Bilug in Zamboangueño Chavacano

This paper will report on a corpus-based study of the use of the numeral classifier bilug (bilog) in Zamboangueño Chavacano (ZAM). Since bilug was borrowed as a numeral classifier from a neighboring indigenous Austronesian language Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), it is not present in other Ibero-Asian Creoles that do not share a Visayan substrate. I will offer a synchronic snapshot of the use of bilug in both Hiligaynon and ZAM, showing that it has semantically evolved over time to disregard previous shape and animacy constraints. I will then introduce the Spanish equivalent, pedaso, which may be in the process of grammaticizing to take on the role of a second, more restricted numeral classifier in ZAM.