Llanito

I found  a fantastic blog at the weekend that’s devoted to llanito, the local dialect of Gibraltar. Llanito is written by a fellow Gibraltarian and is packed with llanito words and sayings.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the dialect (and I imagine the vast majority of you have never heard of it, much less know much about it! ), it is an interesting blend of English, Spanish, Genoese, Maltese and Hebrew and is the everyday language of the average Gibraltarian. Those of you who have learnt Spanish will see that some of the Spanish-sounding words in the llanito vocabulary are very different to standard Castilian. For example, “marbles” are called “mebli” in llanito but are known as “canicas” in standard Castilian. Sweets/candy are called “caramelos” in Castilian but are known as “bolillas” in llanito. While I enjoy speaking llanito with friends and family, I find that it interferes with my Spanish as I tend to forget that the words we use in Gibraltar for certain items are often very different to the standard Castilian. I know that this is a pitfall of any dialect but it does mean I need to think twice before having a conversation with a native Spanish speaker!

More information about this interesting and unique dialect can be found on the Wikipedia page. You might also want to have a look at the online Yanito Dictionary or the searchable database at Llanito.Com.