Chavacano, also known as Chabacano (), is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. Other currently existing varieties are found in Cavite City and Ternate, located in the Cavite province on the island of Luzon. Chavacano is the only Spanish-based creole in Asia. The 2020 Census of Population and Housing counted 106,000 households generally speaking Chavacano.
Zamboangueño-Chavacano is the most populous variety, the individual most commonly credited for the spread of this Spanish creole is Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, then governor of Panama. He settled Zamboanga City by recruiting soldiers and colonists from Peru, Panama, and Colombia, to establish a Spanish and Latin-American presence there. There was also a transpacific trade route that developed, where Spanish merchants would trade silver that was transported from Peru through Panama where it would reach Acapulco, Mexico before sailing to Manila using the famed Manila galleons. The Spanish chroniclers, Vendrell and Eduard (Year:1887 - Page:62), in speaking of Zamboanga, observed and said the following: ("Estos indgenas, la inmensa mayoría mestizos españoles, proceden en su origen de otras provincias del Archipélago, y muchos de Méjico, de donde llegaron á principios de este siglo, cuando perdimos aquel imperio.") And when translated to English; "These indigenous people, the great majority of whom are Spanish mestizos, originally come from other provinces and from México, whence they arrived at the beginning of this century when we lost that empire."Chabacano/Spanish and the Philippine linguistic identity By John M. Lipski (The Pennsylvania State University) Also, Argentines and Uruguayans like Juan Fermin de San Martin settled and made families in Zamboanga.
As for Ternateño-Chavacano, which is concentrated in; Ternate, Cavite, Two hundred families of Merdicas (of mixed Mexican-Filipino-Spanish and Papuan-Indonesian-Portuguese descent)Zamboangueño Chavacano: Philippine Spanish Creole or Filipinized Spanish Creole? By Tyron Judes D. Casumpang (Page 3) from Ternate, Indonesia were resettled in a sandbar near the mouth of the Maragondon River (known as the Bahra de Maragondon) and Tanza, Cavite. Among them was their ruler, Sultan Said Din Burkat, who deported to Manila together with his entourage and family and later converted to Christianity.Bartolome Juan Leonardy y de Argensola, Conquistas de las islas Molucas (Madrid: Alonso Martin, 1909) pp. 351-8; Cesar Majul, Muslims in the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1973) pp. 119-20; Hal, History of Southeast Asia, pp. 249-50.
Meanwhile, Caviteño-Chavacano and Ermiteño-Chavacano, of Cavite City, Cavite; and, Ermita, Manila; their main lexifiers were Peninsular-Spanish, from Spain, and Mexican-Spanish, from Mexico, and most of their immigrants were Spaniards and Mexicans.
The different varieties of Chavacano differ in certain aspects like vocabulary but they are generally mutually intelligible by speakers of these varieties, especially between neighboring varieties. While a majority of the lexicon of the different Chavacano varieties derive from Spanish, their grammatical structures are generally similar to other Philippine languages. Among Philippine languages, it is the only one that is not an Austronesian language, but like Malayo-Polynesian languages, it uses reduplication.
The word is derived from Spanish, roughly meaning "poor taste" or "vulgar", though the term itself carries no negative connotations to contemporary speakers.
Distribution and variants
Varieties
Linguists have identified at least six Spanish creole varieties in the Philippines. Their classification is based on their substrate languages and the regions where they are commonly spoken. The three known varieties of Chavacano with Tagalog as their substrate language are the Luzon-based creoles of which are Caviteño (spoken in Cavite City), Bahra or Ternateño (spoken in Ternate, Cavite) and Ermitaño (once spoken in the old district of Ermita in Manila and is now extinct).
Variety PlacesMain language of households (2020 census) Native speakersZamboangueño (Zamboangueño/Zamboangueño Chavacano/Chabacano de Zamboanga)Zamboanga City, Tungawan, Isabela de Basilan, Lantawan, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay104,470 359,000 (Rubino 2008, citing 2000 census)EthnologueCaviteño (Chabacano di Nisos/Chabacano de Cavite)Cavite City, Cavite921 4,000 (2013)Cotabateño (Chabacano de Cotabato)Cotabato City, Maguindanao del Norte, South Cotabato442 No dataCastellano Abakay (Chabacano Davaoeño)Davao Region, Davao City542 No data Ternateño (Bahra)Ternate, CaviteNo data 3,000 (2013)Ermitaño (Ermitense)Ermita, Manila0 (extinct) Extinct
There are a number of theories on how these different varieties of Chavacano have evolved and how they are related to one another. According to some linguists, Zamboangueño Chavacano is believed to have been influenced by Caviteño Chabacano as evidenced by prominent Zamboangueño families who descended from Spanish Army officers (from Spain and Latin America), primarily Caviteño mestizos, stationed at Fort Pilar in the 19th century. When Caviteño officers recruited workers and technicians from Iloilo to man their sugar plantations and rice fields to reduce the local population's dependence on the Donativo de Zamboanga, the Spanish colonial government levied taxes on the islanders to support the fort's operations. With the subsequent migration of Ilonggo traders to Zamboanga, the Zamboangueño Chavacano was infused with Hiligaynon words as the previous migrant community was assimilated.
