News

On Monday 18 September, Elena Seoane will deliver the talk "Language Dynamics in Gibraltar: Multilingualims as a socio-historical construct" within the inaugural session of the Máster Universitario en Lingüística Inglesa: Nuevas Aplicaciones y Comunicación Internacional. The pivotal idea of the lecture is that the changing socio-historical context has given rise to new Internal Forces (in Buschfeld and Kautzsch's 2020 terms) that have shaped the linguistic dynamics of Gibraltar and have produced an ongoing change from below.

On 14th June 2023, Elena Seoane delivered a lecture at the Research Colloquium, hosted by the Chairs of English Linguistics and Multilingualism at the Department for Language, Literature and Culture of the Technische Universität Dortmund (Germany). In "Multilingualism in Gibraltar", Elena discussed the current and increasing predominance of English at the expense of Spanish and Llanito. After modelling the evolution of multilingualism in Gibraltar following the EIF Model and giving the results of two attitudes questionnaires, she pondered on the role of linguists in language preservation.

We are very grateful to Professors Sarah Buschfeld, form our research team, and Patricia Ronan for their kind invitation and insightful feedback.

On the 3rd and 4th ofJuly, the Language and Cognition workshop will host a number of talks, one of them on Gibraltar languages: Elena Seoane will present "Modelling the linguistic ecology of Gibraltar", which discusses the social status, use and attitudes towards English, Llanito and Spanish.

Cristina Suárez-Gómez and Elena Seoane had the pleasure to discuss their project and the linguistic ecology of Gibraltar with Michelle Rugeroni and Davinia Torrilla, the hosts of the podcast Street Talk. The talk shows how the languages of Gibraltar and what they represent is a very hot and enthralling topic for Gibraltarians and linguists. Now available in YouTube: https://youtu.be/N27C3gHPvow

On May 10th, the Gibraltar Chronicle publishes an excellent opinion piece by Charles Durante on the language debate going on in Gibraltar at the moment: the attempts to prevent the linguicide of Llanito, the extralinguistic factors that trigger language discrimination and prejudice and the prestige that society and some institutions now openly attach to Llanito. Thank you, Charles.

On the same page we read about the visit of the National Book Council members MG Sanchez and Davina Barbara to the London Book Fair. They found participants in the fair very interested in Gibraltar literature. In all likelihood, Gibraltar literature will have its own stand at the London Book Fair 2024.

In this link you'll find how GBC News (Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation) described our work and activities in Gibraltar during our visit in April. We'd like to thank Jonathan Sacramento for his support and the tour of GBC building!e

On 20th April ViEW members Cristina Suárez-Gómez and Elena Seoane held a meeting with the recently created National Book Council n Gibraltar, presided by John Cortes, Minister of Education. We discussed ways to help promote Gibraltar literature and the edition of the book Gibraltarians and their language - 22 Linguistic Biographies, by M.G. Sanchez and our team. We are grateful and enthusiastic to contribute to the internationalization of the valuable work of Gibraltarians writers.

The full text can be read at https://www.yourgibraltartv.com/society/27394-gibraltar-national-book-co...

On 20th April Cristina Suárez-Gómez and Elena Seoane gave an invited lecture at John Mackintosh Hall under the auspices of Gibraltar Cultural Services, Ministry of Education. We are grateful to Minister John Cortes, in the image, for his attendace, and to members of GFAMS, journalists, writers, teachers and individuals who care about their culture and heritage. Thanks for your entusiastic feedback and warm welcome.

The title and summary of the talk folow here:

Language and identity ‘Speak, that I may see thee’

Each and every language in the world is different. Modern linguistics has shown that behind that apparently indomitable diversity of languages lie the same basic principles, the same grammatical mechanisms, the same structural processes and the same communicative purposes. Why then do we deem some languages more appropriate, beautiful and prestigious than others? This talk discusses linguistic prejudice, based on social and ideological power relations, and the need to understand that language is an essential part of our individual and collective identity, and as such it needs to be cherished, studied and preserved.

On 21st April we had the pleasure of meeting with various members of GFAMS, the recently created association for the defense of the multilingual character of Gibraltar. After a fruitful discussion during our talk at John Mackintosh Hall we explored avenues for collaboration at dinner: how to raise awareness for the rich multilingualism in Gibraltar, how to promote the use of all languages in all contexts, social and political, how to codify Llanito, its increasing use as a literary language, etc.

Multilingualism faces difficult challenges everywhere, but societies like GFAMS play a crucial role in the preservation of the linguistic and cultural heritage of a people. We're here to support you!