The People of The Rock

Extended Interview: Fabian Picardo

2011-06-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

I want to provide longer, more complete interviews for viewers to explore after they have finished watching the film. Most of those interviewed will have an extended clip available online, similar to Andrew Rosindell.

This is one such extended interview with Fabian Picardo, member of the Gibraltar Socialist Labor Party. Segments of this interview will certainly appear scattered throughout the soon-to-be-completed film, but some viewers will want to learn more about the topics he addresses and would like to hear more context surrounding the more brief segments that make their way into the narrative.

Gibraltarian Identity & British Identity: 0:00
Gibraltarian views on Spaniards: 1:47
Decolonising Gibraltar: 3:03
Ceuta & Melilla: 6:14
Gibraltar's future: 9:02

For more frequent updates visit www.facebook.com/peopleoftherock.

In Gibraltar, Politics is Football

2011-05-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

Allen Bula of the Gibraltar Football Association discusses how international politics spills into football, especially when Spain and Gibraltar are concerned.

Adrian Pisarello sings to Gibraltar's resilience

2011-04-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

This song was written about the joint-sovereignty talks of leading up to the 2002 referendum, when Spain and the UK were discussing joint-ownership of Gibraltar. The people of Gibraltar vehemently opposed the altered sovereignty status. In a crucial act of political self-determination, the 7 November 2002 referendum rejected the notion that other countries could decide the sovereignty of Gibraltar without the consent of its people.

Adrian Pisarello is a bard of Gibraltar, singing the stories and struggles of his people and entertaining along the way. His music will be featured heavily throughout this film, along with two other Gibraltarian musicians.

Quick previews from Gibraltar

2011-03-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

I've been running around Gibraltar, meeting people, making phone calls and filming like crazy. I won't be editing most of this footage until I'm back in Seattle, but I wanted to share a few updates from my first day of filming. Things are coming along well but I still have a lot to do while here so I'll be spending less time editing and more time filming!

And here are just a few more clips!

Andrew Rosindell MP discusses Gibraltar

2011-03-04T05:20:00.000-08:00

Here's an interview with Andrew Rosindell MP that took place a few days ago in London. Mr Rosindell has represented Gibraltar's interests before the House of Commons in the past, and was eager to discuss the trade and human rights implications of Spain's insistance that the Rock is theirs.

This is a nearly full-length interview, not color-corrected or with processed audio (it will all be cleaned up for the film), just for those who I know will want to see the whole commentary.

Fundraising effort

2011-02-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

Donate even $1 through the Kickstarter campaign and your name will be featured in the movie credits! $30 will get you a download of the final film in HD and $500 earns an Executive Producer credit in the film. Here's my favorite: if anyone will donate $1200, I'll buy you an iPad, load the final film on it, and deliver it to you.

Expanding The Film

Since making this short film in 2008-2009, I have been flooded with requests to return to Gibraltar and expand the scope of the film to include members of the Gibraltar GSD party, Gibraltarian musicians, culinary artists and athletes. I will return to Gibraltar during the first two weeks of March 2011 to finish filming. That trip will be funded out-of-pocket but I hope that this campaign will help recover some of the expenses.

An estimated 750-1000 hours have been invested in the research and development of this film, along with roughly $10,000 in travel expenses, rentals and expendables. My goal is to raise $1,500 to pay for the off-season flight to Gibraltar and cover a few lodging expenses while there. Any additional donations will go directly to film festival submissions and post-production costs related to this film.

The original film was shot on a standard-definition TV-grade DV camera in 2008. Since then, HD television and movies have become standard. All new footage is being filmed at 1080p on Canon HDSLR cameras. The old footage has been upscaled to 720p HD using industry-standard conversion techniques and will be intercut with the new 1080p footage filmed in 2011. The final film will be mastered at 720p to avoid excessive upscaling of the original standard-definition footage.

