GIBRALTAR.

For any English speak-

ers who have visited Gibraltar, theres
a good chance youve stumbled into
a Spanglish conversation.
Maybe youve been greeted with
a warming buenos morning while
walking into a shop on Main Street.
Or perhaps like me recently, you
smiled when you were told the price
of something you
wanted to buy was ninety
nueve pence.
Whether or not youve
experienced this delight-
ful mix of languages yet, youve
probably heard that some people
speak Yanito (or Llanito) in this lin-
guistically rich region.
This curious mixture of Andalu-
sian Spanish and British English is
peppered with vocabulary from Ge-
noese, Hebrew, Maltese, French and
Portuguese - thanks to the fascinat-
ing history of Gibraltar.
Yanito also borrows words from
Haketia, a Judeo-Spanish language
once spoken by Sephardic Jews in
Northern Morocco, Ceuta and Me-
lilla. Today, the language is spoken
in Gibraltar by the Llanitos, which
is what the Gibraltarians call them-
selves, and also by some across the
border in the Spanish town of La
Lnea.
It involves a lot of jumping back
and forth from English to Spanish
and can be difficult for both Spanish
or English speakers to follow.
However, Yanito, which is spo-
ken by only a few thousand in this
tiny part of the world, is slowly dy-
ing out, according to local historian
Tito Vallejo.
Fewer speakers
Speaking to SUR in English, he ex-
plained how modern text speak on
mobiles, a higher level of education
in the post-war years and exposure
to pure English and Spanish has seen
the numbers of those who speak it
slowly dwindle.
Yanito is the necessity to invent
words or corrupt them to what they
sound like, said Tito, 65.
Its come from people speaking
very bad English and using the wrong
words when they dont know the
right one.
But its not Spanglish, that is what
they speak in the Americas where
Spanish and English speak-
ing people live close to-
gether.
It [Yanito] started
back at the turn of the
19th century in Gibral-
tar when the British
started building the dock-
yards. They employed
thousands of workers to do
the labour, the majority of
whom were Spanish. But
there were also Genoese, Por-
tuguese and other nationalities em-
ployed. So you had this melee of lan-
guages where nobody could under-
stand each other. Spanish people
could not pronounce the names,
which gave rise to Yanito.
Tito explained that up until World
War Two, there was no law saying
you had to attend school, so many
children worked at the expense of
their education.
According to Tito, English was on
Yanito - a tale of two languages
Gibraltars curious language is dying out and evolving into Spanglish, says a local historian
ASH
BOLTON
ashbolton@hotmail.com
Spanish workers were originally not
allowed to build permanent homes in
La Lnea so they lived in temporary
shacks (1950s). :: SUR
One of the first streets in La Lnea. :: SUR
Tito
Vallejo
the verge of disappear-
ing from the local
population, so relig-
ious orders such as
the Irish Christian
Brothers and the Lo-
reto Nuns arrived in
the tiny British over-
seas territory to help
teach English at
school.
However, the
death knell for Yanito was sounded
with the advent of World War 2,
when the entire civilian population
of Gibraltar was evacuated to the UK,
Madeira and other parts of the world.
In the UK they were exposed to
pure English for several years and on
their return to the Rock brought a
wealth of accents from the various
regions.
Tito, 65, said: There was a change
in the law when everyone returned
and we started educating people prop-
erly. And you had to go to school
whether you liked it or not.
Today a lot of people are Yanitis-
ing sentences using proper English
words - so Yanito is evolving into
Spanglish.
Its a pity that young people are
not using it any more, but thats
because a lot of their parents are
not using it either. Yanito is what
you used to hear at home. But Im
a sinner too as I speak to my kids
in English.
Border closure
Tito, whose father was Spanish but
grew up Gibraltarian, and whose
mother was English, further ex-
plained how the closing of the bor-
der with Spain - which lasted from
1969 to 1982 - created a rift during
which there was minimal contact
with Spain.
He said this was adverse in keep-
ing up with spoken Spanish, mean-
ing English cemented itself as the
predominant language.
And with the advent of TV we
started listening to good Spanish. We
spoke Andalusian Spanish, but many
of the
programmes on TV were
dubbed in South Ameri-
can Spanish, so our Span-
ish improved.
Unfortunately, Yanito
is dying out. And with this
new chat language that is
being used on mobile
phones, its corrupting
everything.
Nevertheless, Tito, who
worked for the MOD and
Gibraltar Territorial Army
before retiring, started
making notes of Yanito words in his
late teens, and published a Yanito
dictionary, which is now on its third
edition.
And just four months ago he pub-
lished the first Spanish edition, which
sold out in two weeks in the Campo
de Gibraltar area.
He added: Luckily I made notes
of all these words growing up, as half
of them are not used any more.
Origins of a name
As for the name of the language it-
self, the dad of four said there are two
popular explanations as to how the
name came about.
When Gibraltar was Spanish,
it was a bit like Dodge City, he ex-
plained.
Nobody wanted to live here be-
cause the Barbary Pirates kept at-
tacking. All your sins were pardoned
if you came to live in Gibraltar, to
encourage people here. Still no one
came to live, so they opened it up
to the common people, which in
Spanish is gente llana, which was
corrupted to Llanito.
The second version, which is
my favourite, is that the name came
from the llano, which means plain
in English. The Spanish workers
who came to help build the fortifi-
cations in Gibraltar were not al-
lowed to stay at night and the Span-
ish military would not allow them
to build houses behind the defen-
sive wall. So they lived in tents and
shacks on the plain between the
mountain behind La Lnea and the
Spanish fortifications.
z
Copies of the Yanito
Dictionary can be bought
from bookshops in
Gibraltar
A selection of words and
expressions:
Maot Money (from Jewish
origin)
Darse el bote Im going to
get the boat - Im off, going
out
Tipa Teapot
Saibo Sideboard
Sospen Saucepan
Outside the back Offside
Ambo Handball
El copy Homework
Abucha Lie down
Tint wine Vino tinto; red
wine
Tube of escape Exhaust pipe
Goma Tyres
Keki Cake
Bobi Police officer
Tishe Teacher
Chinga Chewing gum
Kuecaro Quaker Oats
Beki Bacon
Follinakle Fold your
knuckle, from the game of
Meblis Marbles - canicas
YANITO
Spanish workers crossing
the border prior to its closure in 1967. :: SUR