Last Updated: 2020-07-27
Background
Language Family: Creole / Spanish based
- Chavacano, also known as Chabacano, is a creole spoken in the Philippines. Zamboanga City holds the highest concentration of speakers.
Phonology
Consonants
- Where the Chavacano dialects diverge, I have chosen to follow the analysis done by Mackenzie (2020) and use the Zamboanga dialect for the basis of the phonemic inventory because it is the most widely spoken.
- In the Cavite dialect, /ɲ/ and /ʎ/ are not considered phonemic, the tap is retroflex, and the tap and trill are distinct phonemes (Lesho 2013, 45–46).
- /t̪/ and /d̪/ are typically dental as in Spanish, but they can have a more alveolar realization (Lipski 2001, 5).
- The phonemic status of /ʔ/ is up for debate. Although Lesho (2013) lists some sources as including it as a phoneme in different Chavacano dialects (Ing 1968, for example, argues for it in the Zamboanga dialect), he also explains based on work done by e.g. Ramos (1963) that it is mainly only preserved in Tagalog loanwords and predictably accompanies (word-initial) vowels (p. 154). Therefore, I have chosen not to include it below.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Dental
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Alveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t̪ d̪
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k ɡ
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Affricates
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ts
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Fricatives
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s
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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ŋ
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Taps
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ɾ
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Approximants
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l
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j ʎ
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w
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced. Both palatal approximants are voiced, but the one on the right is lateral.
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Vowels
- Vowel length is not contrastive in Chavacano (Lesho 2013, 51).
- Stress is denoted by accented vowels (ibid.); however, we don’t account for stress, so accented vowels will be transcribed to their plain counterparts.
- Diphthongs that occur in the Cavite dialect are listed below. However, as Lesho (2013) states, it can be difficult to reliably mark syllable boundaries and determine whether vowel sequences are diphthongs or two monophthongs (p. 212). Therefore, vowel sequences will not be transcribed as diphthongs in the rules.
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a
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Diphthongs
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/ai/, /ei/, /oi/, /au/
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Alphabet
- ⟨f⟩, ⟨v⟩, and ⟨z⟩ are preserved Spanish conventions for representing /p/, /b/, and /s/, respectively (Toribia 1963, 673). I have chosen to include them below and in the rule set, primarily because the name of the language is understood either as Chavacano or Chabacano; the different graphemes appear to be used interchangeably. Considering at least ⟨v⟩ (as opposed to ⟨b⟩) is the grapheme preferred in the Zamboanga dialect (p. 11), it is unclear whether these are merely preserved conventions (e.g. /k/ vs. /q/ both having been introduced through orthographic reforms in Spanish based languages, representing /k/), or only indicative of Spanish loanwords. They also make up a large percentage (20.3%) of the Crúbadán corpus.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/a/
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b; v
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/b/
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c
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/k/; /s/
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/s/: preceding front vowels (Toribia 1963, 673)
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d
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/d̪/
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e
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/e/
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g
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/ɡ/; /h/
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/h/: preceding front vowels
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h
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∅
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i
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/i/
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j
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/h/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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ñ
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/ɲ/
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o
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/o/
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p; f
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/p/
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r
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/ɾ/
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s; z
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/s/
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t
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/t̪/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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x
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/h/
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y
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/j/
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Digraph
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ch
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/ts/
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ll
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/ʎ/
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rr
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/ɾ/
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ng
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/ŋ/
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qu
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/k/
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preceding front vowels
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Lenition Rules
- /d̪/ is often deleted intervocalically, especially in the suffix -ado (Lipski 2001, 6).
- Word-final /ɾ/ often surfaces as the glottal stop (Mackenzie 2020).
Misc. Rules
- The tap and /l/ alternate before accented syllables (Lesho 2013, 46).
- The glottal stop is inserted before a stressed syllable-initial vowel (Mackenzie 2020).
References
Ing, Roseller. 1968. A Phonological Analysis of Chabacano. University College London.
Ramos, Felicidad G. 1963. “A Contrastive Analysis of the Sound System of the Cavite Chavacano and the English Languages.” Master’s thesis, Manila: Abad Santos Educational Institution.
Toribia, Maño. 1963. “The Zamboangueno Chabacaño Grammar.” Far Eastern University Journal (Manila), April, 672–82.