Marivic Lesho

This study investigates how possibility is expressed in Zamboanga and Cavite Chabacano and two of their respective adstrates, Hiligaynon and Tagalog. Following Winford's (2000, 2018) call for creolists to use standard typological frameworks to describe creole modality, this study presents questionnaire data elicited for each language and classifies the modals according to categories proposed by van der Auwera & Plungian (1998), Palmer (2001), and Matthewson et al. (2005). The data demonstrate that all four languages have the same typological profile, with mixed Philippine and Spanish elements. Pwede 'can' (< Sp. puede) expresses deontic, dynamic, and epistemic possibility, as in Spanish, and in the creoles, it also marks nonvolitional circumstances, parallel to Philippine ma(ka)-. Epistemic possibility is marked primarily by adverbs in each language, however, with siguro 'possibly/probably' (< Sp. seguro 'sure') flexibly able to mark necessity. The data support recent proposals (Fernández 2006, 2012a;Sippola & Lesho 2020) that the Chabacano varieties are highly similar not because they descended from a single ancestor but because their adstrates are so closely related. In fact, the adstrate modal systems are nearly identical.

This study examines variation and change among three Chabacano varieties. While there has been considerable debate on how these Spanish-lexified creoles formed and how they are related, there has been no comprehensive comparison of their grammatical features. Based on frameworks of contact-induced grammaticalization, this paper compares three areas of Cavite, Ternate, and Zamboanga Chabacano grammar: modality, reciprocal marking and argument marking. While these creoles have typological similarities, they also have substantial differences due to variation in the grammaticalization of elements from Spanish and the different adstrates in each community. These different grammaticalization paths support theories that these varieties developed independently rather than directly from a single ancestor. Historical evidence suggests they developed under different sociohistorical circumstances during different time periods. Factors in their continuing divergence include their geographical distance, language endangerment in Cavite and Ternate, and the presence of Visayan L2 speakers in Zamboanga.

En este artículo estudiamos la variación y el cambio gramatical en las variedades chabacanas de Cavite, Ternate y Zamboanga. Aunque la formación y las interrelaciones de estas variedades criollas se hayan debatido considerablemente, todavía falta una comparación exhaustiva de sus rasgos gramaticales. Basado en marcos de gramaticalización inducida por el contacto, este artículo compara la modalidad, la reciprocidad y la marcación de los argumentos en estas tres variedades chabacanas. Si bien estos criollos tienen una notable similitud tipológica, se diferencian sustancialmente en cuanto a la variación en la gramaticalización de los elementos del español y de las diferentes lenguas de adstrato. La evidencia sobre las diferentes vías de gramaticalización apoya la teoría de un desarrollo independiente en vez de un origen común y único. La evidencia histórica sugiere que las variedades se desarrollaron bajo diferentes circunstancias sociohistóricas en diferentes momentos históricos. La distancia geográfica entre las comunidades, el peligro de desaparición en Cavite y Ternate, y la presencia de hablantes de lenguas bisayas que hablan chabacano como L2 en Zamboanga se identifican como los factores que causan la divergencia todavía en curso.

English is an official language in the Philippines, along with Filipino, a standardized register originally based on Tagalog (Gonzalez 1998). The Philippines were a Spanish colony for over three centuries, but when the Americans took control in 1898, they immediately implemented English instruction in schools (Gonzalez 2004). It became much more widespread among Filipinos than Spanish ever was, and by the late 1960s, Philippine English was recognized as a distinct, nativized variety (Llamzon 1969). It is widely spoken throughout the country as a second language, alongside Filipino and approximately 180 other languages (Lewis, Simmons & Fennig 2016). It is also spoken in the home by a small number of Filipinos, especially among the upper class in Metro Manila (Gonzalez 1983, 1989) and other urban areas. There is a large body of literature on Philippine English. However, relatively few studies have focused on its sound system. The most detailed phonological descriptions of this variety have been by Tayao (2004, 2008), although there have also been previous sketches (Llamzon 1969, 1997; Gonzalez 1984). There has been very little phonetic research on Philippine English, apart from some work describing the vowel system (Pillai, Manueli & Dumanig 2010, Cruz 2015).

