The Basque language is often cited as an example of a strange, exotic language. However this depiction of Basque is not objectively valid. Basque is only strange and exotic because it is not an Indo-European language. For example, the typical word order of Basque is Subject-[Object-Verb] (SOV) in contrast to the Subject-[Verb-Object] (SVO) of English. But among the world languages the SOV word order is common. In fact, it is the word order of 45% of the languages of the world whereas SVO is the word order of only 42%. See Typology of Language Grammars.

Japanese and Turkish are two well known languages which have the SOV word order. Basque does have some features that are less common. It is, for example, an ergative language, which means there is a special case marker for the subject of transitive verbs. Few languages have this feature. One other language which is ergative is the language of the Inuit people of Greenland. There is some speculation that in ergative languages the distinction between subject and object is not significant.

Some of the other special (and less fundamental) features of Basque are:

• The absence of any f
• The absence of any simple initial r (A simple r is in contrast to a trilled r.)
• The absence of any initial s which is followed by a consonant, a so-called impure s. (An s followed by a consonant must be preceded by a vowel such as e.)
• The vowel system is simple
• The absence of consonant clusters.