Cavite Chabacano, an endangered creole language spoken in Cavite City, Philippines, has dialectal variation that can be traced to the settlement patterns established by the Spanish during the colonial era. This study focuses on Cavite Chabacano speakers’ metalinguistic awareness of dialectal variation, what their attitudes are toward it, and how they believe the different dialects are influenced by the superstrate Spanish or the substrate Tagalog. Participants’ comments during a map-labeling task show where Chabacano is still believed to be spoken and reveal that they have high metalinguistic awareness of variation in the vowel system and in second person pronoun usage. The Chabacano spoken in the San Roque district is perceived to have the closest relationship to Spanish, despite having more substrate influence in the vowel system. This study demonstrates the usefulness of perceptual dialectology for endangered language documentation and for studying variation and language attitudes in small communities and creole or other multilingual settings.

Contrary to previous “sociolinguistic folklore” that African American (Vernacular) English has a uniform structure across different parts of the US, recent studies have shown that it varies regionally, especially phonologically (Wolfram, 2007; Thomas & Wassink, 2010). However, there is little research on how Americans perceive AAE variation. Based on a map-labeling task, we investigate the folk perception of AAE variation by 55 participants, primarily African Americans in Columbus, Ohio. The analysis focuses on the dialect regions recognized by the participants, the linguistic features associated with different regions, and the attitudes associated with these beliefs. While the perceived regional boundaries mostly align with those identified by speakers in previous perceptual dialectology studies on American English, the participants consistently identified linguistic features that were specific to AAE. The participants recognized substantial phonological and lexical variation and identified “proper” dialects that do not necessarily sound “white”. This study demonstrates the value of considering African Americans’ perspectives in describing African American varieties of English.

English is an official language in the Philippines, along with Filipino, a standardized register originally based on Tagalog (Gonzalez 1998). The Philippines were a Spanish colony for over three centuries, but when the Americans took control in 1898, they immediately implemented English instruction in schools (Gonzalez 2004). It became much more widespread among Filipinos than Spanish ever was, and by the late 1960s, Philippine English was recognized as a distinct, nativized variety (Llamzon 1969). It is widely spoken throughout the country as a second language, alongside Filipino and approximately 180 other languages (Lewis, Simmons & Fennig 2016). It is also spoken in the home by a small number of Filipinos, especially among the upper class in Metro Manila (Gonzalez 1983, 1989) and other urban areas. There is a large body of literature on Philippine English. However, relatively few studies have focused on its sound system. The most detailed phonological descriptions of this variety have been by Tayao (2004, 2008), although there have also been previous sketches (Llamzon 1969, 1997; Gonzalez 1984). There has been very little phonetic research on Philippine English, apart from some work describing the vowel system (Pillai, Manueli & Dumanig 2010, Cruz 2015).

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This study examines variation and change among three Chabacano varieties. While there has been considerable debate on how these Spanish-lexified creoles formed and how they are related, there has been no comprehensive comparison of their grammatical features. Based within frameworks of contact-induced grammaticalization (Heine & Kuteva 2003, Matras 2011), this paper compares three areas of Cavite, Ternate, and Zamboanga Chabacano grammar: modality, reciprocal marking, and argument marking. While these creoles have typological similarities, they also have substantial differences due to variation in the grammaticalization of elements from Spanish and the different adstrates in each community. These different grammaticalization paths support theories that these varieties developed independently rather than directly from a single ancestor. Historical evidence suggests they developed under different sociohistorical circumstances during different time periods. Factors in their continuing divergence include their geographical distance, language endangerment in Cavite and Ternate, and the presence of Visayan L2 speakers in Zamboanga. Resumen: En este artículo estudiamos la variación y el cambio gramatical en las variedades chabacanas de Cavite, Ternate y Zamboanga. Aunque la formación y las interrelaciones de estas variedades criollas se hayan debatido considerablemente, todavía falta una comparación exhaustiva de sus This is the accepted version of Sippola, E. & Lesho, M. 2020. Contact-induced grammatical change and independent development in the Chabacano creoles to be published in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 97: 103-121. Do not cite without permission. 2 rasgos gramaticales. Basado en marcos de gramaticalización inducida por el contacto (Heine & Kuteva 2003, Matras 2011), este artículo compara la modalidad, la reciprocidad y la marcación de los argumentos en estas tres variedades chabacanas. Si bien estos criollos tienen una notable similitud tipológica, se diferencian sustancialmente en cuanto a la variación en la gramaticalización de los elementos del español y de las diferentes lenguas de adstrato. La evidencia sobre las diferentes vías de gramaticalización apoya la teoría de un desarrollo independiente en vez de un origen común y único. La evidencia histórica sugiere que las variedades se desarrollaron bajo diferentes circunstancias sociohistóricas en diferentes momentos históricos. La distancia geográfica entre las comunidades, el peligro de desaparición en Cavite y Ternate, y la presencia de hablantes de lenguas bisayas que hablan chabacano como L2 en Zamboanga se identifican como los factores que causan la divergencia todavía en curso. This is the accepted version of Sippola, E. & Lesho, M. 2020. Contact-induced grammatical change and independent development in the Chabacano creoles to be published in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 97: 103-121. Do not cite without permission.