Sharing Gibraltar's Story With The World

Once the film is completed, it will be submitted to film festivals across the world, especially festivals known for documentary films and for dealing with political and social issues. Whenever possible, I will attend these showings to hold discussions and help raise awareness of Gibraltar's political plight. Any surplus funds raised with Kickstarter will go towards film festival submission fees (often around $100 per festival) and travel costs to represent the film.

Detailed updates will be sent to all of the film's supporters. Some updates, photos and video clips will also be available on the film's Facebook page. Large announcements will also be made on this blog.

Thank you for making this film happen!!!

New Trailer

2011-02-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a new trailer I've put together to help people understand the film in a nutshell. Obviously, this footage is all from 2008, but more updates will follow after I get to Gibraltar in a few weeks.

Llanito Motion Graphic

2010-11-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

Progress on this film has been sporadic.

Lately I've been re-narrating the film, revising about 200 editing decisions, adding a few minutes of previously-unused footage, and trying to secure a deal to use footage from Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation's local TV shows (which feature excellent "unguarded" Llanito).

Some of the concepts discussed in the film are abstract enough that I wanted to provide some sort of visual representation to supplement the narration and interview descriptions. One of these topics is the organic way that Spanish and English (along with many words and phrases from other languages) are mixed in conversation. More previews to come!

Film to go offline, New Facebook page

2010-09-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

As the film continues to develop and be polished in mostly minor ways, I am preparing it for film festivals in 2011. Many festivals require that the film not be shown online, so as this updated, new film is completed I need to keep it under wraps.

The core of the film ideas will be the same, but most of the content is being updated or polished.

Meanwhile, more frequent updates will be available on Facebook, where one can "Like" the film and subscribe to information as it develops.

"People of The Rock" Version 2.0 is in progress!

2010-05-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Recently I received an email from a Gibraltarian film producer (living abroad) who has offered to conduct and film the additional GSD interviews this summer. Once I receive that footage and have a chance to incorporate it into the movie, I plan to issue a major release of the film.

I am unsure as to whether this film would be marketable on the festival circuit or not (especially seeing as how it was primarily filmed in standard definition DV), but I would like to try a submission or two, especially in European festivals where the EU and Spain/Great Britain relations are most relevant.

Following that attempt at festival showings, I will make the film available on DVD, and will post ordering information on this blog.

"The People of the Rock: Llanitos of Gibraltar" v1.1 is online

2009-09-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

Version 1.1 changes:
-Opening title
-Closing credits
-Some music

Updates to expect in next version:
-Representation by the GSD party (interviews to be conducted in June 2010)
-New narration
-More scoring
-More graphics

Copyright Garrett Gibbons, 2009.
All rights reserved.

GSD representation requested

2009-09-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

So far, response to "People of the Rock: The Llanitos of Gibraltar" has been excellent! Tons of people have written emails and commented on the video at various websites, and the film has been embedded in web pages featuring information about Gibraltar's politics and culture.

The only issue that Llanitos seem to be having with this film is the lack of representation from the GSD party (namely Peter Caruana). In the works is an updated version of this film, featuring statements and interviews from the GSD, though I also lack funding to return to Gibraltar to perform live video interviews.

If anyone in Gibraltar or Andalucía would like to be involved, pro bono (this is a not-for-profit film), and interview any members of the GSD, especially during the upcoming Gibraltar National Day on September 10, I would be able to include segments of that interview in the next version of the documentary. If any interested parties read this, please contact me for details. Interviews could be performed on video, or be audio-only.

The next version of this film should be released in December, and will include a new narration (the current version was narrated between 3-5am after weeks without much sleep, and it shows), statements from the GSD (whether recorded for this film or onscreen text of public statements), and an improved introduction, among other minor editorial tweaks.

"People of the Rock"

2009-03-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have finally given this film a title: "People of the Rock."

The next draft of the the film might not come until late April, as I'm trying to finish up my BA degree here at BYU, but it remains on the high-priority list.

Update (5-31-09): I am considering a byline: "People of the Rock: The Llanitos of Gibraltar." Any thoughts?

Why?

2009-03-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

Ernest Falquero, a Gibraltarian who found the film's blog a few weeks ago, has already posted a review of the film!