Most of what appears to be Bisaya words in Zamboangueño Chavacano are actually Hiligaynon. Although Zamboangueño Chavacano's contact with Bisaya began much earlier when Bisaya soldiers were stationed at Fort Pilar during the Spanish colonial period, it was not until closer to the middle of the 20th century that borrowings from Bisaya accelerated from more migration from the Visayas as well as the current migration from other Visayan-speaking areas of the Zamboanga Peninsula.
Zamboangueño (Chavacano) is spoken in Zamboanga City, Basilan, parts of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Norte. Zamboangueño Chavacano is the most dynamically spoken language of Philippine Creole Spanish. It is used as a lingua franca between both Muslim and Christians in the Southwestern Mindanao and Basilan Islands communities. Its influence has spread to other islands in the west, such as the Jolo Islands, as well as to Cotabato and Davao in Mindanao. The other varieties of Chavacano with Cebuano as their primary substrate language are the Mindanao-based creoles of which are Castellano Abakay or Chavacano Davaoeño (spoken in some areas of Davao), influenced by Hokkien Chinese and Japanese, and divided into two varieties, Castellano Abakay Chino and Castellano Abakay Japón, and Cotabateño (spoken in Cotabato City). Both Cotabateño and Davaoeño are very similar to Zamboangueño.
Characteristics The Chavacano languages in the Philippines are creoles based on Mexican Spanish, southern peninsular Spanish and possibly, Portuguese. In some Chavacano languages, most words are common with Andalusian Spanish, but there are many words borrowed from Nahuatl, a language native to Central Mexico, which aren't found in Andalusian Spanish. Although the vocabulary is largely Mexican, its grammar is mostly based on other Philippine languages, primarily Ilonggo, Tagalog and Bisaya. By way of Spanish, its vocabulary also has influences from the Native American languages Nahuatl, Taino, Quechua, etc. as can be evidenced by the words chongo ("monkey", instead of Spanish ), tiange ("mini markets"), etc.Hispanic Words of Indoamerican Origin in the Philippines Page 136-137
In contrast with the Luzon-based dialects, the Zamboangueño variety has the most borrowings and/or influence from other Philippine Austronesian languages including Hiligaynon and Tagalog. Words of Malay origin are present in the Zamboangueño variety; the latter is included because although not local in Philippines, it was the lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia and is still spoken in Muslim areas of Mindanao. As the Zamboangueño variety is also spoken by Muslims, the variety has some Arabic loanwords, most commonly Islamic terms. In spite of this, it's difficult to trace whether these words have their origin in the local population or in Spanish itself, given that Spanish has about 6,000 words of Arabic origin. Chavacano also contains loanwords of Persian origin which enter Chavacano via Malay and Arabic; both Persian and Spanish are Indo-European languages.
Demographics The highest number of Chavacano speakers are found in Zamboanga City and in the island province of Basilan. A significant number of Chavacano speakers are found in Cavite City and Ternate. There are also speakers in some areas in the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, Davao, and in Cotabato City. According to the official 2000 Philippine census, there were altogether 607,200 Chavacano speakers in the Philippines in that same year. The exact figure could be higher as the 2000 population of Zamboanga City, whose main language is Chavacano, far exceeded that census figure. Also, the figure doesn't include Chavacano speakers of the Filipino diaspora. All the same, Zamboangueño is the variety with the most number of speakers, being the official language of Zamboanga City whose population is now believed to be over a million; is also an official language in Basilan.
Chavacano speakers are also found in Semporna and elsewhere in Sabah via immigration to Sabah during the Spanish colonial period and via Filipino refugees who escaped from Zamboanga Peninsula and predominantly Muslim areas of Mindanao like Sulu Archipelago.
A small number of Zamboanga's indigenous peoples and of Basilan, such as the Tausugs, the Samals, and the Yakans, majority of those people are Sunni Muslims, also speak the language. In the close provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi areas, there are Muslim speakers of the Chavacano de Zamboanga, all of them are neighbors of Christians. Speakers of the Chavacano de Zamboanga, both Christians and Muslims, also live in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. Christians and Muslims in Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, South Cotabato, Cotabato City, and Saranggani speak Chavacano de Zamboanga. Take note that Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Cotabato City, Soccsksargen (region that comprises Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, South Cotabato, and Saranggani) and Davao Region became part of short-lived Republic of Zamboanga, which chose Chavacano as official language. As a result of Spanish colonization, according to a genetic study written by Maxmilian Larena, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the Philippine ethnic groups with the highest amount of Spanish/European descent are the Chavacanos, with 4 out of 10 Chavacanos having detectable Spanish descent, followed by Bicolanos, with 1–2 out of 10, while most of the lowland urbanized Christian ethnic groups have some Spanish descent.(Appendix)
Social significance