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Chavacano

Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. Other currently existing varieties are found in Cavite City and Ternate, located in the Cavite province on the island of Luzon. Chavacano is the only Spanish-based creole in Asia. The 2020 Census of Population and Housing counted 106,000 households generally speaking Chavacano.

The responsible for this Spanish creole was Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, then governor of Panama, and also responsible for settling Zamboanga City by employing Peruvian soldiers and colonists. There was an Asian-American route, which led to traders and adventurers carrying silver from Peru through Panama to reach Acapulco, Mexico before sailing to Manila, Philippines using the famed Manila galleons.

The different varieties of Chavacano differ in certain aspects like vocabulary but they are generally mutually intelligible by speakers of these varieties, especially between neighboring varieties. While a majority of the lexicon of the different Chavacano varieties derive from Spanish, their grammatical structures are generally similar to other Philippine languages. Among Philippine languages, it is the only one that is not an Austronesian language, but like Malayo-Polynesian languages, it uses reduplication.

The word  is derived from Spanish, roughly meaning "poor taste" or "vulgar", though the term itself carries no negative connotations to contemporary speakers.

Varieties

Linguists have identified at least six Spanish creole varieties in the Philippines. Their classification is based on their substrate languages and the regions where they are commonly spoken. The three known varieties of Chavacano with Tagalog as their substrate language are the Luzon-based creoles of which are Caviteño (spoken in Cavite City), Bahra or Ternateño (spoken in Ternate, Cavite) and Ermiteño (once spoken in the old district of Ermita in Manila and is now extinct).

There are a number of theories on how these different varieties of Chavacano have evolved and how they are related to one another. According to some linguists, Zamboangueño Chavacano is believed to have been influenced by Caviteño Chabacano as evidenced by prominent Zamboangueño families who descended from Spanish Army officers (from Spain and Latin America), primarily Caviteño mestizos, stationed at Fort Pilar in the 19th century. When Caviteño officers recruited workers and technicians from Iloilo to man their sugar plantations and rice fields to reduce the local population's dependence on the Donativo de Zamboanga, the Spanish colonial government levied taxes on the islanders to support the fort's operations. With the subsequent migration of Ilonggo traders to Zamboanga, the Zamboangueño Chavacano was infused with Hiligaynon words as the previous migrant community was assimilated.

Most of what appears to be Bisaya words in Zamboangueño Chavacano are actually Hiligaynon. Although Zamboangueño Chavacano's contact with Bisaya began much earlier when Bisaya soldiers were stationed at Fort Pilar during the Spanish colonial period, it was not until closer to the middle of the 20th century that borrowings from Bisaya accelerated from more migration from the Visayas as well as the current migration from other Visayan-speaking areas of the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Zamboangueño (Chavacano) is spoken in Zamboanga City, Basilan, parts of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Norte. Zamboangueño Chavacano is the most dynamically spoken language of Philippine Creole Spanish. It is used as a lingua franca between both Muslim and Christians in the Southwestern Mindanao and Basilan Islands communities. Its influence has spread to other islands in the west, such as the Jolo Islands, as well as to Cotabato and Davao in Mindanao. The other varieties of Chavacano with Cebuano as their primary substrate language are the Mindanao-based creoles of which are Castellano Abakay or Chavacano Davaoeño (spoken in some areas of Davao), influenced by Hokkien Chinese and Japanese, and divided into two varieties, Castellano Abakay Chino and Castellano Abakay Japón, and Cotabateño (spoken in Cotabato City). Both Cotabateño and Davaoeño are very similar to Zamboangueño.

Characteristics
The Chavacano languages in the Philippines are creoles based on Mexican Spanish, southern peninsular Spanish and possibly, Portuguese. In some Chavacano languages, most words are common with Andalusian Spanish, but there are many words borrowed from Nahuatl, a language native to Central Mexico, which aren't found in Andalusian Spanish. Although the vocabulary is largely Mexican, its grammar is mostly based on other Philippine languages, primarily Ilonggo, Tagalog and Bisaya. By way of Spanish, its vocabulary also has influences from the Native American languages Nahuatl, Taino, Quechua, etc. as can be evidenced by the words chongo ("monkey", instead of Spanish ), tiange ("mini markets"), etc.

