His work is “a real plea for the rich heritage” of territorial languages, said Mayor Jean-René Etchegaray, making a nod to article 75 of the Constitution, which is often torpedoed. Xarles Videgain received the Gold medal from the city of Bayonne on Tuesday, December 3, on the occasion of International Basque Day.
The linguist, academic, academician emeritus of the Academy of the Basque Language, was born in Bayonne 77 years ago. Proud ambassador of her city, her entrance speech to the Academy, delivered in 2010, was titled “Baionan” (in Bayonne, in Basque). He then became a full academician.
Among the works of the man who was also a teacher-researcher at the University of Pau and the Pays de l'Adour are “The Linguistic Atlas of the Basque Country”, “The vocabulary of livestock breeding in the Oztibarre region. Contribution to the archives of Basque orality”, or the “Dictionary of Basque first names”.
