User:Jcruz2/Language selection
I have no preference as to whom I work with.
Contents
Chabacano
Basic Information
Chabacano [ISO cbk], sometimes spelled Chavacano, is a Spanish-based creole language variety spoken primarily in Zamboanga City, located in Southern Philippines. It has about 700,000 native speakers, with most speaking the variant Zamboangueño in the aforementioned Zamboanga City. Other variants can be found in smaller numbers in Cavite City and Ternate. Virtually all Chabacano speakers are bi- or multilingual, typically also speaking Filipino/Tagalog, Cebuano, or other Philippine languages. Many also have passing/symbolic competence in English or Spanish.
Zamboangueño is used consistently in daily life, local media, and local government settings in Zamboanga City, and is passed to children in many families. Still, its long-term survivability is considered tenuous by many due to Tagalog and/or English dominance. The Caviteño and Ternateño variants are far more endangered, with fewer speakers and less intergenerational transmission.
All Chabacano variants are written in Latin script — specifically using the Spanish alphabet. While there seems to be no singular strict normative orthography, locally-promoted spelling guides such as Alfabeto Chavacano do exist to systematize representation of vowels and consonants. In general, orthography is most heavily influenced by Spanish spelling conventions but with adaptions for local phonology.
Morphological Typology
Like other creoles, Chabacano has very little inflectional morphology. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, and determiners are generally invariant, with plurality and tense usually indicated analytically with separate particles, adverbs, or numerals rather than via affixes. Thus, its morphological type is predominantly isolating/analytic; grammatical relationships tend to be expressed by separate words and fixed orders rather than inflections. For instance, number might be expressed via a Spanish plural particle, the particle “mga” common in other Filipino languages, or simply a quantifier.
Like Spanish, it is not agglutinative despite some influence from agglutinative Filipino languages, though unlike Spanish there is little gender marking on nouns and adjectives.
Overall, Chabacano is best classified as an isolating creole with minimal inflection, slightly Romance-like morphology, and some Philippine-style particles.
Resources Available
A cursory search turned up this small library of Chabacano children’s books as well as the IFM Zamboanga Facebook page, whose posts and comments are written in primarily Zamboangueño. I also found this Chabacano reader as well as the Chabacano page on Omniglot, both of which have several sample dialogues and/or paragraphs in Chabacano, geared more toward researchers/learners than native Chabacano speakers. I found these resources fairly quickly, which makes me think I should be likely to find several more without too much issue. I’m almost certain I’ll be able to find a Chabacano bible translation, for instance, due to how prominent Catholicism is in the Philippines.
General References: Chavacano Wikipedia page, Chabacano Ethnologue page, Chabacano/Spanish and the Philippine linguistic identity, Chabacano (Philippine creole Spanish)
Tai Lue
Basic Information
Tai Lue [ISO khb], known alternatively as Dai Lue or Lü, is a Southwestern Tai language spoken in mainland Southeast Asia. More specifically, it is primarily spoken in Yunnan (located in Southern China), northern Laos, northern Thailand, and parts of Myanmar and Vietnam. 2000-2013 census data places its population of native speakers at around 550,000.
Most Tai Lue speakers are multilingual and speak their national language in addition to Tai Lue (e.g. Mandarin Chinese in China or Lao in Laos). In many rural countries, it is still taught to children, but in more urban areas, it may be more overshadowed by the more dominant national language(s). Tai Lue has minority-language status in China under the umbrella of Dai languages and appears in some local media and educational settings; in Laos and Thailand, it has a strong presence in certain communities but is in danger of fading out under pressure from Lao/Thai.
Tai Lue uses a script called New Tai Lue, or Xishuangbanna Dai, which is used in Yunnan for signage and publications. There is also Old Tai Lue, or Tai Tham/Tham Lue, which was historically used for religious texts and manuscripts. In Thailand and Laos, Tai Lue may also be written in adapted Thai or Lao scripts for local use. New Thai Lue is relatively standardized, with official orthographic norms for education and publishing.
Morphological Typology
Tai Lue is strongly isolating. Morphemes are mostly monosyllabic, and words have little to no inflection for tense, number, or gender. Grammatical categories such as aspect, modality, and politeness are expressed with separate particles and/or word order rather than affixes. Plurality of nouns is indicated by quantifiers, classifiers, or context; verbs do not inflect for person or tense, instead relying on pre- or postverbal particles, adverbs, or verb constructions to indicate tense or aspect (e.g. words equivalent to “already,” “still,” or “will”). There is also no agglutinative morphology despite some limited compounding and a few bound morphemes with derivational function.
Thus, Tai Lue is best classified as isolating/analytic with no inflectional morphology and only light derivation and compounding.
Resources Available
It should be fairly easy to accumulate various sources of Tai Lue text. I found several without having to search too deeply, such as this article full of Tai Lue expressions, this language dictionary, and this collection of Northern Thai manuscripts (several of which are Tai Lue manuscripts).
General References: Tai Lue Wikipedia page, Lü Ethnologue page, Tai Lue Omniglot page, New Tai Lue alphabet, Elaborate Expressions in Dai Lue
Yakan
Basic Information
Yakan [ISO yka] is spoken primarily on Basilan Island in southern Philippines and in some communities on the Zamboanga Peninsula and other nearby islands. The Yakan people are an indigenous Muslim population that number about 130,000 speakers as of a 2005 census. Yakan communities are highly multilingual, with most speakers also knowing Chabacano, Tausug, Cebuano/Visayan, Tagalog, and some English. Code-switching, especially in urban settings, is very common.
While Yakan tends to be the home language in Yakan-majority communities on Basilan, pressures from more dominant regional languages like Cebuano, or official languages like Tagalog, are strong, especially in education in media. This has led to younger speakers being increasingly more fluent in these languages over their family-taught Yakan. However, despite being vulnerable, Yakan is still being actively transmitted in many rural communities.
Yakan is typically written in Latin script. Its orthography uses the five vowels used in English, /a, e, i, o, u/, with vowel length often being marked with macrons in linguistic work (i.e. ā or ē). Its consonant inventory is fairly identical to that of other Filipino languages. However, many Muslim groups historically used Arabic-based scripts for religious and sometimes even vernacular writing. Yakan does not have a single orthographic standard, but dictionaries, grammars, and literacy materials tend to converge on similar spelling conventions.
Morphological Typology
Yakan is more agglutinative than isolating. Its verbiage uses prefixes, infixes, and suffixes similarly to other Filipino languages; verb affixes have clear functions and can be stacked atop each other onto one verb. That said, its nouns are more analytic, relying on particles and clitics rather than rich inflection. So, the language is somewhat mixed morphologically, but it could best be classified as agglutinative.
Resources Available
Yakan has been the target of several literacy and Bible-translation projects, so there are likely several Yakan texts to be found.
General References: Yakan Wikipedia page, Yakan Ethnologue page, OLAC resources in and about the Yakan language, Yakan Phonemics and Morphonemics
