Austronesian Elements in Philippine Creole Spanish

One of the theories of creoles is that the superstrate or lexifier language contributes to its vocabulary, while its grammar comes directly from the substrate(s) (Crowley 1997). A look at the lexicon and grammar of Philippine Creole Spanish (PCS) or Chabacano shows that this theory works specifically for its variant Zamboangueño, which is spoken in Zamboanga City and is the only surviving PCS. It is easy to see that Zamboangueño words are predominantly derived from Spanish. Terms for numbers, days of the week, months, and body parts are obviously derived from Spanish. Some number words are uno ‘one’, dos ‘two’, tres ‘three’, mil nueve cientos setenta y seis ‘1976’; days of the week are Lunes ‘Monday’, Martes ‘Tuesday’, Viernes ‘Friday’, Domingo ‘Sunday’; terms for months are Enero ‘January’, Febrero ‘February’, Agosto ‘August’, Diciembre ‘December’; and terms for body parts include ojos ‘eyes’, voca ‘mouth’, nariz ‘nose’, and cara ‘face’