Folk perception of variation in Cavite Chabacano

Abstract

Abstract 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.