Saharan Spanish

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.

Although 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 the Moroccan-ruled parts of the country, the foreign language taught in school is typically French, rather than Spanish.

Spanish still influences Sahrawi society today and is the preferred second language for acquisition and government in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,[1] though not in the Moroccan-ruled areas that make up most of the territory. Arabic is the sole official language identified in the Sahrawi constitution, and the republic only uses Spanish for radio and TV broadcasts[2] and state journalism.[3] 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.[4]

Spanish vocabulary has entered Hassaniya, particularly in fields related to agriculture, automobiles, diet, and sanitation.[5] These loanwords are reinforced due to Sahrawis studying abroad in Hispanic lands and returning to either Western Sahara or the Sahrawi refugee camps.[5]

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.

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  Sahrawi woman teaching Spanish in one of the Tindouf refugee camps.
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  School in Bir Lehlu.
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  National Sahrawi Police.
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  Emergency room.
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  Sale of products in a Dajla pharmacy, note that the posters are in Spanish.
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  Coins of 2 Sahrawi pesetas with inscriptions in Spanish.

• Western Saharan literature in Spanish
• Equatoguinean Spanish

• Aaiun, gritando lo que se siente. Antología poética (2006), published by the University of Madrid, ISBN 8461117220
• Awah, Bahia Mahmud. Literatura del Sahara Occidental. Breve estudio (2008), ISBN 978-84-612-8912-7
• Awah, Bahia Mahmud. Tiris, rutas literarias (April 2016), published by Última Línea, ISBN 9788416159239
• Awah, Bahia Mahmud. Versos refugiados (2007), published by Universidad Alcalá De Henares, ISBN 978-84-88754-26-4
• Awah, Bahia Mahmud and Moya, Conchi. El porvenir del español en el Sahara Occidental (2009), ISBN 978-84-613-0943-6
• Budda, Abdurrahaman. Huellas del castellano en el dialecto del hassaniyya saharaui (2012).
• Gil, Victoria Retratos saharauis (2011)
• San Martin, Pablo and Bollig, Ben (eds.) Los colores de la espera : Antología de nueva poesía sahraui (2011), published in Hudson by Comodoro Rivadavia, ISBN 978-987-24042-5-3
• Treinta y uno, Thirty-One : Antología poetíca (2007), published by Sandblast and the University of Leeds, ISBN 978-84-8053-474-1.
• Um Draiga : Poesía sahraui contemporánea (2007), published in Zaragoza by Um Draiga.
• VerSáhara, 2016. Varios autores canarios y saharauis (November 2016), published by Cuadernos de La Gueldera, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ISBN 978-84-617-6174-6

• Um Draiga, a Sahrawi expatriate organization in Spain that publishes Spanish-language Sahrawi literature and poetry (in Spanish)