| Llanito | |
|---|---|
| Yanito | |
| Pronunciation | Spanish:[ɟʝaˈnito] |
| Native to | Gibraltar |
| Ethnicity | Gibraltarians |
Early forms | |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| IETF | es-GI-spanglis |
 The majority of Gibraltar's population speaks Llanito. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
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Llanito orYanito (Spanish pronunciation:[ɟʝaˈnito]) is a form ofAndalusian Spanish heavily laced with words from English and other languages, such asLigurian; it is spoken in theBritish overseas territory ofGibraltar.[3] It is commonly marked by a great deal ofcode switching betweenAndalusian Spanish andBritish English and by the use ofAnglicisms and loanwords from other Mediterranean languages and dialects.[4]
The English language is becoming increasingly dominant in Gibraltar, with the younger generation speaking little or no Llanito despite learning Spanish in school.[5][6] It has been described as "Gibraltar's dying mother-tongue".[7]Llanito is aSpanish word meaning "little plain".Gibraltarians also call themselvesLlanitos.
The etymology of the termLlanito is uncertain, and there are a number of theories about its origin. In Spanish,llanito means "little flatland" and one interpretation is that it refers to the "people of the flatlands".[8] It is thought that the inhabitants of La Línea with important social and economic ties with Gibraltar, were actually the first to be referred to asLlanitos since La Línea lies in the plain and marsh land surrounding The Rock.
Another theory for the origin of the word is that it is adiminutive of the nameGianni: "gianito",[8] pronounced in Genoese slang with the "g" as "j".[9] During the late 18th century 34% of the male civilian population of Gibraltar came fromGenoa andGianni was a commonItalian forename.[10] To this day, nearly 20% of Gibraltarian surnames are Italian in origin.[11] It has also been speculated that the term comes from the English name "Johnny".[12]
It has also been hypothesized that the term originated as a reference to the language of the people, withllanito originally referring to the "plain language" spoken by ordinary Gibraltarians.[8]
The most influential periods for the formation of Llanito are:[13]
Andalusian Spanish, from the surroundingCampo de Gibraltar, is the main constituent of Llanito. However, Llanito is also heavily influenced by British English. Furthermore, it has borrowed words and expressions from many other languages: for example, it contains over 500 words from the medievalGenoese dialect ofLigurian, as well as some words ofHebrew origin viaJudaeo-Spanish.[15] Its other main language constituents areMaltese,Portuguese,Menorcan Catalan andDarija Arabic.[citation needed]Caló borrowings were once present but have since been lost.[16]
Llanito often involvescode-switching (using different languages for different sentences) andcode mixing (using different languages for different words in the same sentence) from Spanish to English.[17]Some Llanito words are also widely used in the neighbouring Spanish town ofLa Línea de la Concepción (due to the influx of people from La Línea working in Gibraltar over many years).[18]
It has no officialorthography.[7]
One feature of the language is the pronunciation of Anglicisms with an Andalusian flavour. For example, "bacon" is pronouncedbeki, "cake" is pronouncedkeki (although these particular words are not prevalent today), and porridge is calledquecaró (ahispanicisation of the brandQuaker Oats).[19]Most Gibraltarians, especially those with higher education, also speak standard Spanish withAndalusian pronunciations and standard English of a British Englishvariety.[20]
Like other Andalusian varieties, Llanito is marked by high rates offinal/n/ velarisation, neutralisation and elision of pre-consonantal and word-final/l/ and/r/, andreduction of final/s/. One difference from surrounding dialects is that Gibraltarians tend to maintain this high rate of reduction of final consonants even in very elevated registers, whereas Andalusians would try to adopt a more neutral pronunciation.[12]Llanito has undergone some degree of lexical restructuring as a result of its reduction of final consonants and the unofficial status of Spanish. For example,túnel 'tunnel' is often pronounced[ˈtune], and its plural form may be pronounced as[ˈtune(h)] instead of[ˈtunele(h)].[12]
According to Italian scholar Giulio Vignoli, Llanito originally contained many Genoese words, which were later replaced by mainly Spanish and some English words.[citation needed]
Llanito has significant Jewish influence, because of along-standing Jewish population in Gibraltar. They introduced words and expressions fromHaketia, a largely extinct Judeo-Spanish language spoken by theSephardic communities of NorthernMorocco such as inTetuan andTangiers, and the Spanishexclaves ofCeuta andMelilla in North Africa.
Although Llanito is seldom written, a Llanito dictionary,Diccionario Yanito, was published in 1978 byManuel Cavilla. In 2001,Tito Vallejo publishedThe Yanito Dictionary. Including Place Names and Yanito Anecdotes.[21]
Although Llanito is largely based on the colloquial Spanish spoken in the Campo de Gibraltar, there are numerous elements beyond code-switching to English which make it unique. These are as follows.
They may befalse friends or involve an informal playfulness.
Llanito frequently uses verbal expressions withpara atrás, orp'atrás, mirroring use ofEnglish phrasal verbs ending in "back".[22] These expressions are meaningless in standard Spanish.
Usage ofp'atrás expressions is also widespread inUS Spanish, including inIsleño Spanish.[22]P'atrás expressions are unique as a calque of an English verbal particle, since other phrasal verbs are almost never calqued into Spanish.[22] Because of this, and becausep'atrás expressions are both consistent with Spanish structure and distinctly structured to their English equivalents,[23] they are likely a result of a conceptual, not linguistic loan.[23]
The wordliqueribá[19] in Llanito meansregaliz ("liquorice") in Spanish, stemming from the English "liquorice bar".
Many Llanito terms have been introduced into the Andalusian Spanish dialect of the bordering cityLa Línea de la Concepción, where the resulting dialect is known as Linense. However, according to Gibraltarian linguist Tito Vallejo, a few words common throughout Spain may be of Llanito origin, notablychachi meaning "cool" or "brilliant" (fromWinston Churchill) andnapia meaning "big nose" from the GovernorRobert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala. Churchill was associated with foreign imports from the United Kingdom which were highly prized in Gibraltar and, according to Vallejo, Lord Napier had a particularly big nose.[25]
However, linguists also proposechachi to be a contraction of theCaló termchachipén meaning "truth", since this language is the source of a significant proportion of Spanish slang.[26]
Laura Wright, an English professor at theUniversity of Cambridge, and Sophie Macdonald, aGibraltarian undergraduate she was supervising, began researching the language in 2022. Wright sought a research grant from the Gibraltarian government without success, but induced a minister to put saving Llanito into his election manifesto. She is assisted by local writerM. G. Sanchez.[7]
TheGibraltar Broadcasting Corporation has broadcast some programmes in Llanito, includingTalk About Town, a discussion series in which three presenters discuss local affairs, from the need to replace a street sign to important political affairs.[citation needed]
Pepe's Pot was a cookery programme which also used Llanito.[27][28]
A documentary film,People of the Rock: The Llanitos of Gibraltar[29] (2011), discusses Llanito speech characteristics, history and culture. Notable interviews include Pepe Palmero (of GBC'sPepe's Pot),Kaiane Aldorino (Miss World 2009), and Tito Vallejo (author ofThe Llanito Dictionary).
