New speakers of the Basque informal address form hika, the quintessential marker of authenticity

Recent research on new speakers of minoritised languages has spurred a great deal of attention on the process, social dynamics, and motivations of individuals who choose to shift their linguistic repertoires and undergo what is known as a muda. This research seeks to diversify our understanding of such processes by looking at a particular kind of “new” speaker who, while already knowing the language, chooses to adopt linguistic forms that had largely fallen out of use. Drawing on data from an online questionnaire, this paper examines the contextual triggers, motivations, and experiences of male speakers of Basque who have chosen to adopt an informal address form known as hika and gives insight into some of the social value and meanings this form has acquired. The use of the informal pronoun hi significantly affects verbal morphology, which makes it difficult to master for those who have not naturally acquired it. Apart from the purely linguistic challenge, new speakers of hika may face legitimacy issues related to their lack of authenticity, especially when their interlocutor is a native speaker. We look at the trajectories of these new hika speakers, how they managed to engage in hika conversations, and how native speakers reacted to their attempts. Over a third of participants report that they employ more vernacular forms of the language when they speak in hika, and most seem to accommodate to their interlocutors’ local dialect in order to avoid uneasiness. We conclude by suggesting where future research could be beneficial.