In contrast with the Luzon-based dialects, the Zamboangueño variety has the most borrowings and/or influence from other Philippine Austronesian languages including Hiligaynon and Tagalog. Words of Malay origin are present in the Zamboangueño variety; the latter is included because although not local in Philippines, it was the lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia and is still spoken in Muslim areas of Mindanao. As the Zamboangueño variety is also spoken by Muslims, the variety has some Arabic loanwords, most commonly Islamic terms. In spite of this, it's difficult to trace whether these words have their origin in the local population or in Spanish itself, given that Spanish has about 6,000 words of Arabic origin. Chavacano also contains loanwords of Persian origin which enter Chavacano via Malay and Arabic; both Persian and Spanish are Indo-European languages.

Demographics
The highest number of Chavacano speakers are found in Zamboanga City and in the island province of Basilan. A significant number of Chavacano speakers are found in Cavite City and Ternate. There are also speakers in some areas in the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte, Davao, and in Cotabato City. According to the official 2000 Philippine census, there were altogether 607,200 Chavacano speakers in the Philippines in that same year. The exact figure could be higher as the 2000 population of Zamboanga City, whose main language is Chavacano, far exceeded that census figure. Also, the figure doesn't include Chavacano speakers of the Filipino diaspora. All the same, Zamboangueño is the variety with the most number of speakers, being the official language of Zamboanga City whose population is now believed to be over a million; is also an official language in Basilan.

Chavacano speakers are also found in Semporna and elsewhere in Sabah via immigration to Sabah during the Spanish colonial period and via Filipino refugees who escaped from Zamboanga Peninsula and predominantly Muslim areas of Mindanao like Sulu Archipelago.

A small number of Zamboanga's indigenous peoples and of Basilan, such as the Tausugs, the Samals, and the Yakans, majority of those people are Sunni Muslims, also speak the language. In the close provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi areas, there are Muslim speakers of the Chavacano de Zamboanga, all of them are neighbors of Christians. Speakers of the Chavacano de Zamboanga, both Christians and Muslims, also live in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. Christians and Muslims in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, South Cotabato, Cotabato City, and Saranggani speak Chavacano de Zamboanga. Take note that Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Maguindanao, Cotabato City, Soccsksargen (region that composed of Sultan Kudarat, Cotabato, South Cotabato, and Saranggani) and Davao Region became part of short-lived Republic of Zamboanga, which chose Chavacano as official language. As a result of Spanish colonization, according to a genetic study written by Maxmilian Larena, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the Philippine ethnic groups with the highest amount of Spanish/European descent are the Chavacanos, with 4 out of 10 Chavacanos having detectable Spanish descent, followed by Bicolanos, with 1–2 out of 10, while most of the lowland urbanized Christian ethnic groups have some Spanish descent.

Social significance
Chavacano has been primarily and practically a spoken language. In the past, its use in literature was limited and chiefly local to the geographical location where the particular variety of the language was spoken. Its use as a spoken language far exceeds its use in literary work in comparison to the use of Spanish in the Philippines which was more successful as a written language than a spoken language. In recent years, there have been efforts to encourage the use of Chavacano as a written language, but the attempts were mostly minor attempts in folklore and religious literature and few pieces of written materials by the print media. In Zamboanga City, while the language is used by the mass media, the Catholic Church, education, and the local government, there have been few literary work written in Zamboangueño and access to these resources by the general public isn't readily available; Bibles of Protestant Christians are also written in standard Chavacano. As Chavacano is spoken by Muslims as second language not only in Zamboanga City and Basilan but even in Sulu and Tawi-tawi, a number of Qur'an books are published in Chavacano.

The Zamboangueño variety has been constantly evolving especially during half of the past century until the present. Zamboangueño has been experiencing an infusion of English and more Tagalog words and from other languages worldwide in its vocabulary and there have been debates and discussions among older Chavacano speakers, new generation of Chavacano speakers, scholars, linguists, sociologists, historians, and educators regarding its preservation, cultivation, standardization, and its future as a Spanish-based creole. In 2000, The Instituto Cervantes in Manila hosted a conference entitled "Shedding Light on the Chavacano Language" at the Ateneo de Manila University. Starting school year 2012–13, the Zamboangueño variant has also been taught at schools following the implementation of the Department of Education's policy of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). It serves as a medium of instruction from kindergarten to grade 3 and as a separate subject (Mother Tongue) from grades 1 to 3.

