Thursday, September 3, 2009

What is Chavacano?

Chavacano is a creole language or more precisely, the common name for the six dialects of the Philippine Creole Spanish spoken in the Philippines. The word Chavacano is derived from the Spanish language meaning "poor taste," "vulgar," "common," "of low quality," "tacky," or "coarse".

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 in the Philippines. Speakers can also be found in the town of Semporna in the eastern coast of Sabah, Malaysia—not surprisingly—because this northern part of Borneo is close to the Sulu islands and the Zamboanga Peninsula. This region was once part of Spanish Philippines until the late 19th century.

Examples:
Donde tu anda?
Spanish: ¿A dónde vas?
(‘Where are you going?’)
Ya mirá yo con José.
Spanish: Yo vi a José.
(‘I saw José.’)
Ele ya empezá buscá que buscá con el sal.
Spanish: Ella empezó a buscar la sal en todas partes.
(‘He/She began to search everywhere for the salt.’)
Ele ya andá na escuela.
Spanish: Ella fue a la escuela.
(‘He/She went to school.’)
Si Mario ya dormí na casa.
Spanish: Mario durmió en la casa.
(‘Mario slept in the house.’)

Source

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds so much like spanish.