Basque

Introduction

Basque is a language isolate spoken in the Pyrenees by approximately 700,000 people on either side of the France-Spain border. It is an agglutinating language with an extensive case system and verbal morphology.

Phonology

Point of Articulation	Stop	Nasal	Trill	Tap	Fricative	Lateral	Approximant	Affricate
Bilabial	p b	m
Labiodental					f (1)
Alveolar	t d	n	rr	r	s z (2)	l		ts tz
Post-Alveolar					x			tx
Palatal	tt dd	ñ				ll
Velar	k g				j

1. f is quite rare, and mostly occurs in loan words such as kafe. It is arguably not a sound originally present in Basque
2. the distinction between s and z is not one of voicing, but rather s is apical (the tongue tip rather than the blade creates the sound). s sounds somewhat like [S].

Voiced stops are also often softened inside words until they become fricatives (b -> B, d -> D, g -> G) or vanish entirely. The Basque vowel system is a standard i e a o u similar to Spanish, with no distinction for length, and no nasal vowels (except in one dialect). There are several diphthongs including eu au ai ei.