Spanish-based creole languages
A number of
Creole languages are based on the
Spanish language.
List of
Spanish-based
Creole languages:
Chavacano
Chavacano (also
Chabacano) is the name of several Spanish-based Creoles spoken in the
Philippines. The name of the language stems from the Spanish word
Chabacano which means
"vulgar", in opposition to standard Spanish, in the same sense of "vulgar Latin", in opposition to "Classical Latin".''Varieties of Chavacano are spoken in Cavite, Ternate (both in Luzon); Zamboanga (in Mindanao) and other places. According to a
1990 census, there are 292,630 speakers. It is the major language of
Zamboanga City. Chavacano is also spoken in parts of
Ternate, Cavite and
Sabah,
Malaysia nearest to the Philippines, and even in Brunei, because of recent migrations.
The vocabulary comes from the
Spanish language, while the
grammar is mostly based on indigenous structures. It is used in
primary education,
television and
radio. It is still intelligible to Spanish speakers. However, English words are infiltrating the language.
For more information see the article Chavacano, or link to
Chavacano:
Ethnologue report on Chavacano.
Palenquero
Palenquero (also
Palenque) is a Spanish-based Creole spoken in
Colombia.
The ethnic group which speaks this Creole consists only of 2,500 people,
as of 1989.
It is spoken in
Colombia, in the village of
San Basilio de Palenque which is south and east of
Cartagena, and in some neighborhoods of
Barranquilla.
The village was formed by escaped slaves (
Maroons) and
Native Americans. Since many slaves had not been subjected to a lot of contact with
white people, the
palenqueros spoke Creole languages from Spanish language and their African ones.
Spanish speakers are unable to understand Palenquero. There are some influences from
Kongo in
Democratic Republic of Congo. A 10% of the population of age under 25 years speaks Palenquero,
as of 1998. Most common to the elderly.
For more information see
Palenquero:
Ethnologue report on Palenquero.
Hawaiian Pidgin
Hawaiian Pidgin is creole spoken in
Hawaii. It has Spanish words, but not considered a Spanish creole, because there are only a few and it is a substrate language. It is originally an English creole.
Yanito
Yanito is spoken in
Gibraltar. It is mostly derived from Spanish and English.
Papiamento
Papiamento or
Papiamentu is a creole language spoken by 359,000 people.
Primarily spoken in
Netherlands Antilles by 179,000 people (
as of 1998) and
Aruba by 100,000 people (
as of 2004).
This Creole is reportedly becoming more similar to Spanish as the time passes due to extensive contact with the Hispanophone countries, but it was originally Portuguese-based.
Because of the similarities between these
Iberian languages, it is difficult to ascertain whether a certain feature is derived from Portuguese, Spanish or
Ladino, after the adaptation to Papiamento rules.
For more information see
Papiamentu:
Ethnologue report on Papiamentu.
For a discussion about the origins of this language see [
1].
Annobonese
The
Annobonese language is spoken by 9,000 people on the islands of
Ano Bom and
Fernando Póo, in
Equatorial Guinea. It is locally called
Falar de Ano Bom (
Fá d'Ambô or even
Fla d'Ambu). It is a
Portuguese-based creole, similar to
Forro, with some borrowings from Spanish. In fact, Fá d'Ambô is derived from Forro as it shares the same structure (82% of lexicon). In the 15th century, the island was uninhabited and discovered by
Portugal but, by the 18th century, Portugal exchanged it and some other territories in Africa for Uruguay with
Spain. Spain wanted to get territory in Africa, and Portugal wanted to enlarge even more the territory that they saw as the "New Portugal" (Brazil). Nevertheless, the populace of Ano Bom was against the shift and was hostile toward the Spaniards. This hostility, combined with the isolation of mainland Equatorial Guinea and the proximity of
São Tomé and Príncipe — just 400 km from the island — has assured the maintenance of its identity.
Fá d'Ambô has gained some words of
Spanish origin (10% of lexicon), but some words are dubious in origin because Spanish and Portuguese are also based on the same language (Spoken Latin or
Vulgar Latin).
