Challenging the Endangered Status of Zamboanga Chavacano
Presenter(s)
Affiliation
Topic
Documentation of indigenous and minority languages: vocabulary and grammar
Type
Papers
Abstract
Despite Ethnologue's recent categorization of Zamboanga Chavacano (ZC) as an endangered indigenous language of the Philippines (Eberhard et al., 2024), the empirical basis for this classification remains unclear. This paper challenges this designation through insider data and critically examines the application of UNESCO's nine factors of language vitality and endangerment in multilingual contexts like Zamboanga City. The study argues that three key factors—intergenerational transmission, absolute number of speakers, and proportion of speakers within the total population—must be reinterpreted through a multilingual lens. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (2020) indicates approximately 428,327 ZC speakers in 104,470 households, excluding second and third-language speakers. This figure, when contextualized within Zamboanga City's multilingual landscape, suggests robust language vitality. The paper demonstrates that traditional metrics of language endangerment, which often presume monolingual ideals, may be inappropriate for evaluating language vitality in multilingual settings. Through analysis of additional factors, this study provides evidence for reconsidering ZC's current endangered status.
