I cannot speak Llanito, the language of the Gibraltarians, despite living on The Rock for 30-odd years. I believe the answer lies there; I have only lived in Gibraltar and never in the country next door, Spain, and because the root of Llanito is Spanish it helps if one can speak it very well or has been raised with the language in their culture as have most born & bred Llanitos. Barbara Durante is the only non-native I know who can speak proper Llanito with comfort and ease. She has the advantage of having married a Gibraltarian and has lived in Gibraltar since the early 70s when Spanish was spoken far more widely than it is now. Things were a lot different then, the frontier was closed and there was no satellite TV beaming in constant American English to every home. Barbara also studied Spanish at university so is armed with all the tools necessary to code-switch from Spanish to English to Llanito and therefore master this unusual tongue.
My opening sentence might be doing myself a disservice. I state that I cannot speak Llanito, but I do understand it, I just don’t feel comfortable vocalising it. I am quite at ease speaking Spanish however dreadful my verb endings, tenses and accent may be but when it comes to Llanito I feel like a fraud. The only time I do attempt Llanito is to parody, imitate or emphasise for comedic effect. Gibraltarians speak English so it’s logical for everyone to communicate in the common tongue, however over the years I have never been offended when everyone else around me is speaking Llanito. It’s those situations that have helped me hear the rhythms of this unique lingo and learn to understand it. I am fascinated by Llanitos and the language they speak and have been since the moment I crossed the frontier for a ‘short stay’ in February 1991.
When I arrived I had practically zero Spanish in my repertoire, only what I had managed to glean and spit out from a phrase book in the preceding 8-week road trip down from Andorra. When you’re English everyone wants to practice their English on you so it’s never easy to learn a new language on-the-hoof with no prior formal education or exposure. I didn’t want to visit Gibraltar as I thought it would be a ‘Little England’ and full of drunken squaddies. The latter was true in those days, luckily the former was not. I immediately noticed the mediterranean architecture, the exotic nature of the people and most notably the smell of coriander (and dope) in the streets at night. I made Gibraltar my home from that moment and in 2020 married a Llanito. The native language fascinated me from the outset but now I have a live-in translator who instructs me as to the workings and odd rules of Llanito. It’s not just a language (dialect?!) it is an entire culture and the cause of much animated discussion amongst Gibraltarians.
Most people would consider being bilingual a huge asset. Education systems the world over try and ensure children are given this opportunity from a very young age with a compulsory second language on the school curriculum. It wouldn’t be unnatural to assume that Spanish is taught in Gibraltar schools from Reception onwards. Not so! Up until very recently the first basic Spanish lessons began in secondary school, after the age of 12. The reason for this long-standing anomaly is a mixture of British colonialism and anti-Spanish sentiment. Even today people get angry at the mere suggestion of daily Spanish lessons from the age of 4. Some celebrated when the Instituto Cervantes (a renowned body for teaching and promoting the Spanish language worldwide) left Gibraltar; but many lamented. If Gibraltar loses Spanish, then it loses its own language Llanito. Governments must be brave and introduce compulsory Spanish lessons from nursery school onwards (even if they must hide it under the guise of a ‘Llanito’ umbrella).
In 2022 there were calls on social media for a copy of Tito Vallejo-Smith’s Yanito Dictionary. I had a copy in my ever-expanding collection of Gibraltar books but was loathe to lend it to anyone. The online debates continued, and it became clear that a Llanito dictionary was not available to buy anywhere. I suggested the Gibraltar government should consider reprinting this important book and my somewhat cheeky public request was heard. Seamus Byrne, CEO of Gibraltar Cultural Services, contacted me and said if I organised it, they would fund the printing. A new dictionary project began.
I organised a meeting with Tito Vallejo-Smith, and he was delighted to see his dictionary back in print. I then discovered he had two versions, one English and one Spanish. Seamus Byrne then suggested including an earlier dictionary into the project, Diccionario Yanito by Manuel Cavilla OBE. This request started a whole chain of events as I tried to locate a copy (Gerry Wood from the Gibraltar Archives was extremely helpful and sent me a digital version). As I ventured to tell people about my new dictionary project even more publications came to light. Sam Benady informed me of another important book which has a section dedicated to the language of Gibraltar: La Línea de la Concepción, Guía Critica by Juan Manuel Ballesta Gómez 1986. I had great difficulty in finding this book, but Gerry Wood came to my aid again, he’d managed to find a copy for sale in a second-hand bookshop in Madrid.
I then began the arduous task of scanning, converting files, editing, and compiling a new Llanito dictionary. My mission was almost complete until I discussed the project with Charles Durante, who informed me of yet another book which “must” be included: English and Spanish in Gibraltar by Johannes Kramer 1986. Fortunately, he had a copy of this rare study into the language of the Rock, so I added it to my collection. It was decided that Panorama would publish and print the new collection of dictionaries (which I named ‘The Llanito Dictionaries’) this was an apt choice as the newspaper has a long-standing connection to the promotion of the Llanito language.
The founder and Editor of Panorama Joe Garcia MBE was a pioneer in the promotion of everything Gibraltarian. He dedicated his life to publishing books and articles which touched on different aspects of Gibraltar’s politics, identity, history, and economy. The promotion of Llanito was an integral part of that lifelong passion. This commenced in the 1970s with a weekly column entitled “Calentita”, written in Llanito with words and phrases based on the telephone conversations of two Gibraltarian women, Cloti and Cynthia. Joe Garcia then partnered with Manolo Cavilla to produce the first ever Llanito dictionary in 1978 and repeated the task in 2001 with Tito Vallejo’s Yanito Dictionary. Manolo Cavilla’s dictionary enriched our understanding of Gibraltar’s past and was a foundation for many linguists and historians of Gibraltar culture. Joe Garcia was always a supporter of writers and was the first person to take me seriously and recognise me as a young writer. He gave me my first paid writing work with a regular political column back in the early 2000s.
The Llanito Dictionaries are available in local bookshops and GCS will be issuing them to schools in order for children to use them as a learning tool and reference point for the language of Gibraltar. In his editor’s note to the 2001 publication of the Yanito Dictionary by Tito Vallejo-Smith, Joe Garcia wrote: “Yanito must not be allowed to die. The Yanito Dictionary will help to keep it alive.” I hope my new compilation gives readers an insight into Llanito/Yanito/Giannito and how it continues to develop today.
Rebecca Calderon April 2024
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