The unique Spanish of Gibraltar

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I am a Texan who has spoken both English and Spanish all of my life (60 yrs). I am quite used to what we call "Tex-Mex". Spending time in Gibraltar in 1984, blew my mind. I did not identify Llanito as a language but as a European version of the Tex-Mex I knew so well. The accents, though, blew my mind and really through me for a loop. Before the brain tumor, I had a gift for both languages and mimicking accents and the Gibraltarian version just seemed so incongruous. It makes so much more sense now. I have enjoyed most all of the RobWords videos I have seen but this one has been a special pleasure.

Actually, Americans use both cilantro and coriander. We use cilantro when we are using the leaves. The seeds are called coriander.

I'm so used to hearing people switch between Latin American Spanish and American English that it's a bit of a shock to hear people speak in a language that sounds like someone switching from European Spanish to European English 😆

French infiltrating old English after 1066 came to mind when hearing English being used for government/education/technical words in Gibraltar as French was for judicial/culinary/fashion words in England. Rob, you’ve taught us so much!

As a Puerto Rican, Spanglish as we call it is a particularly popular dialect for us for the obvious reason that we are an American territory. The historic diaspora to the NYC area and more recently the Orlando/central Florida has preserved a lot of Spanglish (with many American colloquialisms). Some of us will either code-switch (e.g. “no tengo el numero de tu cell” / “llámame when you get home y te lo explicaré todo”) or we’ve just straight up incorporated American English into entirely new words: janguear (to hang out), parquear (to park, as in a car), parqueo (parking), or the bit more crass come mierda, which directly translates to “eat poop,” but shares a similar linguistic origin to the American idiom of someone “thinking their s*** don’t stink,” aka extreme arrogance or cockiness.

Is this language the correct answer to "English or Spanish?"

I would argue that Andalusian Spanish is more predominate in the New World, not Castilian due the large representation of Andalusians who immigrated. It's similar to why Cantonese is more prevalent in the world's "Chinatowns" and not Mandarin. Most of the disapora are from Southern China.

Our Spanglish isn't just code switching either. We have words like "el parking", "la troca", "confleis", etc and use a lot of English filler words, most prominently "so" instead of "así que" or "entonces", and we also use the phrase "te llamo pa'trá". The only thing distinct about Llanito is its use of British English in place of American as far as I can tell.

Having grown up on the US-MX border we also have a lot of calques, anglicisms, and code-switching. Te llamo patras, and fuera de orden are present, as are words like marqueta/mercado coexisting and taking on new meanings--where marketa is a place, wherease mercado is the broader market. Dona (donut), baika (bike), troca (truck), aseguranza (instead of insurance), and verbs like watchar, to give a flavor. Educated speakers can switch to formal Spanish and English. I very much remember, Hey, watcha, a qué bathroom, dijo la teacher, que us, no podiamos go? By the way, Mexico is in North America, and in Latin America, but (perhaps with the exception of Chiapas from a linguistic point of view) not in Central America.

Dear Rob. I was once in Miami and I heard a woman with strong Colombian accent tell her grandson "Mira mijo sube la window que me esta pegando mucho wind en la face". In Venezuela we use "chatear" (chatting), "brohder" (brother or close friend), "Hon rohn" (home run for baseball), "Macundahles" (Mac and Dales for luggage or stuff) and many other words that have the correct meaning like coffee break and full. There is a children's poem that goes like this "Pollito chicken, gallina hen, lapiz pencil, boligrafo pen".

Puerto Ricans also say "Te llamo pa' tra'" (without pronouncing the final "s" too). Different linguistic ingredients, same results 😮

What I have seen is cilantro for the leaves and coriander for the seeds. It was on a cooking channel from Canada.

Incidentally, for coriander, Spanish has both cilantro and coriandro. And in English in the US, cilantro only refers to the leaves, while the Spanish cilantro can actually refer to the entire plant.

Manuel Enriles looks like a hybrid of Jack Black and Mandy Patinkin.

I think the main difference is Spanglish is mainly from a variety of Latin-American spanish and American english, while Llanito is Andalusian Spanish and British English. Latinamerican and Iberian spanish have loads of differences including grammar likewise their english counterparts but in principle spanglish and llanito looks quite very similar to me. Some on the examples presented in this video actually exist also in Spanglish like "te llamo para atras' although in llanito version utilizes Andalusian accent 'pa' tra'. BTW I hope the map showing Mexico as the door from central America refers to that is indeed the bridge for Central America and South America, acknowledging that Mexico is North America.

I hate to disagree with you Rob but Spanglish does include English words that have taken over the Spanish words. Now I understand that Llanito speakers might have some sensitivity because they want to believe that they have a very unique thing when it's just another example of something that has taken place in every shared space.

Unrelated to Llanito but I saw it in the video... never in a million years the connection between Buckaroo and Vaquero has crossed my mind, as a native spanish speaker, it's hilarious but also mind blowing lol

Reminds me of a few Indian friends in London, and I absolutely LOVE hearing them speak with their parents - it's a kaleidoscope of Punjabi and English bashed together at breakneck speed. They sound like birds chirping its so vibrant and beautiful sounding.

Llanito is a language and even as a quirky mish mash of English, Spanish and several others ... it's worth preserving, because it gives a different viewpoint, and because linguistically I want to see where it goes - which is why it should be taught to the young, and not just preserved, but allowed to change