Editing Basques (section)

==Classification==
As with their language, the Basques are clearly a distinct cultural group in their region. They regard themselves as culturally and especially linguistically distinct from their surrounding neighbours. Some Basques identify themselves as Basques only whereas others identify themselves both as Basque and Spanish.<ref name="Euskobarómetro">{{cite web|url=http://www.ehu.es/cpvweb/paginas/series_eusko/series_13.html|title=Evolución de la identidad nacional subjetiva de los vascos, 1981–2006|trans-title=Evolution of the subjective national identity of the Basques, 1981–2006|language=es|publisher=[[Euskobarómetro]]|date=2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622071009/http://www.ehu.es/cpvweb/paginas/series_eusko/series_13.html|archive-date=22 June 2007}} Thirty-three percent of the Basque Autonomous Community in late 2006 identified as only being Basque.</ref> Many Basques regard the designation as a "cultural minority" as incomplete, favouring instead the definition as a nation, the commonly accepted designation for the Basque people up to the rise of the nation-states and the definition imposed by the [[History of the Basque people#Revolution and war|1812 Spanish Constitution]].

In modern times, as a European people living in a highly industrialized area, cultural differences from the rest of Europe are inevitably blurred, although a conscious cultural identity as a people or nation remains very strong, as does an identification with their homeland, even among many Basques who have emigrated to other parts of Spain or France, or to other parts of the world.

The strongest distinction between the Basques and their traditional neighbours is linguistic. Surrounded by [[Romance languages|Romance-language]] speakers, the Basques traditionally spoke (and many still speak) a language that was not only non-Romance but non-Indo-European. The prevailing belief amongst Basques, and forming part of their national identity, is that their language has continuity with the people who were in this region since not only pre-Roman and pre-Celtic times, but since the Stone Age.