Gorka Aulestia Txakartegi

Who is Gorka Aulestia Txakartegi?

Gorka Aulestia Txakartegi is Spanish Basque literary historian and lexicographer.

Txakartegi grew up hearing Biscayan and Gipuzkoan dialects of the Basque language, fully embracing Batua, the unified standard dialect, once it become codified. As a young man he studied philosophy and theology, hoping to be ordained as a priest. Instead, he received a degee in social economy from the University of Deusto in Bilbao. Later he migrated to the United States, where he received his M.A. in French and Spanish literature, and finally his Ph.D. in Basque Studies in 1987 at the University of Nevada, Reno, with the thesis El bertsolarismo: literatura oral improvisada en el País Vasco.

He served as the Basque language editor at the Basque Studies Program at the University of Nevada between 1976 and 1979. In the period 1980 - 1988 he acted as a lexicographer and an instructor in the Basque Studies Program, and the following year he finally became an assistant professor. From 1989 until 2000, when he retired, he taught literature in the Basque EUTG center at the University of Deusto. He is a corresponding member of the Euskaltzaindia since 1996, member of the committee on Basque literature.