Chavacano

Chavacano
Chabacano
Native to	Philippines
Region	Zamboanga City and Basilan (Zamboangueño and Basileño), Cavite City (Caviteño) and Ternate, Cavite (Ternateño/Bahra)
Ethnicity	Zamboangueño Spanish Filipino
Native speakers	(700,000 native speakers; 1.2 million as a second language;[1] cited 1992)[2][3][needs update]
Language family	Spanish-based creole Chavacano
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Regional language in the Philippines
Regulated by	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cbk
Glottolog	chav1241
Linguasphere	51-AAC-ba
Areas where Chavacano is mainly spoken
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Chavacano or Chabacano (Spanish pronunciation: [tʃaβaˈkano]) is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. Other currently existing varieties are found in Cavite City and Ternate, located in the Cavite province on the island of Luzon.^[4] Chavacano is the only Spanish-based creole in Asia.^[5] The 2020 Census of Population and Housing counted 106,000 households generally speaking Chavacano.

The responsible^{[clarification needed]} for this Spanish creole was Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, then governor of Panama, and also responsible for settling Zamboanga City by employing Peruvian soldiers and colonists. There was an Asian-American route, which led to traders and adventurers carrying silver from Peru through Panama to reach Acapulco, Mexico before sailing to Manila, Philippines using the famed Manila galleons.

The different varieties of Chavacano differ in certain aspects like vocabulary but they are generally mutually intelligible by speakers of these varieties, especially between neighboring varieties. While a majority of the lexicon of the different Chavacano varieties derive from Spanish, their grammatical structures are generally similar to other Philippine languages. Among Philippine languages, it is the only one that is not an Austronesian language, but like Malayo-Polynesian languages, it uses reduplication.

The word Chabacano is derived from Spanish, roughly meaning "poor taste" or "vulgar", though the term itself carries no negative connotations to contemporary speakers.