"Deep" Chabacano Words

I think one of the misconceptions surrounding Chabacano is that all "deep" Chabacano words are of Spanish origin. The truth is there are a number of "deep" words that are of native origin. They are mostly words related to agriculture and fishing.

Do people today still use the interjection "Inay" in Chabacano? I remember when I was growing up, you got teased for using it and you got branded as a "de monte".

I checked my Chabacano dictionaries and none of them lists the word "inay" as an interjection. They only define it as a term used for addressing one's mother.

Are there still people today who call their parents 'nay' and 'tay'?

In the Chabacano manuscript discovered by Mauro Fernandez, we see the kids call their mother 'nay' in 1905. A term that today, we would associate with Tagalog. It should come as no surprise though if you read about Zamboanga's history.

Ache: Cucido ya nay el cape.

Ticang: Na entonces recoge ya el cama pate muda ya vos para anda na misa y na escuela.

Ache: Nay.

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Etong: Ticang?

Ticang: Cosa?

Etong: Luego manda vos mi comida alla na casa de aquel chino si Panga, cay alla yo ay trabaja ahora.

Ticang: Oo.

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Endo: Taqui ya nay el desayuno.

Ticang: Na, entonces arregla ya camo pronto-pronto para anda na escuela y desayuna ya.

Ache: Si Tatay, donde ya?

Ticang: Talla abajo ta amola su bolo; anda, llama, habla taqui ya el desayuno.

A few days ago, I saw someone use the term "berengena" or berenjena in Spanish. It was the first time I saw it used in a Facebook post and I have never heard it used in conversations. Had he spelled it in Spanish, I would have been suspicious that he was borrowing from Spanish but because he spelled it as berengena, which is probably how he would pronounce it, it sounds like truly uses it. Based on how he spelled the word, the pronunciation is BE-RE-NGE-NA as opposed to BE-RENG-HE-NA in Spanish.

I'm old enough to remember the time in Facebook where people would ask what a certain word was in Chabacano and most of the time, it was hard to tell whether it was truly Chabacano or Spanish. Later, people would add "without checking the Spanish term in Google..." to their posts.

It's actually reminiscent of the witch hunt today when people suspect something was made with AI.

Today, I think we have gone past that and maybe because of wider internet accessibility among Zamboangueños even among those from rural areas, it's easier to tell when a word is truly Chabacano or simply borrowed from Spanish. I mean if someone claims that carrots are "zanahoria" in Chabacano and you see people agree, then it's most probably true even if you just use the word "carrots".

Sometimes, I also wonder if perhaps some of these bien Spanish words were acquired during the time when Spanish was still taught in schools and maybe they simply got incorporated into Chabacano during that time.