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Cavite Chabacano, an endangered creole language spoken in Cavite City, Philippines, has dialectal variation that can be traced to the settlement patterns established by the Spanish during the colonial era. This study focuses on Cavite Chabacano speakers’ metalinguistic awareness of dialectal variation, what their attitudes are toward it, and how they believe the different dialects are influenced by the superstrate Spanish or the substrate Tagalog. Participants’ comments during a map-labeling task show where Chabacano is still believed to be spoken and reveal that they have high metalinguistic awareness of variation in the vowel system and in second person pronoun usage. The Chabacano spoken in the San Roque district is perceived to have the closest relationship to Spanish, despite having more substrate influence in the vowel system. This study demonstrates the usefulness of perceptual dialectology for endangered language documentation and for studying variation and language attitudes in small communities and creole or other multilingual settings.

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This study analyzes the origins and development of the phonology of Cavite Chabacano, focusing particularly on the role of superstrate and substrate influence on the history of the vowel system. This endangered language, spoken in Cavite City, Philippines, is a Spanish-lexified creole with Tagalog as the substrate. The study incorporates sociophonetic methodology, insights from second language phonological acquisition, and consideration of the language attitudes and ideologies of the speakers in order to describe the development of the phonological system. The data come from word list tasks, reading tasks, interviews, and perceptual dialectology tasks conducted during six months of fieldwork.

The first part of the study describes the segmental and prosodic phonology of Cavite Chabacano, including synchronic and diachronic variation related to how the phonological system developed over time under input from the substrate and superstrate systems, particularly with respect to the vowel system. Modern Cavite Chabacano has a 5-vowel system like the superstrate Spanish and generally preserves Spanish forms faithfully, but there are some words that have vowels differing from the Spanish forms in ways that indicate early substrate influence from the Old Tagalog 3-vowel system.

The second part of the study focuses on the sociophonetic analysis of the vowel system, arguing that it is at the phonetic rather than the phonological level where substrate/adstrate influence in the language is most evident. Stressed vowels and phrase-final vowels are significantly different from unstressed and nonfinal vowels in terms of vowel quality and duration. These phonetic patterns are more characteristic of the substrate Tagalog than of the superstrate Spanish. The results also confirm and expand upon previous claims (German 1932, Miranda 1956) about dialectal variation in the vowel system. The dialects of the Caridad and San Roque districts of Cavite City both have acoustic overlap between unstressed high and mid vowels, but in San Roque there is more phrase-final mid vowel raising, particularly for /e/. Overall, Caridad has a more dispersed vowel system compared to San Roque, perhaps indicating greater phonetic restructuring as the additional vowel contrasts of Spanish were acquired. However, substrate influence in the prosodic conditioning and phonetic realization of the vowels is evident in both districts.

The third part of the study shows that Cavite Chabacano speakers have high metalinguistic awareness of this dialectal variation in the vowel system, and that the San Roque dialect has greater prestige. It is argued that substrate influence in the vowel system initially arose through phonetic restructuring during second language acquisition, but that due to sociohistorical and ideological motivations, the substrate features were retained even as Cavite Chabacano phonology otherwise conformed to standard Spanish in terms of other features.

The study combines methodology and insights from sociophonetics, historical phonology, second language acquisition, and perceptual dialectology in order to provide a nuanced account of how the Cavite Chabacano vowel system emerged and developed over time. The results demonstrate how substrate influence in creoles can be evident at the phonetic as well as the phonological level, and how sociohistorical factors can shape the development of the language.

This study is an assessment of the vitality of the Manila Bay Chabacano varieties spoken in Cavite City and Ternate, Philippines. These Spanish-lexified creoles have often been described as endangered, but until now there has been no systematic description of how stable the varieties are. The evaluation of the vitality of Manila Bay Chabacano is made based on participant observation and interviews conducted in both communities over the past nine years, using the UNESCO (2003) framework. Comparison between the two varieties shows that the proportional size of the speech community, degree of urbanization, and proximity to Manila account for differences in the vitality of the creoles. In rural Ternate, Chabacano is more stable in terms of intergenerational transmission and the proportion of speakers to the overall community. In the more urban Cavite City, most speakers are of the grandparental generation, but the community is more organized in its language preservation efforts. This study sheds light on two creole varieties in need of further documentation and sociolinguistic description, as well as the status of minority languages in the Philippines. It also offers a critical assessment of a practically-oriented methodological framework and demonstrates its application in the field.