Saharan Spanish

{{multiple image | direction = vertical | width = 250

|image1=Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Spain Locator.png

|alt1=World map with Spain and Western Sahara highlighted

|image2=Cuba Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Locator.svg

|alt2=World map with Cuba and Western Sahara highlighted

|image3=Museo de la Guerra en Rabuni, sede del gobierno de la RASD.jpg

|alt3=An arch welcoming visitors in Arabic and Spanish to the museum

|caption3=Western Sahara and former colonial power Spain (above) and frequent source of expatriate education Cuba (mid). A sign welcomes visitors to the People's Liberation Army Museum, a military museum in the Sahrawi refugee camps, in Arabic and Spanish.

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The native and dominant languages in Western Sahara are Hassaniya Arabic and some Berber languages. Spanish was introduced by settlers in Spanish West Africa and Spanish Sahara in the 19th century. Older Sahrawis who went to school in the time of the Spanish colonization (up to 1975) are typically competent in the language, and in addition Spanish is taught to the new generations in the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.

In 1957, just before the declaration of Western Sahara as a Spanish colony, there were 185 Spanish students and 53 Sahrawi students. In elementary schools, most of the teachers were Spanish with only thirty Sahrawi teachers.{{Cite journal |last=Sayahi |first=Lotfi |date=2015-01-01 |title=España ante el mundo: Spain's colonial language policies in North Africa |url=https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cas_llc_scholar/3/ |journal=Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship}} Between 1968 and 1969, the two secondary schools in El Aaiún and Villa Cisneros had a total enrollment of 3,655 students, with native Sahrawis making up half of the student body.{{Cite web |title=El sistema colonial español en África {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/46470873 |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=search.worldcat.org |language=en}} According to the 1970 Spanish census, 21.8% of Western Sahara's population spoke Spanish.{{Cite book |title=Enciclopedia del español en el mundo |date=2006 |publisher=Plaza & Janés [u.a.] |isbn=978-84-88252-64-7 |editor-last=Martı́nez |editor-first=José María |series=El español en el mundo : anuario del Instituto Cervantes |location=Barcelona}} An important factor in the spread of the Spanish language was a bilingual radio program for Hassaniya speakers learning Spanish. It was launched by Radio ECCA, a Canarian radio station, which focuses on adult literacy and education.{{Cite journal |last=García |first=Laura Morgenthaler |date=2011 |title=Aspectos sociolingüísticos del contacto español-árabe en el Sahara Occidental: primer acercamiento |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41678473 |journal=Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana |volume=9 |issue=2 (18) |pages=101–119 |issn=1579-9425}}

In 1976, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic established the Ministry of Education, Health, and Social Affairs. The initial team of Spanish educators consisted of two teachers, 35 university students, and several secondary school students. Between 1994 and 1999, the Ministry of Education implemented a reform in Spanish language instruction, focusing on teacher training, curriculum development, and the trial and expansion of a "Spanish Plan." This plan aimed to integrate crafts, technology, school activities, and physical education as practical areas for using Spanish in primary education. It was intended as a foundational step toward future bilingual secondary education, which has yet to be realized.

Spanish still influences Sahrawi society today and is the preferred second language for acquisition and government in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, though not in the Moroccan-ruled areas that make up most of the territory. In the Moroccan-ruled parts of the country, the foreign language taught in school is typically French, rather than Spanish. However, the role of Spanish remains apparent; for example, in Moroccan-controlled Laayoune, the Spanish Ministry of Education funds the international school Colegio Español La Paz.{{Cite web |title=Centro - Sistema Educativo Digital |url=https://celapaz.educacion.es/centro |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=celapaz.educacion.es}} Arabic is the sole official language identified in the Sahrawi constitution, and the republic only uses Spanish for radio and TV broadcasts and state journalism. The Cervantes Institute estimates that there are 22,000 second-language speakers, 5% of the population, in Western Sahara, plus a larger number in the refugee camps in Algeria.

In zones controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Spanish is used in formal written and oral contexts among Sahrawi speakers themselves: Spanish, and not standard Arabic, covers everyday domains of use such as education, medicine and international relations, but is also used in the family sphere among speakers who have spent most of their lives in Spanish-speaking countries.{{Cite journal |last=García |first=Laura Morgenthaler |date=2016 |title=El español en el Sahara Occidental: entre olvido y desorden |url=https://www.raco.cat/index.php/Elies/article/view/327455 |journal=Estudios de lingüística del español |language=ca |volume=37 |issn=1139-8736 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240903174828/https://raco.cat/index.php/Elies/article/view/327455 |archive-date=2024-09-03}}

Bilingual education in refugee camps is obligatory and begins in the third year of primary school and extends to the beginning of secondary school. All written documentation from the Ministry of Public Health, including administrative records, clinical files, reports, and medical prescriptions, is in Spanish. Additionally, Spanish is used in patient reception, consultations, medical procedures, and prescriptions. Health professionals and the Sahrawi population maintain constant interaction with medical staff from Spain and Cuba. Spanish use is promoted among the younger generations through scholarship opportunities abroad, namely in Cuba, offering access to primary and secondary education for Sahrawi refugees and asylum seekers.{{Cite web |title=Western Sahara - Sahara Occidental - |url=https://www.arso.org/UNHCRCuba.htm |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=www.arso.org}} Another program, "Vacaciones en Paz," gives Sahrawi children aged 10-12 the opportunity to live with a family in Spain during the summer. In 2024, 2,930 Sahrawi children participated in the program.{{Cite web |date=April 6, 2024 |title=El programa “Vacaciones en paz” traerá a España a cerca de 3.000 menores procedentes de campamentos de refugiados saharauis |url=https://www.inclusion.gob.es/w/el-programa-vacaciones-en-paz-traera-a-espana-a-cerca-de-3.000-menores-procedentes-de-campamentos-de-refugiados-saharauis |website=Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones}}

Spanish vocabulary has entered Hassaniya, particularly in fields related to agriculture, automobiles, diet, and sanitation. These loanwords are reinforced due to Sahrawis studying abroad in Hispanic lands and returning to either Western Sahara or the Sahrawi refugee camps.

