Spanish Creole
A number of Creole languages are based on the Spanish language.
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2 Spanish-influenced indigenous languages 3 See also 4 External link |
Spanish Creole languages
List of Spanish-based Creole languages:
Chavacano
Chavacano (also Chabacano) is a Spanish-based Creole spoken in Philippines.
According to a 1990 census, there are 292630 speakers. It is the major language of Zamboanga city.
Also spoken in Malaysia (Sabah).
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.
For more information see 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 2500 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 sometimes 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 eldery.
For more information see Palenquero: Ethnologue report on Palenquero.
Papiamento
Papiamento or Papiamentu is a Creole language spoken by 329000 people.
Primarily spoken in Netherlands Antilles by 179000 people (as of 1998) and Aruba by 70000 people (as of 1999).
This Creole is reported to becoming more similar to Spanish language as the time passes.
For more information see Papiamentu: Ethnologue report on Papiamentu.
For a discussion about the origins of this language see [1].
Spanish-influenced indigenous languages
Some indigenous languages are deeply influenced by the Spanish language, but seems to be classified as different than Creole by linguistic writers.
Chamorro
Chamorro (or Tjamoro) is a Spanish-influenced language spoken by about 78000 people in Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. Accordiang to a 1991 publication, 62500 of the speakers live in Guam, which is roughly the half population. Based on a 1990 research, the speakers in Northern Mariana islands are 14205.
Linguistically it belongs to the Austronesian family, Western Malayo-Polynesian.
Taught at the University of Guam. Some Bible portions are translated in Chamorro.
For more information see Chamorro: Ethnologue report on Chamorro.