Because of the grammatical structures, Castilian usage, and archaic Spanish words and phrases that Chavacano (especially Zamboangueño) uses, between speakers of both contemporary Spanish and Chavacano who are uninitiated, both languages appear to be non-intelligible to a large extent. For the initiated speakers, Chavacano can be intelligible to some Spanish speakers, and while most Spanish words can easily be understood by Chavacano speakers, many would struggle to understand a complete Spanish sentence.

Terminology
The term Chavacano or Chabacano originated from the Spanish word  which literally means "poor taste", "vulgar", "common", "of low quality", or "coarse". Chavacano has since evolved into a word of its own in different spellings with no negative connotation, but to simply being the name of the language itself (Banquicio, 2021).

During the Spanish colonial period, what is today called Chavacano was also called by the Spanish-speaking population as the "lenguaje de la calle", "lenguaje de parian" (language of the street), or "lenguaje de cocina" (language of the kitchen) to refer to the Chabacano spoken by the people of Manila, particularly in Ermita) to distinguish it from the Spanish language spoken by those of the upper class, which consisted of Spaniards and educated Natives.

Linguists use the term Philippine Creole Spanish which can be further divided into two geographic classifications: Manila Bay Creoles (which includes Ternateño and Caviteño) and Mindanao Creole (including Zamboangueño). The varieties of the language are geographically related. The Manila Bay Creoles have Tagalog as their substrate language while The Mindanao Creoles have Visayan (mostly Cebuano, Tausug, and Hiligaynon), Subanon, and Sama as their substrate language(s).

Chavacano/Chabacano speakers themselves have different preferences on whether to spell the language with a V or a B. They emphasise the difference between their variety and others using their own geographical location as a point of reference. Language speakers in Ternate also use the term Bahra to refer to their language and their city. Chavacano varieties usually have their area name attached to the language.

In Zamboanga City, most people are using the V in spelling the language as Chavacano. In the three-day Chavacano Orthography Congress held on Nov 19–21, 2014, wherein it included the presentation by researchers on Chavacano, mostly results from surveys conducted among selected respondents in the city, the newly organized Chavacano Orthography Council met with the officials of the Department of Education and agreed among others that the language is to be spelled with the V. Most people in support of this move would like to distance their language Chavacano to the word Chabacano which also means ‘vulgar” in Spanish.

Historical background
There is no definite conclusion on the precise history of how these different varieties of Chavacano developed.

Prior to the formation of what is today the Philippines, what existed were a collection of various islands and different ethnolinguistic groups inhabiting them. The Spanish colonisation of the Philippine islands had led to the presence of the Spanish language in the islands. Though Spanish was the language of the government, the various languages originating and found in the islands remained the mother tongue of the various inhabitants. Instead of using Spanish to spread Christianity, Spanish missionaries preferred to learn the various local languages. With over 300 years of Spanish colonial rule, the Spanish language came to influence the various Philippine languages to varying degrees by way of aspects like new loanwords and expressions.

Creole languages (such as French-based creoles) have formed at various points in time around the world due to colonialism. As a result of contact between speakers of two mutually non-intelligible languages, creole languages have evolved in some cases to facilitate communication. This usually involves taking the vocabulary of another language and grammatical features of the native language. In contrast to the numerous French-based creole languages, only three creole languages have been found to be Spanish-based or heavily influenced: Papiamento, Palenquero, and Chavacano. In the Philippines, a major difficulty in tracing the development of Chabacano is the confusion attributed to in accounts of travelers to the Philippines between a coherent creole language, `broken Spanish', and fluent Spanish. The earliest believed attestation of a coherent creole language spoken in Cavite City comes from the Augustinian priest Martínez de Zúñiga who in his 1803 accounts of his travels in the Philippines, Estadismos de las Islas Filipinas, notes that "In Cavite and in its suburb of San Roque, a very corrupted Spanish is spoken, whose phraseology is entirely taken from the language of the country". Mentions of a vernacular referred to as "kitchen Spanish" and "language of the market" (referring to the Manila variety), or other terms are found in a number of texts of the 19th century. However, the kind of vernacular referred to by these terms are imprecise and these terms may refer to a fully fledged creole or to a Spanish-pidgin spoken by Chinese and Filipino merchants.

