8 Misconceptions (& Possible Misconceptions) About The Chabacacano Language

1. Chabacano is Only Spoken in Zamboanga city

While it is perceived that the Chabacano spoken in Zamboanga city is the most vibrant of all the Chabacano variants, there exist two different Chabacano varieties, one in Ternate and another in Cavite city. There are also Zamboangueňo communities abroad which promote the usage of Chabacano among its members.

2. Chabacano is a Pidgin Language

While it may have been born out of a pidgin language or was heavily influenced by one, it has already evolved into a real language wiith a solid grammar.

3. Chabacano is Broken Spanish or Corrupted Spanish

One of the biggest misconceptions about Chabacano out there is that it is broken or corrupted Spanish. Chabacano I believe never was, definitely is not, and never will be Spanish. Therefore, I also believe that it has never been , is definitely not, and never will be broken or corrupted Spanish. There are however numerous accounts of Chinese traders in the country who would speak in broken Spanish during the Spanish era.

2. Chabacano is Spoken in Davao, Cotabato Sulu and Sabah

I am uncertain whether these alleged Chabacano speakers are still around or even know each other. Maybe some had been migrant workers from Zamboanga city but I doubt that their numbers would have been large enough to form communities. Or perhaps there were communities composed of migrant workers who spoke Chabacano but have now assimilated to their new host city or country and no longer speak Chabacano.

3. Chabacano Used to be Spanish

Some people think that Chabacano was born out of the Spanish language but different studies have said that since Chabacano's grammar is very similar to other Philippine languages, it was not carved out of Spanish.

Some people would even go as far as thinking that Chabacano IS Spanish. I remember when I was in nursing school, I heard my clinical instructor tell a midwife that he plans to learn Spanish to better his chances of working in the United States. Much to my chagrin, the widwife told him: 'na hende ba el Chabacano, amo ya 'se el Spanish?'

At the office, when I told someone that I was from Zamboanga city, he said: 'hindi ba diyan iyong maraming nagiispanish? While Zamboanga may have been the most Spanish speaking area of the Philippines in the past, I can personally attest that it is not the case anymore in the present. Spanish was erased from Zamboanga city in the same manner it was from the entire country.

4. Traditional Chabacano is the “Real” Chabacano

Perhaps because people have started mixing words from other Philippine languages when speaking Chabacano, a distinction emerged between traditional Chabacano and modern Chabacano (the former being seen as more pure). However, it only makes sense that this distinction would only come about once a variety seen as a corrupted form of the original (or the traditional one) would emerge. Hence, we can say that the formal or traditional Chabacano is a modern invention.

5. Traditional Chabacano Was Employed For Formal Discourse

Having emerged only maybe in the latter part of the twentieth century, Chabacano would never have been used in formal discourse in the past. This trend is very recent having started only when Chabacano started to be used in radio and TV programs.

Spanish would have been the language that people would have used in the past for formal discourse as evidenced by the declaration of independence and most newspapers in the past being written in Spanish. Even the song Zamboanga Hermosa which was the hymn used by the short-lived Zamboanga Republic was written in Spanish.

6. There Were More Chabacano Speakers In The Past

Let's go by the numbers. Today, there are around a million people living in Zamboanga city. Even if only half of those people are native or non native Chabacano speakers, there still would be more Chabacano speakers today than in 1939 (two years after Zamboanga became a chartered city) wherein the population of the city was only 73,894 (a time when Basilan was still part of Zamboanga city). This does not even take into account the number of Chabacano speakers in Basilan and other parts of the country as well as those living abroad.

Of course, if we look at the percentage of Chabacano speakers in relation to the total number of population, we might see a higher percentage of the population speaking in Chabacano in the past compared to the present. The percentage of Chabacano speakers who speak it as their first language compared to those who speak it as a second or even third language may have also been higher in the past. Today, there are probably almost the same number of non native Chabacano speakers as native ones.

7. Old Chabacano Speakers And Rural Folks Speak A Purer Form of Chabacano

Most people seem to think that old people and those who live in rural areas tend to speak a purer form of Chabacano. This may not be always the case since old people nowadays are exposed to news programs, movies and soap operas in Tagalog as well as the internet. Additionally, they have grandchildren who would be apt to speak the way most kids do and of course, this would also influence their speech. With the advent of affordable internet access, the same is true for people in rural areas who are now exposed to the way people in urban areas speak Chabacano.

I was very surprised one day when my late aunt said hace sampal instead of palmadea but later I realized that my cousins (her nieces) used this word which probably influenced her to do the same, I also later realized that some radio personalities say hace sampal instead palmadea (also spelled as palmadia). Such is the nature of a language that is alive and continously evolving.

Thus, I think it is misconception that older people tend to speak a “purer” form of Chabacano. Unless of course, they live under a rock.

8. Chabacano in Cavite is Dead

It is often thought that the Chabacano varieties in Cavite are dead but actually these two are not yet dead but mostly heard in certain barangays only. Its cousin in Mindanao, the Zamboanga variant, is close to suffering the same fate.