Essential Basque phrases

Hello, in Euskara. Basque is unrelated to Spanish or any other living language, and even a word or two is noticed here in a way it is not in Madrid.

Thank you, in Euskara. Used constantly and interchangeably with 'gracias' — in Gipuzkoa you will hear the Basque more often than in Bilbao.

A private gastronomic society — a members-only kitchen where a group cooks and eats together. They are everywhere here, historically closed and often male, and being invited into one is a real marker of belonging.

The Basque name for the city, and the one you will see first on road signs, on the Euskotren and in the ayuntamiento's own branding. The official name is Donostia / San Sebastián, both together.

The Basque bar snack, usually on bread with a stick through it. Not a tapa — you pay for each one, and the good bars in the Parte Vieja specialise in two or three.

The call in a cider house when the barrel is opened, and the name of the January-to-April season when the sidrerías in Astigarraga fill nightly. You hold your glass under the stream from the barrel; you do not pour.

The fine persistent drizzle of the Basque coast. Too light for an umbrella, wet enough to soak you over an hour, and present for a good part of the year.

The certified Euskara level attached to a public sector post. For teaching, health service and municipal jobs it is frequently a hard prerequisite rather than a bonus, and it is the single biggest practical consequence of the language for a newcomer's career.

The Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa's treasury, which sets and collects your income tax instead of the Spanish state agency. This is the single biggest administrative difference from the rest of Spain.

Registration on the municipal roll. Here it also establishes which foral treasury you file with and gives you access to Osakidetza.

The Euskotren narrow-gauge line that burrows out to Hendaye on the French border in about half an hour. It is why living here and working in France is an ordinary arrangement rather than an exotic one.

The single European emergency number. In the Basque Country it reaches SOS Deiak, which dispatches the Ertzaintza — the autonomous Basque police force — rather than the national forces.