The manner of formation of this type of speech found in a number of communities around the Philippines remains unclear today. A sample of what is today called Chabacano may be found in dialogues contained in chapters 18 (Supercherías) and 28 (Tatakut) of Filipino writer José Rizal's 1891 work El Filibusterismo. The dialogue found in chapter 18 is:

"¿Porque ba no di podí nisós entrá? preguntaba una voz de mujer.

―Abá, ñora, porque ‘tallá el maná prailes y el maná empleau, contestó un hombre; ‘ta jasí solo para ilós el cabesa de espinge.

―¡Curioso también el maná prailes! dijo la voz de mujer alejándose; ¡no quiere pa que di sabé nisos cuando ilos ta sali ingañau! ¡Cosa! ¡Querida be de praile el cabesa!"

In the 1883 work of German linguist Hugo Schuchardt Uber das Malaiospanische der Philippinen, he presents fragments of texts and comments of what he calls "Malayo-Spanish". However, the first to give a general study and investigation of the varieties of Chavacano as a group was by Keith Whinnom in his 1956 work The Spanish Contact Vernaculars in the Philippine Islands . Whinnom gives an overall view of the history and grammar of what he calls "Ermitaño" of Ermita in Manila, "Caviteño" of Cavite and "Zamboangueño" of Zamboanga. In it, he also postulates his monogenetic theory on the origin of these vernaculars.

Linguists are unsettled about how these vernaculars formed and how they connect to one another, if any. There are many theories, but the two main theories of the origin of Chavacano are Whinnom's "monogenetic theory" and a "parallel-development" theory proposed by Frake in 1971.

Monogenetic theory
According to the monogenetic theory or one-way theory advanced by Whinnom, all varieties of Chavacano result from a single source, and all such varieties are related to each other.

Parallel-development theory
The parallel development theory or two-way theory as advocated by Frake in 1971, the variants found in Luzon and Mindanao had evolved autonomously from each other.

Zamboangueño
On 23 June 1635, Zamboanga City became a permanent foothold of the Spanish government with the construction of the San José Fortress. Bombardment and harassment from pirates and raiders of the sultans of Mindanao and Jolo and the determination to spread Christianity further south (as Zamboanga was a crucial strategic location) of the Philippines forced the Spanish missionary friars to request reinforcements from the colonial government.

The military authorities decided to import labour from Luzon and the Visayas. Thus, the construction workforce eventually consisted of Spanish, Mexican and Peruvian soldiers, masons from Cavite (who comprised the majority), sacadas from Cebu and Iloilo, and those from the various local tribes of Zamboanga like the Samals and Subanons.

Language differences made it difficult for one ethnic group to communicate with another. To add to this, work instructions were issued in Spanish. The majority of the workers were unschooled and therefore did not understand Spanish but needed to communicate with each other and the Spaniards. A pidgin developed and became a full-fledged creole language still in use today as a lingua franca and/or as an official language, mainly in Zamboanga City.

When the Sultanate of Sulu gave up its territories in Sulu Archipelago to Spain within late 1700s (Sulu Sultanate gave up Basilan to Spain in 1762, while Sulu and Tawi-tawi were not given up by sultanate because the Sulu Sultanate only recognised partial Spanish sovereignty to Sulu and Tawi-tawi), Spanish settlers and soldiers brought the language to the region until Spain, Germany, and United Kingdom signed an agreement named the Madrid Protocol of 1885 that recognised Spanish rule of Sulu Archipelago. Chavacano becomes a lingua franca of Sulu Archipelago (composing of Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Basilan), as these were formerly part of Western Mindanao (presently named Zamboanga Peninsula), only Isabela City (Basilan's capital) remained part of Zamboanga Peninsula; although North Borneo (now Sabah) is not included on the Spanish East Indies area as stated on the Protocol and control by the United Kingdom, Chavacano has still a little impact in Semporna.

