Gibraltarians

Gibraltarians (Spanish: gibraltareños, colloquially: llanitos) are an ethnic group native to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Some Gibraltarians are a racial and cultural mixture of the many immigrants who came to the Rock of Gibraltar over 300 years. Following its capture by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704, all but 70 of the existing inhabitants of Gibraltar elected to leave with many settling nearby. Since then, immigrants from Britain, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Morocco, Menorca, and India have settled at Gibraltar, as have Sephardic Jews from North Africa. Most Gibraltarian surnames are of Mediterranean or British extraction. The exact breakdown (including non-Gibraltarian British residents) according to the 1995 Census was as follows: Genoese and Catalans (who arrived in the fleet with Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt) became the core of Gibraltar's first civilian population under Habsburg Gibraltar. Sephardi Jews from Tetouan in Morocco, who had previously been suppliers to English Tangier, began supplying fresh produce to Gibraltar in 1704. Jews in Gibraltar by 1755 together with the Genoese in Gibraltar formed 50% of the civilian population (then 1,300). In 1888 construction of the new harbour at Gibraltar began to provide an additional coaling station on the British routes to the East. This resulted in the importation of Maltese labour both to assist in its construction, and to replace striking Genoese labour in the old coaling lighter-based industry. Maltese and Portuguese people formed the majority of this new population. Other groups include Menorcans (due to the links between both British possessions during the 18th century; immigration began in that century and continued even after Menorca was returned to Spain in 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens), Sardinians, Sicilians and other Italians, French, and British people.

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Related concepts (5)

History of the Jews in Gibraltar

The history of the Jews in Gibraltar dates back more than 650 years. There have been periods of persecution, but for the most part the Jews of Gibraltar have prospered and been one of the largest religious minorities in the city, where they have made contributions to the culture, defence, and Government of Gibraltar. Significantly, the Jews of Gibraltar have faced almost no official anti-Semitism during their time in the city.

British people

British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic speaking inhabitants of Great Britain and Brittany during the Iron Age, whose descendants forming the major part of the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons and significant proportions of English people.

Llanito

Llanito or Yanito (ɟʝaˈnito) is a form of Andalusian Spanish heavily laced with words from English and other languages, such as Ligurian; it is spoken in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It is commonly marked by a great deal of code switching between Andalusian Spanish and British English and by the use of Anglicisms and loanwords from other Mediterranean languages and dialects. The English language is becoming increasingly dominant in Gibraltar, with the younger generation speaking little or no Llanito despite learning Spanish in school.