New ‘Llanito’ award in Gibraltar short story competition ‘will help promote unique language’, says government

GIBRALTAR’s cultural chiefs have now included a prize for a short story in their own Spanglish fusion ‘Llanito’ for a competition launched earlier this year.

Gibraltar Cultural Services included the new award for the best Llanito story along with awards for the English and Spanish language categories.

The Culture Ministry said the new category would “help promote and safeguard our unique language.”

It follows a recent visit by academics from the University of Valladolid which highlighted the need to preserve Gibraltar’s bilingual heritage.

Language experts said they were in awe of Gibraltarians’ ability to “code switch” between English and Spanish in their daily lives, a rare quality.

The comments prompted a group of locals to come together to form a Multilingual Society.

Cultural officials pledged to make further moves to help preserve the Llanito language, starting immediately with this new category.

Various theories have emerged as to how the word ‘Llanito’ came to be known as a description of Gibraltarians.

Local historians have said that this is because there was a ‘plain’ in front of the Rock, while others say it is ironic because of the way the Rock stands out so differently from a plain.

Either way, Gibraltarians have spoken this variation of Spanglish throughout the centuries, confusing British sailors and Spanish visitors alike.

A local comedian, poet and academic named Jonathan Teuma has even given himself the stage name ‘Yanito’ in poetry competitions he organizes in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

Teuma recently launched a collection of poetry called A-Slam-Baba-Luba A-Slam-Bam-Bu during a visit to Gibraltar.

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