The genesis of Chavacano revisited and solved

Abstract

This paper revisits the origins of the Philippine Spanish Creole language Chavacano. Earlier work saw Chavacano as the result of relexification of an originally Portuguese-lexicon creole towards Spanish within an immigrant group known as the Mardikas in the 17th century. Their language would subsequently have spread from their new home town to the other locations where it is currently spoken. More recently, however, it has been claimed that Chavacano emerged independently in different places, in the second half of the 18th century, and that the creators were people of mixed Chinese-Filipino origin. We take issue with both the older and the more recent hypothesis, arguing the varieties are indeed related, and that proto-Chavacano emerged around the beginning of the 17th century in the Manila/Cavite area among Spanish military forces and various non-European groups in their service.