Basques
The Basques (Basque: euskaldunak; Spanish: vascos; French: basques, English: or ) are an indigenous ethnic group characterized by the Basque language. Basques primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria), a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.
The Basques are known as:
Euskaldunak in Basque (this ethnonym means "the speakers of the Basque language"; to refer to all the inhabitants of the Basque Country, the name euskal herritarrak is preferred)
Vasco in Spanish
Basque in French and English.
Basco in Gascon and Portuguese.
Etymology of the word Basque
The English word Basque may be pronounced or and derives from the French Basque (pronounced French pronunciation: [bask]), which is derived from Gascon Basco (pronounced /ˈbasku/), cognate with Spanish Vasco (pronounced /ˈbasko/). These, in turn, come from Latin Vasco (pronounced /wasko/), plural Vascones (see History section below). The Latin labial-velar approximant /w/ generally evolved into the bilabials /b/ and /β̞/ in Gascon and Spanish, probably under the influence of Basque and Aquitanian, a language related to old Basque and spoken in Gascony in Antiquity (similarly the Latin /w/ evolved into /v/ in French, Italian and other languages).
