In a more recent study of the creole language in the Philippines, Molony (1973, 1974) mentions the existence of five or six dialects of Philippine Creole Spanish in the country. Reference to Chabacano is made as the commonly used cover term for all dialects of PCS.
The term PCS was first used by Frake (1972;223) in Creole literature. To him it "is not simply a Philippine language with unusually heavy Spanish lexical influence, nor is it Spanish with a large number of Philippine loan words".
Most Spanish dictionaries will define Chabacano as something 'coarse, unpolished, ill-finished, awkward, clumsy'. When referring to a language, it would mean a language characterized by a drastic simplification of its lexicon and syntax, a melange of languages in contact, an interlingual corruption of standard languages. It is pejoratively referred as a 'lenguaje de trapos' (loosely, 'a language of odds and ends'; 'of rags'), Chabacano, however, is the popular name given to the PCS dialects spoken by several communities in the Philippines as their mother tongue. (Frake, 1971:223)
The Chabacano spoken in Ternate, Cavite City and the one which was once spoken at Ermita, Manila are identified by Frake (1971) as Manila Bay Creole (MBC). Analogically, for purposes of this present study, this writer identifies the Chabacano spoken in Zamboanga and Cotabato as Southern Mindanao Creole (SMC).
The geographical areas in the Philippines where Chabacano is spoken show indications of the origin or history of the PCS in the country (Map 1). Inasmuch as creole is said to be the dramatic result of languages in contact (Molony, 1973), this chapter presents data on what might be the inception of Chabacano in the distinct areas of the Philippines where there are now existing language communities that speak the Chabacano. Thus, the background of PCS is here traced in order to see better the language situation of each area from their geographical and historical position.
In organizing this chapter, a fuller and lengthier treatment and background of Ct is given, the fact that it is the language which is presented here for the first time.²
Tr=Ternate Chabacano Cv=Cavite Chabacano Zm=Zamboanga Chabacano Ct=Cotabato Chabacano
² The section on Ct in this chapter is derived from the paper presented by this researcher at the 1975 International Conferences on Pidgin and Creoles, entitled, "The Cotabato Chabacano Verb". (See Appendix E)