He had a lot to say. In general, he wanted to see interviews from a few more politicians, but otherwise calls it "a very well researched and explained documentary about our homeland!" In my book, that's a success, if the people the film is about feel that it represents them well.

Several Gibraltarians have asked me about my motives in making this film, and have asked why I didn't represent a wider political spectrum (namely, I left out the GSD and Peter Caruana). Let me address those two issues individually, though they are related.

Why Gibraltar?
I visited Gibraltar in March 2001, while a missionary in Andalucía for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was only there for the afternoon, but it was long enough to hear a lot of Llanito/Yanito in the streets.

Fascinated by it, I looked into it more when I got back to the USA after those two years. At that point, very little had been published about Llanito, so I started planning to go over again, this time to study the language and culture.

Meanwhile, a few scholars published some very interesting studies involving language in Gibraltar. I began to pursue an undergraduate education in Linguistics, and found myself better prepared to understand the sociolinguistic situation in Gibraltar as each semester passed.

Brigham Young University has an option to graduate with an Honors distinction, which requires a number of things, including a final Thesis. While most write papers, I decided to make this film.

Political Representation
Given the fact that I went to Gibraltar planning to interview experts on language and culture, I never planned to include much (if any) political dialogue in the film. I quickly learned that politics and culture are impossible to separate in Gibraltar, so some history and political discussion emerged as a result.

I asked Garcia and Bossano to participate because of their cultural works: Garcia's book, Gibraltar: The Making of a People..., was what I looked at and what led me to request an interview with him. In fact, I was confused about Joseph/Joe Garcia Sr/Jr, and didn't know that the politician and the author were the same Garca. (I had thought that Panorama's editor was the politician.)

Joe Bossano's education was in Linguistics, and his expertise in Italian was an interesting angle for me in terms of discussing Llanito. Of course, I knew about his political career, but I don't know if I would have asked for an interview if he had still been the Chief Minister. Our conversation was mostly historical and cultural, but you can't keep a politician from speaking about politics.

Another politically-slanted interview was with Dennis Beiso, who I approached because of a presentation he gave about Gibraltarian identity at John Mackintosh Hall in October 2006. Again, I was surprised at how political the conversation became, but it seems that a divorce between language, culture and politics in Gibraltar might lead to unnecessary simplifications.

Perhaps I should find ways to remove partisan elements that are causing viewers to feel that the film lacks representation from other political ideologies. I wonder, though, if viewers can't help but think of political platforms when they see Garcia and Bossano. Regardless, I would have loved to have interviewed Caruana or Azopardi. When I was in Gib, however, I certainly wasn't focusing on politics, so that side of the narrative ended up a bit thin.

If I had any semblance of a budget, I would have also interviewed some influential MPs in England, such as Jack Straw or Andrew Rosindell (he is especially interesting in terms of his involvement with EU trade theory and how that relates to the border between Gibraltar and Spain). The mayor of La Línea would also be a good person to approach, but I don't think that this film reaches to a level that would attract the King of Spain or the Queen of England, as has been suggested (though that would be a lot of fun).

I hope that answers some of the questions floating around, and I'm sure that I'll be asked more questions yet! Thanks for watching.

48-minute draft is ready to view

2009-02-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a draft of the as-of-yet-untitled Gibraltar documentary (48 min):

Gibraltar Documentary from Garrett Wesley Gibbons on Vimeo.

A work in progress: feedback appreciated!

Eric Shaw interview - Monkeys

2008-12-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

Monkey folklore is essential to the British aspect of identity in Gibraltar.

Eric Shaw of the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society (GONHS) took some time out of his very busy schedule to do an interview with me. Only a portion of this segment on monkeys will end up in the film, but I wanted to post the whole thing for those who are interested in hearing more.

The legend is that as long as the monkeys inhabit Gibraltar, Britain will control the Rock. Thus military and government funds have been poured into the maintenance of these monkeys, and consequently the Rock is home to the last group of free-ranging primates in Europe (since apparently homo sapiens have willingly removed themselves from that distinction), and a great draw for tourists. As hundreds of thousands of visitors see the monkeys, their fascination is turned political and the British occupation of Gibraltar is symbolically rooted into their experience.

