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Plural nouns in contact

Evidence from the Philippines

ORCiD logo with link | University of A Coruña, Spain
ORCiD logo with link | University of Helsinki, Finland
Published online: 9 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.24019.sip
Abstract
In Chabacano, certain words from the lexifier language Spanish have been adopted in their plural-derived form, although their number is singular. These invariable plural forms can also be found in Philippine languages as Spanish loanwords, without the plural marker that is common for these languages. This article presents an inventory of the invariable plural words in Chabacano and offers a detailed analysis of their semantics. The results are used to evaluate theories about the development of the invariable plurals and to explain the commonalities between their use in Chabacano and the Philippine languages. In addition, similar uses are shown to occur in present-day contact situations with English in the Philippines. In general, the results show a continuity in the adoption and semantics of the plurals between the substrate and the varieties of Chabacano, thus adding to the substratist explanations in language contact and to the discussion about the origins of the Chabacano varieties.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Plurals in contact and in Chabacano
  • 3.Materials and methods
  • 4.Inventory of invariable plurals in Chabacano
  • 5.Explanations in previous research
  • 6.Philippine influence on invariable plurals
    • 6.1No plural marking in the Philippine languages
    • 6.2On the semantics of the plural words
    • 6.3The plurality of the underlying mental representation
    • 6.4Contact with English
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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