The present paper sets out to gauge the post-Brexit referendum attitudes of Gibraltarians concerning language and political outlooks. A survey was created in order to gather the necessary qualitative and quantitative data. It was spread using Facebook groups and a total of 38 questionnaires were collected. The results of the research suggest that Gibraltar is still highly conflicted over Brexit, there is an ongoing attrition of Spanish, and English seems to be continuously gaining linguistic ground. More detailed research is, however, needed to evaluate the ongoing changes with greater certainty.
Gibraltar, popularly known as "The Rock", has been a British overseas territory since the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713. The demographics of this unique colony reflect its turbulent past, with most of the population being of Spanish, Portuguese or Italian origin (Garcia 1994). Additionally, there are prominent minorities of Indians, Maltese, Moroccans and Jews, who have also continued to influence both the culture and the languages spoken in Gibraltar (Kellermann 2001). Despite its status as the only English overseas territory in continental Europe, Gibraltar has so far remained relatively neglected by scholars of sociolinguistics, new dialect formation, and World Englishes. The paper provides a summary of the current state of sociolinguistic research in Gibraltar, focusing on such aspects as identity formation, code-switching, language awareness, language attitudes, and norms. It also delineates a plan for further research on code-switching and national identity following the 2016 Brexit referendum.
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