Some additional reading:
•A New York Times article on the subject of monkeys as emblematic of British occupation.
•An article, detailing the care practices of the monkeys, found on the GONHS website.

Very rough sketch of the 30-minute film

2008-12-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

The film will show that Gibraltarians have developed their own identity, independent of Spain and Great Britain. Llanito (the Spanish and English mix, spoken widely in Gibraltar) is evidence of this independent identity, as well as Gibraltar's wish to retain the English and Spanish influences in their heritage that contributed to their sense of self.

Gibraltar's unique identity was formed through years of trading and smuggling between Europe and Africa, its role as a military outpost for Great Britain since about 1704, and its curious status as an illegitimate child between Spain and Great Britain, complete with domestic struggles that have led Gibraltar to seek to move out from home, as it were, and establish an identity for itself.

Due to the difficult nature of the decolonization process, the film will address Gibraltar's status with the European Union (past, present and possibly future), and the threat of Spain to its sovereignty. Great Britain will also be demonstrated to be surprisingly ambivalent towards the rights of Gibraltarians as a whole, and audiences will see that in recent history, Gibraltar has been reduced to a negotiating chip used by Britain to bargain with Spain.

That's all for now!

"Somos Britanicos" - Older generation in Gibraltar

2008-11-25T10:04:00.001-08:00

This is a fun interview with some older men that frequent the Piazza, off of Main Street. In a heavy dialect of Andalusian Spanish, we hear a proclamation of British identity, typical of the older generation in Gibraltar.

Later, Dennis Beiso will tell us about how this "Britishness" has decreased in the younger generation. As the UK has politically distanced itself from Gibraltar, many younger Gibraltarians are developing a different sense of identity, more detached from the UK and its military presence on the Rock.

(My apologies for non-Spanish-speakers. I'll subtitle it for the final film, but probably not before then.)

Siege on Gibraltar - animations

2008-11-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

I've been wondering what to show on screen while experts talk about the sieges on Gibraltar. I came up with an animation showing some Dutch ships firing their cannons, probably like Commander George Rooke would have done at the 11th Siege in 1704. (I know that there are some 18th-century naval warfare experts out there, so if you see anything I should change to make it a little more authentic, please let me know.)

Forthcoming is another short clip like this, only showing some of the war activity against Gibraltar during WWII. There's a great photo from that era, with searchlights coming out of the rock in every which direction. My plan is to re-create and animate that scene, using photos I took in Gibraltar, some fake fog and searchlights moving around, and WWII-era planes flying through the sky. I'll post that when I've gotten a decent draft together.

That's all for now!

Timelases from Gibraltar

2008-11-24T22:27:00.000-08:00

While in Spain/Gibraltar this July, I filmed some timelapses for potential inclusion in the final film. It was a nice break from the work and I got some good footage of the Rock.

Also shown here are some cloud lapses from where I grew up, Bainbridge Island, Washington, also known as "The Rock."

Timelapse reel: Summer 2008 from Garrett Wesley Gibbons on Vimeo.

Gibraltar Documentary Film: soon to come

2008-11-24T22:25:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a 30 minute documentary film about identity and language in Gibraltar. As pieces get finalized, or at least become worth reviewing, I'm putting them up here for interested parties to review.

Also, this space will be home to extended interview footage that won't make it into the short film. With 10 hours of footage to work with, I am really having to chop up some of these great interviews to fit it all in. However, this page will hold as much interview footage as possible.

Did "gibberish" originally describe the speech in Gibraltar (Yanito)?

2007-12-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a paper I wrote on the subject of the potential origins of the English word, "gibberish," and the feasibility of its roots being in unintelligible speech in Gibraltar. (December 2007.)

