will b e followed by a word list, unless all the words in that text have already appeared in a previous list. Various methods for studying vocabulary are offered throughout the book. A combination of methods often works best, so try out different activities while studying vocabulary. For many beginners, Basque words appear quite difficult at first, because there are so few similarities to English, except for the few borrowed words you will enco unter. Allow yourself sufficient time for studying vocabulary, and quiz yourself (from Basque to English at first, and then from English to Basque) as you study each list. There is also a glossary at the end of the book with definitions of all the Basque words in the textbook. Where drills are provided, they will be most useful if the student performs them repeatedly over time. For the benefit of the student undertaking selfstudy , I have made an effort to clearly explain how the drills work. Pay special attention to the introduction of drills in c hapter 1 s o that you can become familiar with their purpose and format. And remember that a good study plan includes reading the entire drill aloud a few times before covering one column and generating your own responses. Practice and repetition are the keys to mastering a la nguage. From my own language-learning experiences, I ha ve found that devoting thirty minutes a day to study helps immensely. You can also create your own audio study practice by recording some of the drills yourself. Remember to allow enough time b etween lines f or your response. If you do t his, you should include the model, a c ue, then a pa use of about four seconds, and then the correct response. After the response, include another pause of about four seconds to allow yourself time t o repeat the correct response. Thus, you will have two chances to produce the correct response, once on your own and then again after hearing the response on the recorded medium. Some students may worry that their pronunciation errors h ow to use th is book xvii will be internalized. However, if you have no native speaker to record for you, your own voice is better than no practice at all. And making your own audio study aid provides a great deal of oral practice in itself. More than once, I discovered that after creating my own drill tape, I sailed through the drills themselves , because I had learned so much by my own recordings. Throughout each chapter, new material is presented, followed by activities. Answers to most of the activities are provided at the end of the chapter. It is up to you to attempt the activities before looking at the answers. However, this feature will be extremely helpful in cases where the activity feels too difficult to attempt without guidance. In that case, you may peek at the answers before completing the activity, just to make sure you’re on the right track. You will als o see abbreviations in t he vocabulary lists, dr ills, and answer keys as follows: adj. a djective adv. adv erb fam. fa miliar lit. li terally n. no un pl. p lural poss. possessive sing. sin gular v. v erb Aurrera, beti aurrera! Onward, ever onward! xix Pronunciation Guide Before addressing pronunciation, let me s ay that Basque speakers will mak e great efforts to understand your attempts to speak their language. Do not be afraid to engage others in conversation. If you are misunderstood, try writing what you want to say in o rder to clarify your meaning. This met hod is als o likely to elicit a very friendly pronunciation lesson from your listener. Enjoy your language-learning experience, and do not become silent for fear of making a mistake. For t hose w ho p refer a m uch mo re co mplete dis...