Bien Chabacano

The Spanish phrase hacer caso becomes asikaso in Tagalog. Usually, this means to attend to something or to take care of something. This phrase also exists in Chabacano and as you may have guessed, becomes hace caso in that language. In Chabacano, this phrase means to be responsive or the opposite of ignoring something or someone. For example, when I was in high school, people would constantly tell me: bien soplado, hace tambien caso . It was only much later that I realized that when people said hi to you, you should respond to them. As far as I know, the Tagalog meaning of this phrase does not occur in Chabacano. For example, I don't believe you can say in Chabacano: ya hace ya yo caso con el de mio papeles ayer whereas you would say: inasikaso ko na ang papeles ko kahapon in Tagalog. If it would ever enter into the Chabacano language, it would probably be incorporated as man asikaso as in ya man asikaso ya yo con el de mio papeles ayer . Meanwhile, the way we ...

According to the book Riquezas (published by the city government of Zamboanga): "Zamboangueños often refer to their language as well as themselves as Chavacanos." While in Zamboanga city, I met an old Trycicle driver who came to Zamboanga city in the 1970s. He was originally from Cebu. This person agrees that the term Chabacano does refer to the people living in Zamboanga city but he believes that Chabacano isn't really a language, it is a dialect. For most of my life, I have never heard people in Zamboanga city calling themselves Chabacanos. My mom who is based in Pagadian city in Zamboanga del Sur, does tell me that for people who live in the different provinces of Zamboanga peninsula, we (people in Zamboanga city) are called Chabacanos. However, this was the first time that I have even heard of that! Personally, I always say that I am a Zamboangueño. I'm not sure when it all started but it looks to me like during the second half of the 20th century, people in...