Chavacano

Chavacano, also known as Chabacano (Spanish pronunciation:), is a Spanish-based creole language 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. Chavacano is the only Spanish-based creole in Asia. The 2020 Census of Population and Housing counted 106,000 households generally speaking Chavacano.

Zamboangueño-Chavacano is the most populous variety, the individual most commonly credited for the spread of this Spanish creole is Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, then governor of Panama. He settled Zamboanga City by recruiting soldiers and colonists from Peru, Panama, and Colombia, to establish a Spanish and Latin-American presence there. There was also a transpacific trade route that developed, where Spanish merchants would trade silver that was transported from Peru through Panama where it would reach Acapulco, Mexico before sailing to Manila using the famed Manila galleons. The Spanish chroniclers, Vendrell and Eduard (Year:1887 - Page:62), in speaking of Zamboanga, observed and said the following: ("Estos indgenas, la inmensa mayoría mestizos españoles, proceden en su origen de otras provincias del Archipélago, y muchos de Méjico, de donde llegaron á principios de este siglo, cuando perdimos aquel imperio.") And when translated to English; "These indigenous people, the great majority of whom are Spanish mestizos, originally come from other provinces and from México, whence they arrived at the beginning of this century when we lost that empire." Also, Argentines and Uruguayans like Juan Fermin de San Martin settled and made families in Zamboanga.

As for Ternateño-Chavacano, which is concentrated in; Ternate, Cavite, Two hundred families of Merdicas (of mixed Mexican-Filipino-Spanish and Papuan-Indonesian-Portuguese descent) from Ternate, Indonesia were resettled in a sandbar near the mouth of the Maragondon River (known as the Bahra de Maragondon) and Tanza, Cavite. Among them was their ruler, Sultan Said Din Burkat, who deported to Manila together with his entourage and family and later converted to Christianity.

Meanwhile, Caviteño-Chavacano and Ermiteño-Chavacano, of Cavite City, Cavite; and, Ermita, Manila; their main lexifiers were Peninsular-Spanish, from Spain, and Mexican-Spanish, from Mexico, and most of their immigrants were Spaniards and Mexicans.

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