LINGUAE VASCONUM PRIMITIAE - Euskaltzaindia

along with four further editions in our century, including this one - the
first and finest of them which Urquijo published as a facsimile in the RIEV
(Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos) in 1933 the painstaking work
of illustrious linguists such as Schuchardt, Ernst Lewy, and especially
René Lafon, who were singularly attracted by the archaic nature of his
language and who zealously researched it, we can safely state without
fear of contradiction that philological and linguistic knowledge of the
work in question hardly poses any mystery for today's linguists.
Nevertheless, the same could not be said for the state of literary research
done on the work as none of the linguists above, with the exception
of Lafon, paid any attention whatsoever to the poetry hidden behind the
language and to this day no one has seriously taken on the task so that,
once and for all, there would be no doubt as to whether or not he deserves
his place among the greatest poets. However, only a Basque-speaker
who has learnt the language at his mother's lap could carry out this task
as no other could hardly appreciate the precious jewels contained in the
work as Van Eys aptly pointed out; «Pour ce qui regarde la valeur poétique
des poésies de Dechepare, nous la laisserons a I'appreciation des
Basques eux-rnérnes. (