Egon2 1

18. Egon2 (Past)and the NON(Inessive) Case

As discussed in Lesson 9, southern Basque (like Spanish) has two different verbs that can be translated as "to be"; Izan and Egon.
Egon is used to express temporary states or locations. For example:
- Mutila zikina zegoen. The boy was dirty.
- Mikel Donostian zegoen. Mikel was in San Sebastian.
- Euskal herrian zegoen. He/She was in Basque country.
- Etxean nengoen. I was at home.
Northern Basque (in France) does not have this distinction, so "to be" is translated as izan in almost all contexts.
In Northern Basque, egon is used to mean "to stay" instead of "to be", so
"Euskal herrian dago" would mean "I am staying in Basque Country" not "I am in Basque Country".
Note that both Egon and Izan are also used to describe feelings. Nekatuta nago. I am tired.(Emotions will be covered later in this course).
When using Egon (or Izan in Northern Basque) to show that a subject is in or at a location you need to use the Inessive case, which answers the question NON - where.

The inessive NON case is only used with inanimate objects and is used to show the subject is in, on or upon something/someplace.
In this lesson you will be introduced to the single definite form of the NON - Inessive
The NON - Inessive case is used to show that the subject(s) is in/on/upon the ojbect(s).
Single definite
- Ending: -(E)AN
- Examples: etxeAN (in a house) haranEAN (in a valley)
When adding suffixes, A+E = E, A+A=A, others are added, like exEEtan.
Egon can also be used to mean "There was" or "There were" (Hontza zegoen. There was an owl), but normally to emphasis the existence of something, the affirmative particle "ba-" is used with the conjugated verbs and placed before the subject. - Baegoen hontza.
Note that the ba- particle is not used with negative sentences.
- Txoria zegoen zuhaitzean. The bird was in the tree.
- Bazegoen txori bat zuhaitzean. There was a bird in the tree.
- Ez zegoen txori zuhaitzean. There is not a bird in the tree.