Basque linguistKoldo Zuazo (born 1956) is a Basque linguist, professor at the University of the Basque Country and specialist in Basque language dialectology and sociolinguistics.
The dialects of the Basque language.
Since 1998, Zuazo's work on the Basque dialects has drawn a new classification and a new map of these dialects—this has been a revolution in a field where few changes were made since Louis Lucien Bonaparte's works (1863).
According to Zuazo, the Basque dialects (together with other language innovations) originated in urban areas:
Zuazo has observed that all dialects had a similar influence of Latin and therefore he thinks that all dialects originated after Roman times. This is aligned with Mitxelena's earlier thoughts on this subject.
Zuazo thinks that the Western dialect originated in Araba, based on the similarities between the dialects of Biscay, west of Navarre, the Deba valley and Goierri.