Joanes Leizarraga
Joanes Leizarraga | |
---|---|
Born | 1506 |
Died | 1601 |
Congregations served | La Bastide-Clairence |
Joanes Leizarraga (1506–1601) was a 16th-century
French spellings of his name are often encountered in older works, for example Ioannes Leiçarraga and Jean de Liçarrague and various other spellings of his surname such as Leissarrague or Leiçarraga. or in Spanish Juan de Lizárraga.
Life
Early years
Leizarraga was born in the
Priesthood
Leizarraga was baptized a
In his dedication of the New Testament to Jeanne d'Albret he mentions having spent time in prison but again, it is not known which prison he was in, what the charge was or how long he was imprisoned for.
He was instituted as
He was married but it is not known when or to whom.
In March 1563 Leizarraga was instructed by
It is indicative of the respect he commanded that in 1582 he was visited by
It is also Thou who mentions the exceptionally harmonious relationship between Protestants and Catholics in Bastide where according to him both faiths were worshipped in the church, something that was rare in 16th century France which is known for its religious wars.
By 1594 Leizarraga was no longer attending the Synod of Béarn, the record stating Monsieur de Lissarrague, ministre de Labastide de Clarence, excusé pour sa vieillesse et pour son indisposition Mr Liazarraga, minister of Bastida, makes his excuse due to old age and being indisposed.[1] He died in Bastide in 1601 at the age of 95.
Leizarraga's work
Leizarraga published three books, all in 1571:
- Iesus Christ Gure Iaunaren Testamentu Berria (The New Testament of Jesus Christ our Lord)
- Kalendrera (a calendar of religious holiday)
- ABC edo Christinoen instructionea (ABC or the Christian's Instruction)
The most famous of these undoubtedly is the Testamentu Berria which even today is known as "Leizarraga's New Testament". Apart from the New Testament's main text, his translation also includes the following addenda:
- Testamentu Berrian diraden icen propri Hebraico eta Greco batzuén declarationeo ("Listing of some of the Hebrew and Greek proper names contained in the New Testament"), 3 pages
- Testamentu Berrico hitz eta mincatzeco manera difficil bakoitz batzu bere declarationéquin ("Listing with explanations of a number of difficult words and expressions of the New Testament"), 13 pages
- Çuberoaco herrian usançatan eztiraden hitz bakoitz batzu hango ançora itzuliac ("Some words not used in Zuberoawith their local equivalents"), 2 pages
- Testamentu Berrico materien erideteco taulá ("A table for finding topics of the New Testament"), 48 pages
- a long section on how to conduct ecclesiastical ceremonies:
- Othoitza ecclesiasticoen forma ("The way of ecclesiastical prayer"), 15 pages
- Baptismoaren administratzeco form ("The way of administering baptism"), 6 pages
- Cenaren celebratzeco forma ("The way of celebrating mass"), 5 pages
- Ezconcaren celebratzeco forma ("The way of celebrating a wedding"), 5 pages
- Erien visitatzeaz ("On visiting the ill"), 2 pages
- Catechismea, cein erran nahi baita, Iesus Christen doctrinán haourrén iracasteco formá... ("The Catechism, meaning the way of teaching the doctrine of Jesus Christ to children..."), a 62-page section in a question and answer format
- a short treatise on the life of a Christian
The Kalendrera is short, 15 page calendar with monthly listings of religious events and holidays, the ABC a short collection of common prayers and instructions on how to conduct daily worship.
Critical appraisal
The main criticism that has been made of his work is that he often used Romance loanwords where native terms exist. For example, he translates "fisher of men" as giza pescadorea rather than giza arrantzalea. At the same time, he uses grammatical forms which were most likely archaic even in his period.
The other main criticism was that, as an over-regional standard, he based it too much on his native
Overall, the quality of his translations and the thoroughness of his effort at standardizing Basque were and are recognized today, and have in no small way contributed to the formation of Standard Basque.
Leizarraga as a source
Leizarraga's texts provide a wealth of data on the Basque of his time.
- His work includes one of the few documented tripersonal verb forms where the direct object is not in the third person: gommendatzen cerauzquiotet "I recommend you to them", which is a type of Basque verb formation no longer in use.[2]
- He is one of the first known authors to have used the term heuscal herria (Euskal Herriain modern spelling, meaning "Basque Country").
As an example, the following is a comparison between Leizarraga's version and the modern version of the Lord's prayer (in Leizarraga's orthography):
Leizarraga | Bizkaian[citation needed ] |
Standard Basque | English |
---|---|---|---|
Gure Aita ceruëtan aicena, Sanctifica bedi hire Icena. Ethor bedi hire Resumá. Eguin bedi hire vorondatea, ceruän beçala lurrean-ere. Gure eguneco oguia iguc egun. Eta barka ietzaguc gure bekatuac, nola guc-ere offensatu gaituztenér barkatzen baitrauëgu. Eta ezgaitzala sar eraci tentationetan, baina deliura gaitzac gaitzetic. Amen. |
Aita gurea zeruetan zagozana, donetsia izan bedi zure izena. Betor gugana zure erregekuntzea. Egin bedi zure naia, zelan zeruan alan lurrean ere. Egunean eguneango gure ogia gaur emon eiguzu. Ta parkatu gure zorrak gure zordunai guk parketan deutseguzan legez. Ez itxi zirikaldian jausten ezpabe gorde gaizuz gatxetik. Amen |
Gure Aita zeruetan zaudena, santu izan bedi zure izena. Etor bedi zure erreinua. Egin bedi zure nahia, zeruan bezala lurrean ere. Emaguzu gaur egun honetako ogia. Barkatu gure zorrak geuk ere gure zordunei barkatzen diegun bezala. Eta ez gu tentaldira eraman baina atera gaitzazu gaitzetik. Amen |
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen. |
Standardisation of Basque
Leizarraga's work represents the first documented effort to bring together the various
He discusses the issue of dialectal divergence in the foreword and says:
...batbederac daqui heuscal herriã quasi etche batetic bercera-ere minçatzeco manerán cer differentiá eta diuersitatea den... [everyone knows how the manner of speaking almost changes from one house to the next in the Basque Country]
In the 20th century, Federico Krutwig proposed to the Basque Academy Leizarraga's language as the basis for Modern Standard Basque, but his ideas did not get enough support.
References
- ISBN 978-3537864192
- Etxegoien, J. Orhipean, Gure Herria ezagutzen Xamar: 1996
- Linschmann, Th. & Schuchardt, H. I. Leiçarragas Baskische Bücher von 1571 Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften: 1900
- "Joanes Leizarraga Vida Y Obra" (PDF). Euskomedia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
- ^ Urbistondo-Picavea, M. Les Basques et le protestantisme en Basse-Navarre et en Soule entre 1563 et 1623 à travers de l’étude comparative et l’analyse des manuscrits Ms 1J1387 et Ms 422/4 des Synodes du Béarn Faculté Pluridisciplinaire de Bayonne: 2002
- ^ Trask, L. The History of Basque Routledge: 1997