From then on, constant Spanish military reinforcements as well as increased presence of Spanish religious and educational institutions have fostered the Spanish creole.

Caviteño/Ternateño
The Merdicas (also spelled Mardicas or Mardikas) were Catholic natives of the islands of Ternate and Tidore of the Moluccas in the vicinity of New Guinea, converted during the Portuguese occupation of the islands by Jesuit missionaries. The islands were later captured by the Spanish who vied for their control with the Dutch. In 1663, the Spanish garrison in Ternate was forced to pull out to defend Manila against an impending invasion by Koxinga, the new ruler of Kingdom of Tungning in Formosa (Taiwan) (sacrificing the Moluccas to the Dutch in doing so). A number of Merdicas volunteered to help, eventually being resettled in a sandbar near the mouth of the Maragondon river (known as the Barra de Maragondon) and Tanza, Cavite, Manila.

The invasion did not occur as Koxinga fell ill and died. The Merdicas' community eventually integrated into the local population. Today, the location of the community is called Ternate after the island of Ternate in the Moluccas, and the descendants of the Merdicas continue to use their Spanish creole (with Portuguese influence), which has come to be known as Caviteño or Ternateño Chavacano.

Zamboangueño

 * Donde tu ay anda?
 * Spanish: ¿A dónde vas?
 * (‘Where are you going?’)

 * Ya mirá yo con José.
 * Spanish: Yo vi a José.
 * (‘I saw José.’)

 * Ya empezá ele buscá que buscá entero lugar con el sal.
 * Spanish: El/Ella empezó a buscar la sal en todas partes.
 * (‘He/She began to search everywhere for the salt.’)

 * Ya andá ele na escuela.
 * Spanish: El/Ella se fue a la escuela.
 * (‘He/She went to school.’)

 * Si Mario ya dormí na casa.
 * Spanish: Mario durmió en la casa.
 * (‘Mario slept in the house.’)

 * El hombre, con quien ya man encuentro tu, es mi hermano.
 * Spanish: El hombre que encontraste, es mi hermano.
 * (The man [whom] you met is my brother.)

 * El persona con quien tu tan cuento, bien alegre gayot.
 * Spanish: La persona con la que estás hablando es muy alegre. / La persona con quien tú estás conversando es bien alegre.
 * (The person you are talking to is very happy indeed.)

Ermiteño

 * En la dulzura de mi afán,
 * Junto contigo na un peñon
 * Mientras ta despierta
 * El buan y en
 * Las playas del Pasay
 * Se iba bajando el sol.

 * Yo te decía, "gusto ko"
 * Tu me decías, "justo na"
 * Y de repente
 * ¡Ay nakú!
 * Ya sentí yo como si
 * Un asuáng ta cercá.

 * Que un cangrejo ya corré,
 * Poco a poco na tu lao.
 * Y de pronto ta escondé
 * Bajo tus faldas, ¡amoratáo!

 * Cosa que el diablo hacé,
 * Si escabeche o kalamáy,
 * Ese el que no ta sabé
 * Hasta que yo ya escuché
 * Fuerte-fuerte el voz: ¡Aray!

The following is a sample of Ermitaño taken from the April 1917 publication of The Philippine Review. The poem was written by the Filipino Spanish-language writer Jesús Balmori (who also wrote other texts in Ermitaño), and it is entitled "Na Maldito Arena":

"Ta sumí el sol na fondo del mar, y el mar, callao el boca. Ta jugá con su mana marejadas com'un muchacha nerviosa con su mana pulseras. El viento no mas el que ta alborota, el viento y el pecho de Felisa que ta lleno de sampaguitas na fuera y lleno de suspiros na dentro..."

According to Keith Whinnom's "Spanish contact vernaculars in the Philippine Islands" (1956), there were reportedly still an estimated 12,000 speakers in 1942 of Ermitaño. After World War II, much of Manila was destroyed and its citizens displaced. This variety is considered to be virtually extinct.

Caviteño/Ternateño

 * Nisós ya pidí pabor cun su papáng.
 * Spanish: Nosotros ya pedimos un favor de tu padre.
 * (We have already asked your father for a favor.)

