In:Sociolinguistic Approaches to Arabic and Spanish in Contact
Edited by Farah Ali, Carol Ready and Sherez Mohamed
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 44] 2025
► pp. 167–184
Chapter 9Multilingualism and Moroccan diaspora in Gibraltar
Published online: 17 July 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.44.09ali
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.44.09ali
Abstract
Gibraltar is a multilingual British territory bordering Spain that includes not only English, Spanish and
Llanito, but also Arabic, owing to the sizable Moroccan population (Government of
Gibraltar, 2012). Much of the existing scholarship on language in Gibraltar approaches this topic from a
political, sociological, or historical lens (Archer, 2013; Canessa, 2019; Gold, 2005; Moyer, 2009; Stockey & Grocott,
2012), while linguistic research remains scarce. This study employs thematic analysis (Duff, 2018) to examine interviews with 20 Moroccan Gibraltarians, focusing on
self-reported linguistic practices, attitudes, and identities, and the construction of Gibraltarian identity. Findings
indicate that multilingualism is a major part of many participants’ daily lives, through the use of English, Spanish,
Arabic, and — as a marker of Gibraltarian identity — Llanito.
Keywords: Moroccan diaspora, Gibraltar, language attitudes, linguistic identity
Article outline
- Introduction
- Historical background
- Language use
- Present study
- Methods
- Multilingualism and the Moroccan diaspora: Language use and attitudes
- Language, identity, and belonging
- Concluding remarks
Notes References
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