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Everyone on the Spanish side of the Basque Country speaks Spanish, and some speak the unique local language: Basque.

The Basque language (or Euskara, in Basque) is one of the oldest living languages in Europe, and its origin remains a mystery nowadays since it isn’t part of any known language family. Basque didn’t even have a written literary tradition until the 19th century, and very little records exist from before that moment. During Francoist Spain, the use of Basque was severely forbidden, but its status has improved in the last years. However, it still is a very small language.

Basque has a unique grammar, and its lack of relative languages may make it very difficult to learn. For instance, articles appear attached to words (in "sua", -a is the article “the”; so, the literal translation would be “fire-the”).