# Euskara: ur-ura



## Ricardo Zamora

Kaixo, euskal lagunak!

Euskara (bueno, egia esan, gipuzkera) ikasten det, eta duda hurrengoa daukat:

Zergatik "ur" (agua) atzizkirekin da "ura"? Zergatik ez da "urra", "lur-lurra" edo "senar-senarra" moduan (adibidez)? Arau bat horretarako dago?

Eskerrik asko zuen laguntzagatik!


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## Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

Kaixo, Ricardo.  I cannot write in Basque or Spanish, so I hope you don't mind an answer in English.

The Basque sounds spelled "r" and "rr" are the same when they occur at the end of a word, and are both spelled "r".  But when a vowel is added, the difference can be heard and is shown in the spelling.

Most words that end in "r" actually have the "rr" sound (for example, senar -> senarra) .  The words that do not, according to de Rijk's_ Standard Basque: a progressive grammar_, are the following:

zer
ezer
nor
inor
hor
paper
plater
plazer
ur
zur

All of these keep the single 'r' when a vowel is added (ur -> ura).  There is no rule; you just need to know which words behave this way.  Fortunately it's a short list and not hard to remember.


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## entangledbank

And _ur_ (or _hur_) can also mean "hazelnut" (_avellana_), and then it is normal: with the article it is _urra_.


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## Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

entangledbank said:


> And _ur_ (or _hur_) can also mean "hazelnut" (_avellana_), and then it is normal: with the article it is _urra_.


Thanks, eb. De Rijk doesn't mention that meaning of _ur_, presumably because the book is about Batua and it would be spelled _hur _there.


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## Ricardo Zamora

Thank you guys! Of course I don't mind and answer in English –it is actually delightful to find such an interest in Basque amongst foreigners. I guess this magical language captivates you as much as me 

As for the contributions, I found them very helpful. I'll just try to remember the list –and from now on, I will never forget how to say hazelnut in Basque 

Agur!


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## Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

Ricardo Zamora said:


> Thank you guys! Of course I don't mind and answer in English –it is actually delightful to find such an interest in Basque amongst foreigners. I guess this magical language captivates you as much as me
> 
> As for the contributions, I found them very helpful. I'll just try to remember the list –and from now on, I will never forget how to say hazelnut in Basque
> 
> Agur!


I've had a mild interest in Basque for several years, and even went so far as to buy the de Rijk Batua grammar a couple of years ago, but I never got very far with it.  But recently I found an old edition of Basque folksongs by R.M. de Azkue, and that got me started studying the language again.  My voice teacher thinks I should know what the songs are about before I try to sing them in public, so I'm going to be trying to translate them (there are Spanish translations in the songbook, but they were written to fit the existing melodies, so they often don't say exactly what the Basque texts say).  The texts are old-fashoined and not in Batua spelling, of course (_eldu _instead of _heldu_, for example), which has given me a little trouble.  I'll probably be coming back to this forum from time to time to ask questions about some of my translations.


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## Ricardo Zamora

That's great Hercules! Good luck, and I hope I will be able to help you too!


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## entangledbank

I did evening classes years ago, and delight in the look of the language, and the fact you can make words like _emakumearengatik_. But I despair of ever getting my _zait_ and _zaizkio_, _nuen_ and _genuen_ right. How do their children learn??


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## Ricardo Zamora

entangledbank said:


> How do their children learn??



This is something I've always wondered about


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