Abstract : This paper deals with the current situation of the Basque language (euskara) and the policy implemented in its favour in the Northern Basque Country (Ipar Euskal Herria) or French Basque Country. For a good understanding of this situation in its complexity, the different language policies applied in the three Basque administrative units in the Spanish and French states are taken into account, and that of the French state too.
The first observation is that the number of speakers falls regularly, even if it is in a less important way now, speakers being more numerous in the elderly than in the younger generation (sociolinguistic surveys of 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006). However efforts are made, in particular in language teaching which now relates to 30% of the children of the elementary school (bilingual teaching and teaching by immersion).
On of the aims of this paper will be to show the limits of the public linguistic policy implemented, for the first time, by the authorities (first stage in 2000, second in 2007). We will also highlight the importance of the French national legislative context, even if this one does not completely limit all the initiatives which can be taken at local level.
On the whole, our analysis is a little different from that of Baxok (ISJL, 2005, 174). If the commitment of the associations of support for the language is very important, that of the society as a whole is less, even if this one becomes gradually more favorable. The public linguistic policy is at its beginnings. This is a first positive step with which one cannot be satisfied.
From a general point view, we can say that three partners, three protagonists are involved in the process of recovery or loss of a language. To make it simpler, I would say that the government, the regional and local authorities are the decision-makers and financial backers, the agents of the linguistic policy are the providers, the project managers and that the society, the citizens are the addressees/beneficiaries. They all interact together. This leads me to develop a theory of the process of revitalization or loss of a language, the “Three Partners Model”.
