Basque in Different Languages: the Basque language in 81 languages
Basque calls itself euskara, spelled euskera in the table below; Spanish says vasco, French basque, German Baskisch and Japanese バスク語 (basukugo). Its name is given here in 81 languages and 14 writing systems.
A language without relatives, and two names
Basque is Europe’s only known language isolate, related to no other living language. Its own name is euskara; euskera, the form in the Basque row below, is the spelling common in Spanish usage. It is co-official in the Basque Autonomous Community and in the Basque-speaking zone of Navarre, but has no official status in the French Basque Country.1 Its codes are eu, baq and eus.2
Since no sister language could lend a name, the foreign names come from two outside sources: the stem bask- or vasc-, and the native word itself.
Basque in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
45 rows. One row can hold several languages when the spelling matches, as basco does for Interlingua, Italian and Portuguese.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Basque | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English, Tagalog · eng, tgl | Basque | |
| Interlingua, Italian, Portuguese · ina, ita, por | basco | |
| Danish, Norwegian · dan, nor | baskisk | |
| Estonian, Finnish · est, fin | baski | |
| Croatian, Polish · hrv, pol | baskijski | |
| Indonesian, Malay · ind, msa | bahasa Basque | |
| Xhosa, Zulu · xho, zul | isi-Basque | |
| Afrikaans · afr | Baskies | |
| Azerbaijani (Latin) · aze | baskca | |
| Bosnian (Latin) · bos | baskijski | |
| Breton · bre | euskareg | |
| Catalan · cat | basc | |
| Czech · ces | baskičtina | |
| Welsh · cym | Basgeg | |
| German · deu | Baskisch / Baskiſch | |
| Esperanto · epo | eŭska | |
| Basque · eus | euskera | |
| Faroese · fao | baskiskt | |
| French · fra | basque | |
| West Frisian · fry | Baskysk | |
| Scottish Gaelic · gla | Basgais | |
| Irish · gle | Bascais | |
| Galician · glg | eusquera | |
| Guarani · grn | vakoñe'ẽ | |
| Hungarian · hun | baszk | |
| Icelandic · isl | baskneska | |
| Latin · lat | vasce | |
| Latvian · lav | basku | |
| Lithuanian · lit | baskų | |
| Maltese · mlt | Bask | |
| Dutch · nld | Baskisch | |
| Romanian · ron | bască | |
| Slovak · slk | baskidčina | |
| Slovene · slv | baskovščina | |
| Somali · som | basquu | |
| Spanish · spa | vasco | |
| Albanian · sqi | baskishte | |
| Swahili · swa | kibaski | |
| Swedish · swe | baskiska | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | baskça | |
| Turkish · tur | Baskça | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | baskcha | |
| Vietnamese · vie | tiếng Basque | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Latin) · ckb | baskî | |
| Uyghur (Latin) · uig | basikche |
Basque in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Indic and East Asian scripts
33 rows. The romanisation follows the native form in each row; right-to-left scripts are set as read.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Basque | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | баскҹа | |
| Bosnian (Cyrillic) · bos | баскијски | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | баскча | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | баскча | |
| Belarusian · bel | басцкая | basckaja |
| Bulgarian · bul | баскийски | baskijski |
| Kyrgyz · kir | баскча | baskča |
| Macedonian · mkd | баскиски | baskiski |
| Mongolian · mon | баск | bask |
| Russian · rus | баскский | baskskij |
| Serbian · srp | баскијски | baskijski |
| Tajik (Cyrillic) · tgk | баскӣ | baskī |
| Tajik (Arabic script) · tgk | بسکی | baskī |
| Ukrainian · ukr | баскська | basks'ka |
| Arabic · ara | الباسكيّة | al-bāskīyâ |
| Persian · fas | باسکی | bāskī |
| Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) · ckb | باسکی | |
| Sindhi · snd | باسڪ | bāsk |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | باسىكچه | |
| Urdu · urd | باسکی | bāskī |
| Amharic, Tigrinya · amh, tir | ባስክኛ | baskəña |
| Hebrew · heb | באסקית | bāsqīt |
| Yiddish · yid | באַסקיש | baskiš |
| Greek · ell | βασκικά | vaskiká |
| Armenian · hye | բասկերեն | baskeren |
| Georgian · kat | ბასკური | baskuri |
| Hindi, Nepali · hin, nep | बास्क | bāsk |
| Marathi · mar | बॅस्क | bèsk |
| Chinese · zho | 巴斯克语 / 巴斯克文 | bāsīkèyǔ / bāsīkèwén |
| Japanese · jpn | バスク語 | basukugo |
| Korean · kor | 바스크어 | baseukeueo |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาแบ็ซค | pʰāsābæsk |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາບັສເກີ | pʰāsābâtkœ̄ |
Bask and Vasco, euskara and euskareg
Most languages use the stem bask-: Baskisch, baskiska, baskijski, баскский (baskskij), バスク語, 바스크어. Spanish vasco and Latin vasce begin with v, and Galician has borrowed the native word as eusquera.
Breton and Esperanto also build on the native name. Breton turns it into euskareg with its language ending -eg; Esperanto writes eŭska. Guarani vakoñe'ẽ stands on its own, with its usual word for language at the end.
Questions about the name of Basque
What do Basques call their language?
euskara in the standard language. The form euskera is the usual Spanish-language spelling and appears in the table.
Is Basque related to Spanish or French?
No. Basque is a language isolate with no known relation to any living language.
What are the ISO 639 codes of Basque?
eu in ISO 639-1, baq and eus in ISO 639-2, eus in ISO 639-3.
- 1Wikipedia, “Basque language” (Europe’s only known language isolate; endonym euskara, euskera as a common Spanish-language form; co-official in the Basque Autonomous Community and in the Basque-speaking zone of Navarre; no official status in the French Basque Country), checked 28 October 2026. ↑
- 2ISO 639-2 Registration Authority (Library of Congress), Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages, checked 28 October 2026. Basque: baq (bibliographic) and eus (terminology) in ISO 639-2, eu in ISO 639-1. ↑