The only official language of the Falkland Islands is English, and this is spoken by everyone on a day-to-day basis.

Knowledge of Spanish as a foreign language is fairly widespread, as it is a compulsory subject in school, being the lingua franca in much of mainland South America.

As the schools follow the English education system, European Spanish, as prescribed by the Real Academia in Madrid, is taught, rather than a South American variety of the language, but Falkland Islanders may use seseo pronunciation typical of South American dialect.

However, as a result of the isolation of the islands, the small population has developed and retains its own accent/dialect, which persists despite a large number of immigrants from the United Kingdom in recent years.

In rural areas (i.e. anywhere outside Port Stanley), known as ‘Camp’ (from Spanish campo or ‘countryside’),[2] the Falkland accent tends to be stronger.