Llanito
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Llanito (IPA: [jɑˈnito]) or Yanito is an Andalusian-Spanish based creole spoken in the British dependent territory of Gibraltar. It is heavily influenced by English and it has vocabulary which is used neither in Spain nor Britain. Gibraltarians may also call themselves Llanitos (female Llanitas). The colloquial term los Llanis is also used in La Línea, Algeciras and other surrounding Andalusian towns as well as in Gibraltar itself.
To many outsiders, Llanito sounds incomprehensible, as speakers appear to switch languages in mid-sentence, but to people who can understand both English and Spanish, it sounds surprising and unique. One feature of the language is the pronunciation of English words with an Andalusian flavour. For example, bacon is pronounced beki; cake, quequi; battery, batteria; and a policeman is known as un bobi, (from "bobby"), porridge is called cuecaro (a Spanish-sounding version of the brand Quaker Oats). However, this is more common with the older population as the younger generation have a different slang, for example la palma for 'the police'. Gibraltarians, especially those with higher education, speak standard Spanish of both Andalusian and Castilian dialects and standard English of the British English variety.
Examples: Example of written Yanito
Yanito is an orally transmitted dialect. For this reason there are generally no standardised orthographical or grammatical rules.
The following is an extract in written Yanito from reporter "La Calentita" from Panorama magazine. It must be said that code-switching to English is not as common in normal spoken Yanito as it is in this example. [Panorama]:
El Holliday has returned from his latest outing to London where he met the UK minister of tourism and film. Esto es una verdadera pelicula, my dear. Another "success", por si no te has enterao.
In the meantime el Pita One dando vueltas por Whitehall donde le quieren dar Brussel sprouts para comer.
He should give them some Calentita, in return, por eso it is Gibraltar's national dish.
Y todo el mundo, or at least medio mundo, se apunta al integration, except el UK, conque the least said the better.
Fueron treinta gatos al meeting the other day. Estaba lloviendo, although if we integrated, nos caeria un chaparron!
Mind you, si el Peliza llama el meeting hubieran salido integrationists de todo los rincones.
Que paliza! Cheerio until next week.
Etymology
In contention. Some attribute it to llano ('plain'), a reference to the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain, or to Gianni + -ito or equivalently Johnny + -ito.
See also
| English Pseudo-dialects | |
| Pseudo-dialects | Engrish | Globish | Greeklish | Franglais | Internet slang | Hip hop slang | Leet | Valspeak |
| Mixed languages | Chinglish | Denglisch | Hinglish | Inglés de escalerilla | Konglish | Llanito | Namlish | Poglish | Runglish | Spanglish | Tinglish |
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