The Sociophonetics and Phonology of the Cavite Chabacano Vowel System DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Marivic Lesho Graduate Program in Linguistics The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Donald Winford, Advisor Mary Beckman Cynthia Clopper Copyright by Marivic Lesho 2013 Abstract This study analyzes the origins and development of the phonology of Cavite Chabacano, focusing particularly on the role of superstrate and substrate influence on the history of the vowel system. This endangered language, spoken in Cavite City, Philippines, is a Spanish-lexified creole with Tagalog as the substrate. The study incorporates sociophonetic methodology, insights from second language phonological acquisition, and consideration of the language attitudes and ideologies of the speakers in order to describe the development of the phonological system. The data come from word list tasks, reading tasks, interviews, and perceptual dialectology tasks conducted during six months of fieldwork. The first part of the study describes the segmental and prosodic phonology of Cavite Chabacano, including synchronic and diachronic variation related to how the phonological system developed over time under input from the substrate and superstrate systems, particularly with respect to the vowel system. Modern Cavite Chabacano has a 5-vowel system like the superstrate Spanish and generally preserves Spanish forms faithfully, but there are some words that have vowels differing from the Spanish forms in ways that indicate early substrate influence from the Old Tagalog 3-vowel system. ii The second part of the study focuses on the sociophonetic analysis of the vowel system, arguing that it is at the phonetic rather than the phonological level where substrate/adstrate influence in the language is most evident. Stressed vowels and phrase- final vowels are significantly different from unstressed and nonfinal vowels in terms of vowel quality and duration. These phonetic patterns are more characteristic of the substrate Tagalog than of the superstrate Spanish. The results also confirm and expand upon previous claims (German 1932, Miranda 1956) about dialectal variation in the vowel system. The dialects of the Caridad and San Roque districts of Cavite City both have acoustic overlap between unstressed high and mid vowels, but in San Roque there is more phrase-final mid vowel raising, particularly for /e/. Overall, Caridad has a more dispersed vowel system compared to San Roque, perhaps indicating greater phonetic restructuring as the additional vowel contrasts of Spanish were acquired. However, substrate influence in the prosodic conditioning and phonetic realization of the vowels is evident in both districts. The third part of the study shows that Cavite Chabacano speakers have high metalinguistic awareness of this dialectal variation in the vowel system, and that the San Roque dialect has greater prestige. It is argued that substrate influence in the vowel system initially arose through phonetic restructuring during second language acquisition, but that due to sociohistorical and ideological motivations, the substrate features were retained even as Cavite Chabacano phonology otherwise conformed to standard Spanish in terms of other features. iii The study combines methodology and insights from sociophonetics, historical phonology, second language acquisition, and perceptual dialectology in order to provide a nuanced account of how the Cavite Chabacano vowel system emerged and developed over time. The results demonstrate how substrate influence in creoles can be evident at the phonetic as well as the phonological level, and how sociohistorical factors can shape the development of the language. iv Dedication Para con mi mga aguela na Cavite, Purificacion Ballesteros y Andrea Baleda, y para con mi amigo y maestro de Chabacano, Sir Ike Escalante. v Acknowledgments I have been very fortunate to receive so much professional and personal support during the writing of this dissertation and my studies at OSU. I sincerely thank my mentors and colleagues here at OSU and at other universities, friends and family in the U.S. and in the Philippines, and the participants of this study. I am also grateful for the generous financial support I have received from various sources over the years, including the Department of Linguistics, the National Science Foundation (BCS-1123640), and the OSU Targeted Investment in Excellence program. I wish to thank my committee, Don Winford, Cynthia Clopper, and Mary Beckman, for their support during this dissertation and the rest of my time at OSU. I am very grateful for Don’s guidance and encouragement as my advisor and also appreciate the chance to work with him on the Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. I would also like to thank Brian Joseph, Scott Schwenter, and Judith Tonhauser for their support as committee members on my first and second qualifying papers, Hope Dawson for helping me to develop as a teacher, and Marlyse Baptista for encouraging me to become a linguist when I was her student at the University of Georgia. Many thanks also go to my fellow graduate students for support in academics and for good times, including Liz McCullough, Jeff Holliday, Chris Worth, Dahee Kim, Alex vi Wein, Jane Mitsch, David Mitchell, and Pat Reidy, among others. Maraming salamat din kina mga Friendship, sina Michelle Dionisio at Greg Kierstead, and thanks to Eric Ruppe for Hatchet and Seaweed. Many thanks also to Meghan Armstrong, Katie Carmichael, Deborah Morton, and Abby Walker for always being there for me. Outside of OSU, I am grateful to Eeva Sippola for introducing me to some contacts in Cavite City and Ternate, making some of the maps used in this dissertation, and being an excellent co-author and friend. I have been fortunate to be part of a community of Philippine studies through my participation in the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute and the Advanced Filipino Abroad Program. Learning Filipino there was essential to this dissertation. Maraming salamat po to my Filipino teachers in both programs: Fe Benavidez, Imelda Gasmen, Clem Montero, Sheila Zamar, Michael Coroza, Yol Jamendang, Nikka Osorio, and Ruth Mabanglo. I also appreciate the friendship and support of my colleagues in these programs: Sony Bolton, Adrianne Francisco, Faith Kares, Neal Matherne, Bryan Ziadie, Raj Desai, and Jordan Bautista. I am also very grateful to Des Antonio and her family for welcoming me into their home during AFAP. My research in Cavite City would not have been possible without the generous help of several dozen people. First, I am so thankful to the Ballesteros/Baleda family (Lola Puring, Lola Deng, Tere, Ronnie, Iris, Pia, and extended family) for hosting me during fieldwork. I truly consider you my family. Thanks also to Louie Chin for welcoming me to Cavite, Remy Ordonez and the rest of the Cavite City Tourism Council for setting up interviews and providing me with meriendas and office space, and Joy dela vii Rosa and staff for letting me work in the Cavite City Library and Museum office. Gracias din con Willie Pangilinan and Adoracion Siscon for helping me set up several interviews. I am also grateful to Ike Escalante for letting me participant observe mahjong games and his Escuela Chabacano classes, and for answering my many questions about Chabacano. Finally, I sincerely thank each of the 55 participants for humoring me in Chabacano and agreeing to be in this study. This study would have taken me much longer to complete without the assistance of several undergraduate interns: Lindsay Smith, Michael De Matto, James Huelseman, Abby Moriarty, Yanira Torres, and Sarah Stockler. It was a pleasure working with all of you. Thanks also to Yulei Zhang for her statistical consulting, and to Precious Mazo for assisting me with transcribing the corpus. Finally, thanks to my family for all they have done for me over the years: my parents, my extended family in Ohio and Pampanga, and my cousin Steve Sizemore for being an excellent roommate here in Columbus. Thanks also to Andy Plummer for his constant encouragement and support, and for putting up with me during this writing process while also working on his own dissertation. viii Vita 2002.................................................North Gwinnett High School 2006.................................................A.B. Linguistics and Spanish, University of Georgia 2012.................................................M.A. Linguistics, The Ohio State University 2007 to present Publications Lesho, Marivic & Eeva Sippola. 2013. The Sociolinguistic Situation of the Manila Bay Chabacano-speaking Communities. Language Documentation & Conservation 7. 1-30. Fields of Study Major Field: Linguistics ix Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ x List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xx List of Figures ................................................................................................................ xxiv