See also: History of Equatorial GuineaMost languages indigenous to regions that came into contact with Spaniards are deeply influenced by the Spanish language. These languages include
Tagalog of the Philippines,
Chamorro of the Marianas, and most noticeably the indigenous languages of the Americas, in particular
Quechua and
Guaraní. All of these, however, are NOT creole languages. Apart from the generous borrowings from Spanish and various other languages, they remain fundamentally native in grammar and lexicon.
Chamorro
Chamorro (also
Tjamoro) is a Spanish-influenced language spoken by about 78,000 people in
Guam and the
Northern Mariana Islands. According to a
1991 publication, 62,500 of the speakers live in Guam, which is roughly half the population, while research conducted in
1990 puts the number of speakers in the Northern Mariana islands at 14,205.
Linguistically, Chamorro belongs originally to the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family of languages. After centuries of contact with Spanish language, it received important elements of vocabulary, grammar and phonology from Spanish. The influence of Tagalog and other Filipino language is also not negligible. Modern 20th Century Chamorro may be considered a mixed Hispano-Austronesian language or, at least, a language that was part of a process of creolization and hybridization in the Mariana Islands. Nevertheless, current Chamorro spoken by young generation seems to be deeply influenced by English, to the extent that a new way of speaking Chamorro has appeared.
It is taught at the
University of Guam, and schools and colleges in Guam and Northern Marianas. Some
Bible portions have been translated into Chamorro.
For more information see
Chamorro:
Ethnologue report on Chamorro.
Tagalog
Tagalog, which is the national language of the
Philippines (as
Filipino), has adopted into its vocabulary a large number of Spanish words. There are about 6,000 Spanish words in Tagalog, roughly forming about 25% of the language's root words. Other indigenous
languages of the Philippines, such as
Cebuano, have also absorbed many Spanish words.
Like Chamorro, Tagalog belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family of languages.
Most often the words adopted referred to foreign concepts such as the names of the days of the week and the names of months; such as the word
Huwebes (Spanish,
jueves meaning
Thursday) and
Mayo (Spanish,
mayo meaning
May). The Spanish decimals are also often used for counting currency, revealing one's age or telling time.
This adoption of words also gave rise to the curious phenomenon of two or more words referring to the same concept. For instance, the Tagalog word for
chair is either the native
upuan or the Spanish-based
silya (from
silla); or the word for
city can be the native
lungsod or
syudad (Spanish,
ciudad). The words are interchangeable. People from more affluent areas or Spanish speaking backgrounds tend to use the Spanish version of the concept, especially the elderly.
Here is a sample sentence: In Spanish, "Can you turn on the fan by the window?" is "¿Puedes encender el ventilador circa de la ventana?" In Tagalog it is "Puwede (puede) mo bang sindihan(encender) ang bentilador (ventilador)na malapit sa bintana (ventana)?"
Tagalog is the basis of the Philippines' national language,
Filipino.
Examples of borrowed words from Spanish:
*hepe (Spanish:jefe)-chief
*kumpisal (Spanish:confesar)-confess
*dalanghita (Spanish:naranjita)-mandarins
*silya (Spanish:silla)-chair
*kabayo (Spanish:caballo)-horse
*relos (Spanish:relojes)-watch
*harina (Spanish:harina)-flour
*oras (Spanish:horas)-hour
*kotse (Spanish:coche)-car
*saklolo (Spanish:socorro)-help
*gobiyerno (Spanish:gobierno)-government
*luku-luko (Spanish:loco)-crazy
*pero (Spanish:pero)-but
*porke (Spanish:porque)-just because
*o (Spanish:o)-or
*Pilipinas (Spanish:Filipinas)-Philippines
Quechua
Quechua was the official language of the
Tahuantinsuyu, or Inca empire, which spanned through modern-day southern
Colombia,
Ecuador,
Perú,
Bolivia, northwestern
Argentina and northern
Chile. It is still spoken by many of the remaining
Native Americans still inhabiting these countries and by some of the natives of Brazil.