An Alternative Etymology for Gibberish
Garrett Wesley Gibbons
Brigham Young University

The historical roots of a word like gibberish are not likely to often be investigated or reanalyzed. Because of this, one etymology for the word has exclusively been championed by academics while a perfectly feasible alternative has been ignored by historical linguists.

The meaning of the word gibberish is not currently an issue of debate. Most English dictionaries define it similarly. The Oxford English Dictionary represents the general consensus, and defines gibberish as ‘[u]nintelligible speech belonging to no known language, and supposed to be of arbitrary invention; inarticulate chatter, jargon. Often applied contemptuously to blundering or ungrammatical language.’ The origin is usually traced to the word gibber, synonymous with jabber, a word imitating unintelligible speech.

An alternate etymology is prevalent and highly popular in Gibraltar, however, where many believe that the word describes their supposedly unintelligible code-switching between English and Spanish. This patois is called Llanito, and indeed has received international recognition since the mid-1700s. Spanish historian Ignacio López de Ayala recorded the following about the language in Gibraltar in 1766. He said that the Gibraltar residents spoke ‘for better or for worse, Spanish and English, and a common dialect or jargon between all nations, not excepting the Africans’ (Ayala, 1782) (See Endnote 1 for original Spanish). It is clear that code-switching was prevalent early in the British occupation.

Many non-academic sources cite use this etymology to describe the origins of gibberish, reasoning that the ‘unintelligible speech’ aspect of the word originates in the fact that visitors to Gibraltar have historically been unable to understand the natives’ speech. Given the military significance of Gibraltar and its high level of tourism, many visitors have heard this language and may have coined a term to describe it.

These two etymologies stand independently. The folk etymology refuses to acknowledge the possibility of cross-lexical influences to the word, such as jabber. The academic Linguistic community seems to refuse to acknowledge the Gibraltar possibility, despite an inexplicable hole in that theory: the supposed root word, jabber, is first attested half of a century later than the first appearance of gibberish. These two proposed etymologies will be analyzed and discussed before a proposed methodology for analysis is set forth. The diachronic analysis will continue under a philological framework.

1. GIBRALTAR ETYMOLOGY.

I will first discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the folk etymology of gibberish, namely that it is a derivative of the place name, Gibraltar. This word is an object of national pride in Gibraltar today, where the people champion their validated importance in the world by citing gibberish as an example of how their unique speech has made its way into common English vocabulary. Given the small size of Gibraltar, with a population of under 30,000 (Ethnologue 2005) and a national area of 2.5 square miles, the notion of their inspiration of an English word is exciting.

1.1 STRENGTHS OF GIBRALTAR ETYMOLOGY.

The word gibberish is today used, universally, to mean ‘meaningless chatter.’ The meaningless portion of that chatter could very likely have come from a known location where speech was unintelligible, such as in Gibraltar.

The local Llanito speech, a thorough mix of Andalusian Spanish and common British English, is a global rarity in its level of convergence. Neither language clearly dominates, and sources disagree when attempting to define the foundational language in the mix. For example, a recent contributor to wordreference.com describes Llanito to be ‘a dialect of Andalusian Spanish, heavily influenced by English and not the other way round, as the Ethnologue maintains’ (wordreference.com 2007).

In local speech, morphemes are freely exchanged between words of the different languages. Syntax can reflect either English or Spanish constructions, and often varies mid-utterance (Kellerman 2001 passim). Phonemic interpretation seems to have found a stable middle ground between the two languages, and the semantic interpretation of any given word can assume complete bilingualism. Figures of speech are also mixed between the two languages. The result is a speech that is unintelligible to anyone not very fluent in both British English and Andalusian Spanish—and even if that condition is met, Llanito remains partially closed to anyone except the locals.