Regarding the lexicon, the preference for Hispanisms in the framework of technique and tools has been documented, just as other countries have opted for solutions of the colonizing language such as English or French.

In addition to lexical items, Sahrawi Spanish speakers have been noted to modify Spanish words according to typical Arabic morphological structures. This happens with plurals, which instead of taking the Spanish plural morpheme /-s/, adopts the Arabic morpheme for feminine plurals /-at/, as in /bañador-bañadurat/. The same morphological changes are made in the formation of diminutives. For example, /kama/ (cama; bed) makes the plural /kamat/ and the diminutive /akuaima/.

Pequeña gran mujer - Saharauiak.jpg|Sahrawi woman teaching Spanish in one of the Tindouf refugee camps.

Bir Lehlu school.jpg|School in Bir Lehlu.

Policia Nacional Saharaui.jpg|National Sahrawi Police.

Urgencias campamentos refugiados saharauis.jpg|Emergency room.

Productos naturales en la farmacia de Dajla - Saharauiak.jpg|Sale of products in a Dajla pharmacy with posters in Spanish.

2 Pesetas Sahara.jpg|Coins of 2 Sahrawi pesetas with inscriptions in Spanish.

{{Portal|Language|Western Sahara}}

• Western Saharan literature in Spanish
• Equatoguinean Spanish

{{reflist|refs=

{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14115273 |title=Western Sahara profile |date=14 May 2018 |publisher=BBC}}

{{Cite web |title=El español en África |url=http://revistas.rae.es/bilrae/article/view/122/236 |publisher=Association of Academies of the Spanish Language |date=2012 |last=Budda |first=Abdurrahaman}}

[https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/espanol_lengua_viva/pdf/espanol_lengua_viva_2021.pdf Table 2, p. 12]

[ El español en los países árabes en Fiape: I Congreso internacional, Toledo (2005)]

{{Cite book|page=118 |title=Identities in Migration Contexts |chapter=Language, Identities, and Cultures Between Spain and Morocco |last=Knoerrich |first=Isabel A. |date=6 August 2023 |editor-last1=Jungbluth |editor-last2=Meierkord |editor-first1=Judith |editor-first2=Chrisitane |isbn=978-3-8233-6317-0 |publisher=Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen}}

{{Cite web |url=https://www.spsrasd.info/news/en/content/about-us |title=About Us |date=26 February 2016 |publisher=Sahara Press Service}}

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• {{cite book |title=Aaiún, gritando lo que se siente : poesía saharaui contemporánea |date=2006 |publisher=Revista Exilios |isbn=8461117220}}
• {{cite book |last=Awah |first=Bahia Mahmud |title=Literatura del Sahara Occidental. Breve estudio |year=2008 |publisher=Bubok |isbn=978-84-612-8912-7}}
• {{cite book |last=Awah |first=Bahia Mahmud |title=Tiris, rutas literarias |date=April 2016 |publisher=Última Línea |isbn=9788416159239}}
• {{cite book |last=Awah |first=Bahia Mahmud |title=Versos refugiados |year=2007 |publisher=Universidad Alcalá De Henares |isbn=978-84-88754-26-4}}
• {{cite book |last1=Awah |first1=Bahia Mahmud |last2=Moya |first2=Conchi |title=El porvenir del español en el Sahara Occidental |year=2009 |publisher=Bubok |isbn=978-84-613-0943-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Budda |first=Abdurrahaman |title=Huellas del castellano en el dialecto del hassaniyya saharaui |year=2012 |publisher=AACHE |isbn=9788415537083}}
• {{cite book |last=Gil |first=Victoria |title=Retratos saharauis |year=2011 |isbn=9788461472062}}
• {{cite book |editor-last1=San Martin |editor-first1=Pablo |editor-last2=Bollig |editor-first2=Ben |title=Los colores de la espera: Antología de nueva poesía sahraui |year=2011 |publisher=Colección El Extremo Sur-Espacio Hudson |isbn=978-987-24042-5-3}}
• {{cite book |title=Treinta y uno, Thirty-One : Antología poetíca |year=2007 |publisher=Sandblast |isbn=978-84-8053-474-1}}
• {{cite book |title=Um Draiga: Poesía sahraui contemporánea |year=2007 |location=Zaragoza |publisher=Um Draiga |oclc=746799119}}
• {{cite book |isbn=978-84-617-6174-6 |title=VerSahara: Antología 2016 |last1=Iselmu |first1=Alí Salem |date=2016 |publisher=Centro Canario de Estudios Caribeños "El Atlántico" }}

{{sisterlinks|d=Q5840069|q=no|c=Category:Western Saharan Spanish|b=no|v=no|voy=Spanish phrasebook|n=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|s=no|wikt=no}}

• [https://asoc.umdraiga.com Um Draiga], a Sahrawi expatriate organization in Spain that publishes Spanish-language Sahrawi literature and poetry {{in lang|es}}

{{Languages of Western Sahara}}

{{Spanish variants by continent}}

{{Romance languages}}

{{use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}

Category:Spanish dialects

Spanish

Category:Spanish language in Africa