Basque in the glory

OK, I’ll admit it… When I arrived at University College London at the tender age of eighteen, I’d actually signed up to study a degree in German, I was irresistibly drawn to the Dutch department and swapping: in no small part because I then wouldn’t have to labour over German’s baroque case system with its nominative, accusative, dative, genitive and the like. Yes, I was well aware that Dutch (AKA: “German Lite”) would be much more of a walk in the park when it came to grammar; albeit with the pronunciation clearly posing a hefty challenge…

Fast forward a few years, and could some latent sense of shame in myself and my lack of tenacity be what led me to start a course in Basque, that ancient and unique tongue that boasts no less than ten cases, including the mind-boggling “ergative”?

(to be continued)