Ternateño follows a pronominal system of three different pronouns, including subjects, objects and possession. The system follows the same pattern as Spanish, including both singular and plural conjugations based on what the speaker is explaining. For example yo (Spanish singular) becomes bo (Ternateño), whereas nosotros (Spanish plural) becomes mihótro (Ternateño). Additionally Ternateño incorporates alternate language forms for different participles to denote the relationship with the individual being the speaker as well as the listener. This includes polite as well as casual foundations of speech, for example, yo (casual) versus (éle).

Another sample of Caviteño Chavacano
Caviteño Chavacano:

Puede nisós hablá: que grande nga palá el sacrificio del mga héroes para niso independencia. Debe nga palá no niso ulvida con ilos. Ansina ya ba numa? Debe hací niso mga cosa para dale sabí que ta aprecia niso con el mga héroes. Que preparáo din niso hací sacrificio para el pueblo. ¿Qué laya? ¿Escribí mga novela como José Rizal?

Spanish:

Nosotros podemos decir qué grandes sacrificios ofrecieron nuestros héroes para obtener nuestra independencia. Entonces, no nos olvidemos de ellos. ¿Como lo logramos? Necesitamos hacer cosas para que sepan que apreciamos a nuestros héroes; que estamos preparados tambien a sacrificar por la nación. ¿Cómo lo haremos? ¿Hay que escribir también novelas como José Rizal?

English:

We can say what great sacrifices our heroes have done to achieve our independence. We should therefore not forget them. How do we do that? We should do things to let it be known that we appreciate the heroes; that we are prepared to make sacrifices for our people. How? Should we write novels like José Rizal?

Castellano Abakay (Davaoeño Chavacano)
Below are samples of dialogues and sentences of Davaoeño in two spoken forms: Castellano Abakay Chino (Chinese style) by the Chinese speakers of Chabacano and Castellano Abakay Japon (Japanese style) by the Japanese speakers.

Castellano Abakay Chino

 * Note: only selected phrases are given with Spanish translations, some are interpretations and rough English translations are also given.

 * La Ayuda
 * Ayudante: Señor, yo vino aquí para pedir vos ayuda.
 * (Spanish: Señor, he venido aquí para pedir su ayuda.)
 * (English: Sir, I have come here to ask for your help.)

 * Patron: Yo quiere prestá contigo diez pesos. Ese ba hija tiene mucho calentura. Necesita llevá doctor.
 * (Spanish: Quiero pedirle diez pesos prestados. Mi hija tiene calentura. Necesita un médico.)
 * (English: I want borrow ten pesos from you. My daughter has a fever. She needs a doctor.)

 * Valentina y Conching (Conchita)
 * Valentina: ¿¡Conching, dónde vos (tu) papá?! ¿No hay pa llegá?
 * Spanish: ¿¡Conching, dónde está tu papá?! ¿No ha llegado todavía?
 * English: Conching, where is your dad? Hasn't he arrived yet?
 * Conching: Llegá noche ya. ¿Cosa quiere ako (yo) habla cuando llegá papa?
 * Spanish: Llegará esta noche. ¿Qué quiere que le diga cuando llegue?
 * English: He will arrive this evening. What do you want me to tell him when he comes?

 * Ako (yo) hablá ese esposa mio, paciencia plimelo (primero). Cuando male negocio, comé nugaw (lugaw – puré de arroz). Pero, cuando bueno negocio, katáy (carnear) manok (pollo).
 * Spanish: Me limitaré a decir a mi esposa, mis disculpas. Cuando nuestro negocio va mal, comemos gachas. Pero si funciona bien, carneamos y servimos pollo.
 * English: I will just tell my wife, my apologies. We eat porridge when our business goes very badly. But if it goes well, then we will butcher and serve chicken.

 * ¡Corre pronto! ¡Caé aguacero! Yo hablá contigo cuando salé casa lleva payóng (paraguas). No quiere ahora mucho mojáo.
 * Spanish: ¡Corre rápido! ¡La lluvia está cayendo! Ya te dije que cuando salgas de tu casa, debes llevar un paraguas. No quiero que te mojes.
 * English: Run quickly! It's raining! I already told you to take an umbrella when you leave the house. I don't want you to get wet.

