Quick Facts
Biography
Juan Carlos Etxegoien Juanarena Xamar (born 27 November 1956) is a Navarrese teacher and writer in the Basque language. He is better known as Xamar, a derivation of the name of the Xamarrena hamlet, where he was born.
Life
Xama was born in Xamarrena de Garralda, Navarra. He studied Magisterium and worked mainly as teacher at an ikastola. He participated in the creation of the association Zenbat Gara de Bilbao, designed to promote the Basque language in the capital of Biscay, and is a member of the Euskokultur cultural foundation.
He has written several books on the history of Euskera and has also published new theories on the problem of languages, especially the ecolinguistic approaches of José María Sánchez Carrión Txepetx, who in 1987 published a book of great importance according to Xamar: A future for our past: Keys to the recovery of Euskara and social theory of languages.
His best known work is Orhipean, a didactic work on history, geography, customs, originally written in Euskera and later translated into Spanish, with two editions: From the Orhy. Know the country of Euskara (1996) and Orhypean. The country of Euskara (2005); To English, Orhypean. The Country of Basque (2006), to the French, Orhypean. Le pays de la langue basque (2010)and Catalan, Orhypean. The country of the Basque region (2012)
In 2009, Basque was published : its language through history the Castilian version of Euskara Jendea , an approximation to the evolution of the language of the Basques throughout history.
Works
- Orhipean: Gure herria ezagutzen (Pamiela, 1992).
- 1898, Garralda (Pablo Mandazen Fundazioa, 1998).
- Orekan: Herri eta Hizkuntzen ekologiaz (Pamiela, 2001).
- Euskara jendea: Gure hizkuntzaren historia, gure historiaren hizkuntza (Pamiela, 2006).
- Euskara Jendea: Gure hizkuntzaren historia, gure historiaren hizkuntza. Dokumentalak. 6 DVD. (Ibaizabal Mendebalde elkartea - Zenbat Gara elkartea, 2013).
- Etxea. Ondarea, Historia, Mintzoa (Pamiela - Erroa, 2016).