BILINGUALISM IN SPANISH AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES BASQUE COUNTRY AND NAVARRA: SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECT

Abstract

The paper analyzes the bilingualism in two autonomous regions of Spain, Basque Country and Navarra, which share the same minority language officially recognized on the local level. The aim is to understand how the language situation in the region has changed in last twenty years. For the comparison, we used the results of the previous sociolinguistic study held in Spain in 1998. Moreover, a questionnaire was elaborated and presented to 200 respondents (100 from each region). The results show that due to an appropriate favorable language politics, the Basque language is being used in all the spheres of people’s lives and is being regarded as the identifier language, while Spanish is a mediator language.