Editing Chavacano (section)

== Distribution and variants ==

===Varieties===
[[Image:Map chavacano.gif|thumb|right|190px|Native Zamboangueño speakers in Mindanao]]

Linguists have identified at least six Spanish creole varieties in the Philippines. Their classification is based on their [[Substrata (linguistics)|substrate languages]] and the regions where they are commonly spoken. The three known varieties of Chavacano with [[Tagalog language|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 '''Ermiteño''' (once spoken in the old district of [[Ermita, Manila|Ermita]] in [[Manila]] and is now extinct).

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; margin:auto;"
|-
! style="width:15%;"| Variety
! style="width:13%;"| Places
!Main language 
of households 
(2020 census)
! style="width:12%;" | Native speakers
|- valign="top"
|'''Zamboangueño (Zamboangueño/Zamboangueño Chavacano/Chabacano de Zamboanga)'''||'''[[Zamboanga City]]''', '''[[Basilan]]''', '''[[Sulu]]''', '''[[Tawi-Tawi]]''', '''[[Zamboanga del Sur]]''', '''[[Zamboanga del Norte]]''', '''[[Zamboanga Sibugay]]'''
|104,470<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=July 3, 2023 |title=Language/Dialect Generally Spoken at Home |url=https://psa.gov.ph/system/files/phcd/PR_Statistical%20Tables_Language_030323_PMMJ_CRD.xlsx |access-date=January 6, 2024 |website=Philippine Statistics Authority}}</ref> || 359,000 (Rubino 2008, citing 2000 census)<ref name="Ethnologue">Ethnologue</ref>
|- valign="top"
|'''Caviteño (Chabacano di Nisos/Chabacano de Cavite)'''||'''[[Cavite City]]''', '''[[Cavite]]'''
|921<ref name=":1" />|| 4,000 (2013)<ref name="Ethnologue"/>
|- valign="top"
|'''Cotabateño (Chabacano de Cotabato)'''||'''[[Cotabato City]]''', '''[[Maguindanao]], [[South Cotabato]]'''
|442<ref name=":1" />|| No data
|- valign="top"
|'''Castellano Abakay (Chabacano Davaoeño)'''||'''[[Davao Region]]''', '''[[Davao City]]'''
|542<ref name=":1" />|| No data 
|- valign="top"
|'''Ternateño (Bahra)'''||'''[[Ternate, Cavite|Ternate]]''', '''[[Cavite]]'''
|No data|| 3,000 (2013)<ref name="Ethnologue"/>
|- valign="top"
|'''Ermiteño (Ermitense)'''||'''[[Ermita]]''', '''[[Manila]]'''
|0 (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 language|Hiligaynon]] words as the previous migrant community was assimilated.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=http://www.zamboanga.org/chavacano/chabacano_by_ben_saavedra.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205215037/http://www.zamboanga.org/chavacano/chabacano_by_ben_saavedra.htm |archive-date=2005-02-05 |title=Mensajes Y Noticias |date=2005-02-05 |access-date=2018-10-19}}</ref>

Most of what appears to be [[Bisayan languages|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.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2005-06-01|title=The Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages and the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, In Retrospect|journal=Creole Language in Creole Literatures|volume=20|issue=1|pages=167–174|doi=10.1075/jpcl.20.1.09gil|issn=0920-9034|last1=Gilbert|first1=Glenn}}</ref> The other varieties of Chavacano with [[Cebuano language|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 City|Davao]]), influenced by [[Hokkien in the Philippines|Hokkien]] [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]], {{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} 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]]<ref>{{cite thesis |type=Graduate|last=Lesho|first=Marivic |date=2013|title=The Sociophonetics and Phonology of the Cavite Chabacano Vowel System|page=171|quote= "Cavite Chabacano /s/ occurs in onset or coda, but there is some vestigial aspiration or deletion that occurs in final position. The aspiration or deletion of coda /s/ is widespread in southern Peninsular and Latin American Spanish dialects (Hualde 2005:161-165), and the occurrence of this feature in certain modern Cavite Chabacano words reflects an earlier period when those processes were more common in the Spanish of Cavite. According to Lipski (1986), the earlier variety of Spanish spoken in the Philippines had Mexican and Andalusian Spanish features, including /s/ aspiration, but in the late 1800s a more conservative non-aspirating variety of Peninsular Spanish was spoken there. As a result, certain Cavite Chabacano words have aspiration or deletion while others do not." |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=osu1388249508&disposition=attachment |publisher=Ohio State University}}</ref> and possibly, [[Portuguese language|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 [[Languages of the Philippines|Philippine languages]], primarily [[Hiligaynon language|Ilonggo]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] and [[Bisayan languages|Bisaya]]. By way of Spanish, its vocabulary also has influences from the Native American languages [[Nahuatl]], [[Taino]], [[Quechua languages|Quechua]], etc. as can be evidenced by the words ''chongo'' ("monkey", instead of Spanish {{Wikt-lang|es|mono}}), ''tiange'' ("mini markets"), etc.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200722234615/http://www.philippinestudies.net/ojs/index.php/ps/article/view/257/259 Hispanic Words of Indoamerican Origin in the Philippines] Page 136-137</ref>