Gibraltar has been a major military outpost for the nations that have occupied it, beginning as early as the Phoenicians in about 950 BC (Kellerman 2001:11-14). Its tactical location has been recognized widely since at least then, and was developed moreso during the successive Muslim, Castillian, Marinidian, Jewish, and Spanish occupations, before the British takeover in 1704. Nations have contested the possession of Gibraltar in a constant cycle with ownership shifting every few decades, between 1309-1704. Official occupancy shifted from group to group as nearly-constant battles waged during this period. After the long Muslim occupation, Gibraltar was sequentially occupied by the following groups or nations, following sequential contests: Castillia (1309); the Marinids (1333); the Kingdom of Granada (1374); the Dukes of Medina Sidonia (1462); a refugee group of Sephardic Jews (1473); and Spain (1501). During the Spanish occupancy, Dutch and British naval forces attacked Gibraltar during the Eighty Years’ War (1607) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), when combined British and Dutch forces seized Gibraltar and caused much of the native population to leave without bloodshed. In addition to these successful takeovers, Gibraltar was also unsuccessfully attacked numerous times (Hills 1974).

The military history of Gibraltar clearly establishes the international importance of the location, opening the possibility that Gibraltar was sufficiently known to motivate the creation of a new word in the 16th century.

1.2 WEAKNESSES OF GIBRALTAR ETYMOLOGY.

Unfortunately, most of the proponents of this etymology have no empirical data to support their claims. Aside from the streets of Gibraltar, this etymology is often found in anecdotal writings or in travel guides. An example from Wikitravel.org follows: ‘The term gibberish came from the Llanito habit of randomly alternating between English and Spanish words all the way through a sentence. New words appear at random and spread quickly through the tight-knit community, then disappear just as fast’ (Gibraltar 2007). Sources such as this never cite any study or empirical data, due to the nature of their publication, leaving us to believe them simply by implicit logic or authoritative voice.

However, a general lack of documentation might only suggest that future research only needs to supplement the conclusions that logic brings. The plausibility of this theory is weakened by the fact that the logic has a certain glaring hole: the first recorded usage of gibberish dates to 1554, whereas the British occupation (and therefore the first likely appearance of a form of Llanito) began in 1704.

2. JABBER ETYMOLOGY.

The basis of the only currently accepted academic possibility is that gibberish connotes speech of ‘arbitrary invention’ (OED). The alternative to this would be meaningful speech, as in the case of Llanito, that is not understood. Several phrases in The Oxford English Dictionary used to define gibberish can also be used to describe a situation like Llanito. Examples include: ‘Unintelligible speech’; ‘jargon’; ‘ungrammatical language’; and ‘obscure…verbiage.’

Since the jabber basis is theorized to stem from the invented nature of gibberish, assuming that there is no intended meaning, it finds its basis in its imitative, onomatopoeic sounds of nonsensical speech.

2.1 STRENGTHS OF JABBER ETYMOLOGY.

This explanation has academically endured due to documentation. The word gibberish is said to be a derivative of gibber, which in turn is a derivative of jabber. To jabber is said to be of imitative origin, replicating the sounds of nonsensical speech. The suffix ‘—ish’ denotes a language, and follows English word formation patterns. The word gibber appeared in Hamlet in 1604, three years before the first major British attack on Gibraltar, and exactly one hundred years before the British succeeded in conquering Gibraltar.

It is also clear through the recorded usage of the word in The Oxford English Dictionary that Gibraltar has not been a major consideration in much of the usage. The current meaning seems to exist independent of any denotation of Gibraltar.

2.2 WEAKNESSES OF JABBER ETYMOLOGY.

It is clear that the word gibberish has come to mean ‘meaningless chatter,’ essentially. It is also clear that very few English speakers consider Gibraltar when using the word. Yet the history of this etymology is not without holes. In The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymologies, the entry for gibberish reads: ‘Earlier than gibber, but presumably to be connected’ (Concise Oxford 1986:193). The full history traced in The Oxford English Dictionary shows that gibberyshe, the earliest form of gibberish, appeared in 1554. The supposed root form, gibber, did not appear until 1604.

The presupposition seems to be that ‘gibber’ existed before gibberyshe, but was not attested in writing until fifty years later. The theory goes that the ‘-ish’ suffix was added to denote a language, such as ‘Spanish’ and ‘Swedish’ (Chantrell 2002:231). However, to the discredit of this academically accepted etymology, the logic flows more naturally in reverse. In other words, given the dates of attestations, gibber likely emerged as a back-formation of gibberyshe, which could have been coined first. One etymologist even noted that gibberish ‘may not be related to gibber’ at all (Cassell 1999:252).

