Revitalizing Basque informal address form hika: Current discussions regarding gender

The Basque language is considered a gender-neutral language because it does not show grammatical gender. Nonetheless, Basque has some traits in which gender-markers are present. The most prominent could be the informal form of address, hika (derived from the singular second-person personal pronoun “hi”), in which the addressee’s gender needs to be marked in the verb. However, the use of hika is quite limited these days, especially the forms used to address women. Most Basque speakers only use the formal and gender-neutral address term, zuka. In recent years, however, we are witnessing efforts to revitalize hika, with a clear focus on its female forms. Hika is reclaimed among women associated with positive values, such as (self-)confidence and sisterhood. At the same time, the use of hika poses two issues. First, it is based on a gender binary system, which may not respond to current gender diversity in society. Second, there is a tendency of a sexist use of hika through the preference for male forms. Meanwhile, the address form zuka does not present either of these challenges. Speakers may face a dilemma: they are struggling to recover an address form that can discriminate against some speakers, while there is already a gender-neutral address form that is used by most Basque speakers. To explore actual speakers’ disposition about hika and the gender issues its use has implicated, we organized six focus group discussions with 24 people of different profiles who have daily contact with hika. In addition, we also conducted seven dyadic interviews with more qualified participants. Most of the participants do not identify hika as a potential threat for gender-inclusive language. They think making an effort to revitalize the informal address form -especially among women- is worthwhile.