In contrast with the Luzon-based dialects, the Zamboangueño variety has the most borrowings and/or influence from other Philippine [[Austronesian languages]] including [[Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon]] and [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]. Words of [[Malay language|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 language|Arabic]] loanwords, most commonly [[Glossary of Islam|Islamic terms]].{{specify|date=February 2018}}{{dubious|date=February 2018}} 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 language|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 [[Overseas Filipino|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]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Susanne Michaelis|title=Roots of Creole Structures: Weighing the Contribution of Substrates and Superstrates|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pPUeQLcGMOMC|year=2008|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-5255-5}}</ref>

A small number of Zamboanga's indigenous peoples and of Basilan, such as the [[Tausūg people|Tausug]]s, the [[Samal people|Samals]], and the [[Yakan people|Yakan]]s, majority of those people are [[Sunni Islam|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]], [[Sultan Kudarat]], [[Cotabato]], [[South Cotabato]], [[Cotabato City]], and [[Saranggani]] speak ''Chavacano de Zamboanga''. Take note that [[Zamboanga Peninsula]], Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, [[Maguindanao]], [[Cotabato City]], [[Soccsksargen]] (region that composed of [[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.<ref>{{cite web
  | author = Maximilian Larena
  | title = Supplementary Information for Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years (Appendix, Page 35)
  | publisher = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
  | date =  2021-01-21
  | url = https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2021/03/17/2026132118.DCSupplemental/pnas.2026132118.sapp.pdf
  | pages = 35
  | access-date = 2021-03-23
}}(Appendix)</ref>

===Social significance===
[[File:Ternatejf5766 19.JPG|thumb|A welcome arch in Ternate with a Chavacano message that reads, "''Ta recibi mijotro con ustede con todo corazon''" ("We receive you with all our hearts")]]
Chavacano has been primarily and practically a spoken language. In the past, its use in literature was limited and chiefly local to the geographical location where the particular variety of the language was spoken. Its use as a spoken language far exceeds its use in literary work in comparison to the use of Spanish in the Philippines which was more successful as a written language than a spoken language. In recent years, there have been efforts to encourage the use of Chavacano as a written language, but the attempts were mostly minor attempts in folklore and religious literature and few pieces of written materials by the print media. In Zamboanga City, while the language is used by the mass media, the Catholic Church, education, and the local government, there have been few literary work written in Zamboangueño and access to these resources by the general public isn't readily available; Bibles of Protestant Christians are also written in standard Chavacano. As Chavacano is spoken by Muslims as second language not only in Zamboanga City and Basilan but even in Sulu and Tawi-tawi, a number of [[Qur'an]] books are published in Chavacano.

The Zamboangueño variety has been constantly evolving especially during half of the past century until the present. Zamboangueño has been experiencing an infusion of English and more Tagalog words and from other languages worldwide in its vocabulary and there have been debates and discussions among older Chavacano speakers, new generation of Chavacano speakers, scholars, linguists, sociologists, historians, and educators regarding its preservation, cultivation, standardization, and its future as a Spanish-based creole. In 2000, The [[Instituto Cervantes]] in Manila hosted a conference entitled "Shedding Light on the Chavacano Language" at the [[Ateneo de Manila University]]. Starting school year 2012–13, the Zamboangueño variant has also been taught at schools following the implementation of the Department of Education's policy of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). It serves as a medium of instruction from kindergarten to grade 3 and as a separate subject (Mother Tongue) from grades 1 to 3.

Because of the grammatical structures, Castilian usage, and archaic Spanish words and phrases that Chavacano (especially Zamboangueño) uses, between speakers of both contemporary Spanish and Chavacano who are uninitiated, both languages appear to be non-intelligible to a large extent. For the initiated speakers, Chavacano can be intelligible to some Spanish speakers, and while most Spanish words can easily be understood by Chavacano speakers, many would struggle to understand a complete Spanish sentence.{{according to whom|date=April 2020}}