 * ¿Ese ba Tinong (Florentino) no hay vergüenza? Anda visita casa ese novia, comé ya allí. Ese papa de iya novia, regañá mucho. Ese Tinong, no hay colocación. ¿Cosa dale comé esposa después?
 * Spanish: ¿Que Florentino no tiene vergüenza? Fue a visitar a su novia, y comió allí. El padre de su novia lo regaña mucho. Florentino no tiene trabajo. ¿Qué le proveerá a su esposa después?
 * English: Doesn't Florentino have any shame? He went to visit his girlfriend and ate dinner there. Her father scolds him a lot. That Florentino has no job. What will he provide for his wife then?

Castellano Abakay Japon
Estimated English translations provided with Japanese words.

 * ¿Por qué usted no andá paseo? Kará tiene coche, viaje usted. ¿Cosa hace dinero? Trabaja mucho, no gozá.
 * Why don't you go for a walk? You travel by your car. What makes money? You work a lot, you don't enjoy yourself.

 * Kará (から) – por (Spanish); from or by (English)

 * Usted mirá porque yo no regañá ese hijo mío grande. Día-día sale casa, ese ba igual andá oficina; pero día-día pide dinero.
 * Look because I don't tell off that big son of mine. Every day he leaves the house, the same for walking to the office; but every day he asks for money.

 * Señora, yo dale este pescado usted. No grande, pero mucho bueno. Ese kirei y muy bonito. (op. cit.)
 * Madam, I give this fish to you. It's not big, but it's very good. It is gorgeous and very nice.

 * Kirei (綺麗) – hermosa, bonita, bella (Spanish); beautiful, bonny (English)

Zamboangueño

 * Yo (soy) un Filipino.
 * Yo ta prometé mi lealtad
 * na bandera de Filipinas
 * y el País que ese ta representá
 * Con Honor, Justicia y Libertad
 * que ya pone na movemiento el un nación
 * para Dios,
 * para'l pueblo,
 * para naturaleza,
 * y para Patria.

Spanish

 * (Yo) soy un filipino.
 * yo prometo mi lealtad
 * a la bandera de las Filipinas
 * y al país que esta representa
 * con honor, justicia y libertad
 * puestos en movemiento por una nación
 * por Dios,
 * por el pueblo,
 * por la naturaleza
 * y por la patria.

English

 * I am a Filipino
 * I pledge my allegiance
 * To the flag of the Philippines
 * And to the country it represents
 * With honour, justice and freedom
 * Put in motion by one Nation
 * For God
 * for the People,
 * for Nature and
 * for the Country.

Forms and style
Chavacano (especially Zamboangueño) has two registers or sociolects: The common, colloquial, vulgar or familiar and the formal register/sociolects. Broadly speaking, the formal register is closer to Spanish, and the colloquial register to the local Austronesian languages.

In the common, colloquial, vulgar or familiar register/sociolect, words of local origin or a mixture of local and Spanish words predominate. The common or familiar register is used ordinarily when conversing with people of equal or lower status in society. It is also used more commonly in the family, with friends and acquaintances. Its use is of general acceptance and usage.

In the formal register/sociolect, words of Spanish origin or Spanish words predominate. The formal register is used especially when conversing with people of higher status in society. It is also used when conversing with elders (especially in the family and with older relatives) and those in authority. It is more commonly used by older generations, by Zamboangueño mestizos, and in the barrios. It is the form used in speeches, education, media, and writing. The formal register used in conversation is sometimes mixed with some degree of colloquial register.

The following examples show a contrast between the usage of formal words and common or familiar words in Chavacano:

Writing system
Chavacano is written using the Latin script. As Chavacano has mostly been a spoken language than a written one, multiple ways of writing the different varieties of Chavacano exist. Most published Chavacano texts utilize spelling systems nearly identical to Spanish, adjusting certain spellings of words to reflect how they are pronounced by native Chavacano speakers. Since the propagation of the usage of the Filipino language in education and the media as the national language, Filipino's orthography has affected how certain persons might spell Chavacano, especially since recent generations have grown unfamiliar with Spanish orthography; Most published works, and the general media, however, more often retain Spanish-based spelling systems.

