Doctoral dissertation research: A descriptive analysis of Caviteno phonology

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

Caviteño is a severely endangered creole language spoken in Cavite City, Philippines. The language, one of several Philippine Spanish creoles known collectively as Chabacano, formed as a result of mixture between Spanish and Tagalog during the colonial period. Chabacano is of particular interest because Spanish creoles are rare worldwide, and it is the only type of Spanish creole found in Asia. There has never been a phonetic study of the sound system, or phonology, of any variety of Chabacano, and little is known about the speakers of Caviteño or what its structure is like today. The goals of this study are to describe the phonology of Caviteño, including dialectal variation and comparisons to the phonology of its parent languages, using phonetic and sociolinguistic methods. Doctoral student Ms. Marivic Lesho (Ohio State University), under the supervision of Dr. Donald Winford, will conduct fieldwork in Cavite City recording word lists, read speech, storytelling, interviews, and conversational speech in Caviteño. She will also conduct ethnographic observation about attitudes toward the creole and its use in various social domains. The linguistic data will be used to conduct phonetic analysis and describe the sound patterns of the language, as well as to describe any dialectal differences found in the creole. The ethnographic data will be used to determine any social or historical factors that could have caused these differences. It is imperative that Caviteño be recorded while there are still native speakers. The present study will fill a serious gap in our knowledge of Chabacano phonology, which in turn will inform the understanding of the nature of creole phonology in general. To raise awareness of the language, Lesho will also make a portion of the recordings publicly available to local institutions and on a website dedicated to Caviteño language, history, and culture.