basque/Basque/bask

[Mark A Mandel]

On Wed, 17 Apr 2002, Lynne Murphy wrote:

#Hm, I find this interesting, because I've always heard Basque with a back
#vowel, even in my politically incorrect hometown (where I learned at 14
#that 'No outsider has ever mastered the Basque language' --according to my
#high school French teacher).  It would never have occured to me to
#pronounce it with an /ae/.

Did you ever hear it from anyone *but* your h.s. French teacher? S/he
may have been influenced by the French pronunciation (which as we all
know is THE correct one), on the same sort of authority as that
well-known nonfact.

-- Mark