Finally, The Oxford English Dictionary cites gibber in 1604, but the next citation is not until 1791 (well after Ayala observed and documented Llanito in 1766). The 1604 instance appears in the first act and scene of Hamlet. Shakespeare is known for having inventing perhaps as many as 1,700 words (Crystal 2002). Since the word was not used again until nearly 200 years later, Shakespeare may have coined gabber, independent of a previous coinage of gibberish that may have been based on the name Gibraltar.

3. METHODOLOGY.

The basis of ignoring the Gibraltar etymology, despite its popular appeal, may stem from the fact that the English did not capture Gibraltar until 1704. In other words, Llanito did not likely exist in any form until at least the British occupancy, exactly 150 years after the word gibberyshe was first recorded. The logic is simply that the British occupancy did not cause English to mix with Spanish until well after the word existed.

Despite the glaring fact that Llanito did not likely exist before the British takeover of Gibraltar in 1704, the Gibraltar-based etymology of gibberish may have merit. Even though Spanish and English were not always the main two languages involved in this particular code-switching phenomenon, code-switching between other languages may have long been a significant aspect of Gibraltar’s fame.

3.1 POINTS TO ESTABLISH.

I will seek to establish the Gibraltar etymology as historically possible. This will be accomplished in two stages, both of which must be achieved before the Gibraltar Etymology is considered to be possible (and worthy of academic consideration).

In the first stage I will determine the antiquity of any form of the name Gibraltar, from which gibberish may have been derived. In the second stage I will seek to historically establish that code-switching has been prevalent in Gibraltar from times previous to the earliest recorded instance of gibberish, according to The Oxford English Dictionary.

If the name Gibraltar was used in times when code-switching was a prevalent part of the community, and if this happened before the earliest English usage of gibberish, then I will conclude that this etymology has merit and should be duly compared to the currently-accepted academic etymology. Only if both of these conditions are met will the Gibraltar etymology be considered plausible.

4. ANALYSIS.

We will first analyze the issue of the antiquity of the name Gibraltar, from which gibberish may have been derived. Following that we will investigate the history of code-switching in Gibraltar. Dealing with historically relative issues such as culture, society and language, I recognize that not every key element has been recorded. For example, with the focus on the Spanish-Moorish wars of the 14th-16th centuries, most historians completely neglected any mention of language, culture or society until the 18th century. In instances where the documentation is slim, deductive logic will be employed.

4.1 GIBRALTAR.

The English name Gibraltar appears to be derived from the Arabic name for that peninsula, jabal al Tariq, ‘mount of Tariq’, named after the Berber Umayyad general Tariq ibn-Ziyad, who lead the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 AD (Klein, 1966:655). No documentation of the history of the English Gibraltar seems to exist beyond that Arabic origin, and no etymologist, out of 50 sampled, assigns a date to the first recorded usage of Gibraltar. Various kingdoms in Spain occupied and contested Muslim forces for Gibraltar during the 14th-17th centuries, and the name Gibraltar was used in Spanish during that time.

The academic community offers no derivation for the name Gibraltar from the original jabal al Tariq, but a simple derivation can be easily conjectured. The l in the Arabic seems to have undergone a shift to r. The vowels were apparently modified in trans-language adoption and the final –iq was dropped, forming the Spanish name that lead to the current English name at some point between 711 AD (when Tariq ibn-Ziyad invaded the Iberian Peninsula) and 1704 (when the British occupancy began).

When Gibraltar became known as jabal al Tariq also remains unknown. The nature of its name suggests a Muslim occupancy, however. When the next group to possess Gibraltar, the Castillians, came in 1309, it is unlikely that they named it after a Muslim, whom they had just overthrown. They more likely continued usage of The Rock’s former name, jabal al Tariq, showing that it had been the established name of The Rock since at least before their arrival in 1309.

