Gibraltar National Day has been celebrated on Wednesday 10th September, so this week's entry goes to the llanitos (the Gibraltarians).
The official language in Gibraltar is English, as its sovereignity belongs to the United Kingdom, but Spanish is also widely spoken due to the geographical proximity to Spain (the city is located in a peninsula connected to Spain).
The mixture of Andalusian Spanish, spoken in the neighbouring Spanish region of Andalusia and British English comprise the Gibraltarian dialect "Llanito". This dialect also takes some loanwords from other Mediterranean languages such as Hebrew, Genovese or Maltese.
This dialect sounds utterly weird for either Spanish or English native speakers (including myself, as I perceived few days ago during a short visit to the city), as both languages are mixed in mid-sentence. For instance:
English: Man, I'm telling you (that) you can't...
Spanish: Hombre, te digo que no puedes...
Llanito: Hombre, I'm telling you que no puede...
Other expressions translated into Llanito, Spanish and English that prove this peculiar mixture are:
English: I'll call you back.
Español: Te llamo de vuelta.
Llanito: Te llamo pa tras (literal translation of back from Andalusian Spanish).
English: Apply for a job
Español: Apuntarse a una oferta de empleo
Llanito: Aplicar para un puesto de trabajo (literal translation from English)
English: credit card
Español: tarjeta de crédito
Llanito: cartón
English: plumber
Español: fontanero
Llanito: plomero
English: pigeon
Spanish: paloma
Llanito: palomo
