Basque natives vs. Basque learners: The construction of the Basque speaker through satire

In this paper, I examine how the program ¡Vaya Semanita! (“What a week!”), a sketch-comedy program produced in Spain, illustrates the positions taken by different speakers toward the process of “Basquization” or Euskaldunization. More concretely, I focus on the figures of the “euskaldunberri” (the new-Basque speaker) who has learned Basque through instruction as opposed to the “euskaldunzaharra” (the old Basque speaker), whose native tongue is Basque. I argue that by way of social and political satire, the program represents stances and postures that do not tend to enter the public discourse on revitalization in the Basque Country. It is also through humor that Vaya Semanita helps viewers reflect on the social fields contributing to ethnolinguistic processes by cultivating a space where divergent identity orientations may be proposed, interpreted, contested, and consumed.

Research highlights
► Language ideologies in the satirical program Vaya Semanita are examined.
► The program shows stances uncommon in the public discourse of the revitalization movement..
► It shows the positions both Basque natives and Basque learners.
► Instrumental values motivate Basque learners who also find difficulties learning Basque.
► Basque natives feel unauthenticated for not having command of the formal registers of Basque.