The Different Profiles of Chabacano Speaker

I recently asked my officemate, “ta fuma gale tu?”

He replied, “Bata pa yo, recio ya yo ta fuma.

I was really surprised when I heard him say recio instead of fuerte. You see, in all my life, I have never heard anyone use that word. In fact, the only reason why I know this word is because I read it in a text which was actually written in the Chabacano de Cavite and subsequently checked its meaning in a Spanish dictionary.

Over the years, I have come to realize that Chabacano is not spoken in the same way by everyone. Socioeconomic background, age, and one's geographical location play a vital role in how well one will speak Chabacano as well as one's accent when speaking it.

Older people who live in poverty tend to speak a Chabacano without code-switching or borrowing of foreign words. Most of these people are found in the rural areas of Zamboanga city. They are the ones whom Zamboangueños from the lowlands and urban centers would call the de alla-alla, de monte, and de arriba. The chief occupation of these people is farming. If they would be multilingual, they would probably speak Cebuano. Most of these people, however will be monolingual. They are the people who most likely would patronize Chabacano TV and radio programs and hear mass in Chabacano. These people speak in a very distinct accent. They pronounce the letter g like the letter c and the letter d like the letter t. The word bag becomes bak and the word kid becomes kit when these people speak. They also do not pronounce the letter s. Some of them will use uste even when speaking to friends. This last bit of info is based on where they live in Zamboanga city.

It is not however only old and impoverished people who speak Chabacano without code-switching or borrowing foreign words. There are also OLD middle and upper class people who would speak a Chabacano without the help of other languages. They would most probably live within downtown Zamboanga city or the pueblo. These people would most likely be doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and government employees. They would most probably speak Chabacano with an accent similar to those of the de monte people but theirs would be lighter. These people will also watch Chabacano radio and TV programs but will probably not hear mass in Chabacano. These people would understand Tagalog but not speak it well. They would be well versed in English as these people grew up when English was widely spoken in the country and Tagalog was not yet in vogue. These people’s good proficiency in Chabacano would allow them to speak Chabacano without any need to code-switch or borrow foreign words. Some expressions that one would probably hear from this group of people are chiflate, rampago, rayo, raman, madre mia, rampet, chinga, cabron, coño de vos nana, and chingona.

Young Chabacano speakers from well off families are notorious for code-switching and borrowing foreign words. The majority will use Tagalog or English words in place of Chabacano words. I am not sure which factor contributes more to this phenomenon: inadequate knowledge of Chabacano or the strong influence of Tagalog (which is the national and an official language) and English (an official language).  The choice of whether to use English or Tagalog words can depend on which language the speaker is stronger at. Some people from this group of Chabacano speakers will even sometimes even say that they don’t speak Chabacano (even if they could) or that they speak only a little Chabacano.

I myself speak Chabacano with a lot of code-switching and borrowings. Sometimes I do it when I don’t know the Chabacano equivalent, when I can’t think of the Chabacano equivalent, and when there is no Chabacano equivalent. But I never say that I don’t speak or speak only a little Chabacano. It is always clear in my head that it is my mother tongue no matter how much code-switching I do. 💪

For me, code-switching in Chabacano exists because of various reasons. Here are some of them:

1. The absence of a Chabacano equivalent for the loan words such as cellphone, computer, keyboard, mouse, etc.

2. The presence of a Chabacano equivalent for the loan word but it feels awkward to use it. For example, I would probably cringe if I have to greet somebody feliz cumpleanos (happy birthday) or felices pascuas (merry Christmas).

3.The speaker possesses limited Chabacano vocabulary.

Young Chabacano speakers from impoverished families might not do too much code-switching.

Code-switching also exists in Tagalog. Native Tagalog speakers would normally loan words from English when there is no Tagalog equivalent. People however who speak Tagalog only as a second language would loan words from English whenever they don’t know the Tagalog equivalent as well as when there is no Tagalog equivalent.

Migrants form a different group of Chabacano speakers. These people speak Chabacano as a second language. Most would learn Chabacano because they need it for their job. The majority of these people speak Cebuano as their first language. These people would find familiarity with the Cebuano words in Chabacano already planted in the past by earlier migrants. They will be more disposed to using a Cebuano loan word (even though there is a Chabacano equivalent) because of convenience and familiarity. These people will speak Chabacano in the accent of their mother tongue. They would most probably also speak Tagalog and English (depending on their place in the economic pyramid). If a migrant is already old and has lived in Zamboanga city for a very long time already, he/she would probably speak Chabacano very well. This is especially true if the migrant worker came to Zamboanga before the 1990s when Tagalog was spoken only by very few people. Some of these migrants may not even learn to speak Chabacano but will have Chabacano speaking children. The Chabacano speaking children of these migrants will most probably be bilingual and will still talk to their parents in their parent's native tongue. I met many Chabacano speakers while in school whose parents were military men or government employees who never learned to speak Chabacano.

Another group of Chabacano speakers is politicians. Politicians are known to speak Chabacano very well. These politicians use Chabacano to touch base with the ordinary people who most likely will speak Chabacano. Some politicians would also code-switch and borrow words but they do so from Spanish so that their Chabacano will not sound “contaminated”. Radio announcers in Chabacano radio programs can also be included in this group of Chabacano speakers.

And then there are the Chabacano speakers who have emigrated from Zamboanga city or are working abroad. These people would probably speak Chabacano just as they used to when they were still living in Zamboanga city if they are part of a Zamboangueño community, club, or group or if they can find other Chabacano speakers in their area or workplace. We can probably categorize these people a little bit more into these categories:

1.    Zamboangueños who have immigrated to the United States or Canada (most probably during the martial law years).

2.    Zamboangueños who are working overseas.

3.    Zamboangueños in different call centers in Luzon and Visayas (most of them work for Spanish accounts and thus would incorporate Spanish words in their conversations).

I have a funny story about my cousin who only spoke English while living in Zamboanga city. She actually only learned to speak Chabacano when her family emigrated to Canada because the Zamboangueño community which they became a part of insisted on everybody speaking in Chabacano. How's that for irony? 😜

Then we have the Basileños. I had some classmates in college who were from Basilan and I believe that they speak Chabacano better in Basilan regardless of age or socioeconomic background.

Generally, it is age and economic status which determines a Zamboangueños proficiency in Chabacano. Young people from privileged families would speak Chabacano with a lot of borrowings and code-switching while old people from impoverished and privileged backgrounds would speak Chabacano better with minimal or no borrowings and code-switching.