Regardless of not knowing the first instance of the English Gibraltar, it is firmly established that the older Arabic name is phonetically similar to Gibraltar, and that this name has been used since at least 1309, if not as early as 711. Clearly, this is at least 150 years before the first recorded usage of any form of gibberish. This establishes that the name Gibraltar predates the word gibberish.

4.2 CODE-SWITCHING IN GIBRALTAR.

I will now seek demonstrate that code-switching may have been prevalent in Gibraltar from before the time that the word gibberish was first recorded.

As established in section 1.1, Gibraltar has been occupied by dozens of parties and groups since early history. It has been a cultural mixing zone since at least the times of the Phoenicians, which trend continued through the Roman occupation. Under Muslim control, Gibraltar was a center of trade, and despite frequent military contests, it continues to be to this day. Its population has been in a nearly-constant state of flux, and has always been known for close language contact, although perhaps due to its relatively small population and very small geographical footprint, Gibraltar has not received exhaustive cultural attention in the eyes of pre-British writers.

Despite that fact that code-switching has historically been a part of life in Gibraltar, this discussion begs the question of whether or not people in England knew that it was happening enough to create a term to describe it. These types of questions cannot be plausibly answered at this time, given the current corpus of documentation, but the possibility exists enough that it should be seriously considered.

5. CONCLUSION.

Since both of the aforementioned conditions have been met, I conclude that the etymology of the word gibberish, as describing speech in Gibraltar, is possible. In extension, I see no reason to discount this theory based on the current information available. In contrast, the merits of this etymology should persuade the academic community to consider this etymology as a feasible possibility.

6. FUTURE WORK.

This is an issue that will likely never be resolved. Future work in this area will be difficult, since diachronic studies can only conjecture upon the motivation behind a new word being coined. A step to take in analyzing the merits of the Gibraltar etymology of gibberish will be to create a historical index of textual instances in which it was used to describe speech in Gibraltar, since no such study has yet been made. Only a study as exhaustive as that contained in The Oxford English Dictionary (for the ‘meaningless chatter’ possibility) will be able to establish the foundation necessary to compare the two etymologies on even ground.

In addition, more serious academic inquiry into the language history of Gibraltar needs to be performed. Very few historians of any kind have dedicated much attention to the culture of Gibraltar, focusing always on its military history. As researchers become aware of the history of Gibraltar and its significance in the etymology of gibberish, they will be able to continue to judge the merits of either side of this etymology, based on future discoveries of old documents, journals and anecdotal accounts about language in Pre-British Gibraltar. Old accounts about the society of Gibraltar, especially during the Spanish occupation, may become newly relevant.

END NOTES

1. The original Spanish follows: the people in Gibraltar spoke ‘bien ó mal el Castellano é Ingles, i un dialecto ó jerga comun á todas las naciones, sin excluir las Africanas.’

REFERENCES

CRYSTAL, DAVID & CRYSTAL, BEN. 2002. Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion. Penguin.

HOAD, T. F., ed. 1986. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press.

ROOM, ADRIAN, ed. 1999. The Cassell Dictionary of Word Histories. London: Cassell.

CHANTRELL, GLYNNIS, ed. 2002. The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories. Oxford University Press.

GIBRALTAR. http://wikitravel.org/en/Gibraltar. (Accessed on 28 September 2007).

GORDON, RAYMOND G., JR., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas: SIL International.

HILLS, GEORGE. 1974. Rock of Contention: A History of Gibraltar. London: Robert Hale.

KELLERMANN, ANJA. 2001. A New New English: Language, Politics, and Identity in Gibraltar. Heidelberg: The author (Books on Demand).

LLANITO/YANITO. Wordreference.com Language Forums. http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=213376. (Accessed on 13 Dec 2007).

KLEIN, ERNEST. 1966. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of The English Language. New York: Elsevier Science Ltd.

SIMPSON, JOHN & WEINER, EDMUND, eds. 2002. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2 edition. Oxford University Press.