Quechua has experienced 500 years of Spanish influence, and when listening to monolingual speakers of Quechua talk, one can hear the use of Spanish jargon and verbs interspersed among the rest of their expressions. Many Spanish verbs are even expressed using Quechua conjugations, such as "parlanichik".
A great volume of Spanish words have been absorbed into Quechua, and often expressions used are blatantly Spanish, such as; "Las once de la mañana-
kama" [
until eleven o'clock in the morning] which is pure Spanish except for the -
kama suffix (meaning
until).
Hundreds upon hundreds of Spanish words were Quechuanized and integrated into the Quechuan language. Many of these borrowings were words describing foreign concepts, as was the case for the reason of borrowings by other native languages.
Some Quechuan dialects contain more Spanish borrowings than others, but all nonetheless have generous quantities of Spanish words, verbs, idioms and expression.
Borrowings in the core lexicon of Quechua have led to there being more than one word for the same object or concept. Consequently, one may here speakers of Quechua use either form. The choice of word for
brother in Quechua can be either the native
"tura" or
"irmanu" (Spanish,
hermano); the word
forty can be the native
"tawa chunka" or
"kwarenta" (Spanish,
cuarenta); the word for
day can be
"p'unchay" or
"dia" (Spanish
día); understand can be
"jamut'ay" or
"intyendiy" (Spanish,
entender).
Most Quechuan dialects rival, while others far surpass, the number of Spanish borrowings that can be found in Tagalog or the other indigenous languages influenced by Spanish.
Some Quechuan words of Spanish origin:
*trigu - wheat (from
trigo)
*abugadu - lawyer (from
abogado)
*jirmay - to sign (from
firmar)
*irmanu - brother (from
hermano)
*taita - father, dad (from Old Spanish
taita)
*intyendiy - to understand (from
entender)
*pasay - to pass (from
pasar)
*plata - money, silver (from
plata)
*keday - to stay (from
quedar)
*piedey - to lose (from
perder)
*burru - donkey (from
burro)
*bwenu - well (from
bueno,
good)
*porke - because (from
porque)
*pero - but (from
pero)
*aun - even so (from
aún)
*filiadu - affiliated (from
afiliado)
*entós, tóns - then (from
entonces)
*puis, ps - then (from
pues)
*dyiáy ka? - so what?, what else! (from ¿
de ahí qué?)
*awra ka? - now what? (from ¿
ahora qué?)
*tóns ka? - then what? what else! (from ¿
entonces qué?)
Mamani Patiguana (2001) while studying the influence of Spanish on Quechua discerned;
"La lengua quechua ha ido poco a poco castellanizándose. Algunos quechuahablantes han conservado gran parte de su propio vocabulario, pero en otros muchos aspectos han cambiado de tal manera que parecen más castellano."
English translation:
"The Quechuan language has been hispanicized little by little. Some Quechuaphones have maintained a great part of their own vocabulary, but among others, many aspects have changed so significantly that they sound more like Spanish."
If there is an indigenous language that has more Spanish borrowings than Quechua, it is another Native American language, also spoken in South America, the
Guaraní language.
Since 1992 the Education Ministry of
Paraguay began to teach Guaraní in its pure form, differentiating from what is called
jopará, which is actually the real mother tongue of almost all Paraguayans.
Ladino is not a creole but an independent evolution of the Medieval
Castilian language historically spoken by
Sephardic Jews after their expulsion from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1498) in Southern
Europe, the
Middle East, and
North Africa.The Castilian base was influenced by the other
Iberian Romance languages spoken by the Sephardi (
Leonese,
Portuguese) and some innovations in Spanish brought by later emigres.As centuries passed, the languages used in their countries of residence influenced in diverse grade (
Hebrew,
French,
Greek,
Turkish,
Arabic and the
South Slavic languages).
*
Pidgin*
Real Academia Española*
Linguistics*
RAE: Real Academia Española.