The kind of writing system used to write Chavacano may differ according to the writer of the text. Writing may be written using a Spanish-derived writing system, where all words (including words of local origin) are spelled adhering to basic Spanish orthographic rules; it may also be written "phonetically", similar to the modern orthography of Filipino; another writing style uses a mixture of the two, spelling words based on an etymological approach, using phonetic spelling for words of Filipino origin and Spanish spelling rules for words of Spanish origin.

in Zamboanga, an etymological-based approach was formally recently endorsed by the local city government and this is the system used in public schools as part of the mother-tongue policy of the Department of Education for kindergarten to grade 3. In principle, words of Spanish origin are to be spelled using Spanish rules while Chavacano words of local origin are spelled in the manner according to their origin. Thus, the letter k appear mostly in words of Austronesian origin or in loanwords from other Philippine languages (words such as kame, kita, kanamon, kaninyo).

It is uncommon in modern written works to include the acute accent and the trema in writing except in linguistic or highly formalized texts. Also, the letters ñ and ll are sometimes replaced by ny and ly in informal texts.

Alphabet
The Chavacano alphabet has 30 letters, including $⟨ch⟩$, $⟨ll⟩$, $⟨ñ⟩$, and $⟨rr⟩$:

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, rr, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

Letters and letter names
Other letter combinations include rr (erre), which is pronounced or, and ng, which is pronounced. Another combination was ñg, which was pronounced but is now obsolete and is only written as ng.

Some sounds are not represented in the Chavacano written language. These sounds are mostly in words of Philippine and foreign origin. Furthermore, the pronunciation of some words of Spanish origin have become distorted or Philippinized in modern Chavacano. Some vowels have become allophonized ('e' and 'o' becomes 'i' and 'u' in some words) and some consonants have changed their pronunciation. (i.e. escoger became iscují in informal speech; tiene ; Dios ; Castilla became instead of ).

Glottal stops, as in Filipino languages, are not also indicated (â, ê, î, ô, û). These sounds are mainly found in words of Philippine origin and are only indicated in dictionaries (i.e. jendê = not; olê = again) and when they are, the circumflex accent is used.

Other pronunciation changes in some words of Spanish origin include:

 * f ~
 * j, g (before 'e' and 'i') ~ (in common with dialects of Caribbean and other areas of Latin America and southern Spain)
 * ch ~
 * rr ~
 * di, de ~ (when followed or preceded by other vowels: Dios ~ /jos/; dejalo ~ /jalo/)
 * ti, te ~ (when followed or preceded by other vowels: tierra ~ /chehra/; tiene ~ /chene/)
 * ci, si ~  (when followed or preceded by other vowels: conciencia ~ /konʃenʃa/)

, which are pronounced as fricatives in other Spanish dialects when between vowels, are uniformly pronounced as stops in Chavacano.

Other sounds

 * -h (glottal fricative in the final position); sometimes not written
 * -g ; sometimes written as just -k
 * -d ; sometimes written as just -t
 * -kh []; only in loanwords of Arabic origin, mostly Islamic terms

Sounds from English

 * “v” pronounced as English “v” (like: vase) (vi)
 * “z” pronounced as English “z” (like: zebra) (zi)
 * “x” pronounced as English “x” (like: X-ray) (ex/eks)
 * “h” like: house (/eitsh/); sometimes written as 'j'

Simple sentence structure (verb–subject–object word order)
Chavacano is a language with the verb–subject–object sentence order. This is because it follows the Hiligaynon or Tagalog grammatical structures. However, the subject–verb–object order does exist in Chavacano but only for emphasis purposes (see below). New generations have been slowly and vigorously using the S-V-O pattern mainly because of the influence of the English language. These recent practices have been most prevalent and evident in the mass media particularly among Chavacano newswriters who translate news leads from English or Tagalog to Chavacano where the "who" is emphasized more than the "what". Because the mass media represent "legitimacy", it is understood by Chavacano speakers (particularly Zamboangueños) that the S-V-O sentence structure used by Chavacano journalists is standardized.

Declarative affirmative sentences in the simple present, past, and future tenses
Chavacano generally follows the simple verb–subject–object or verb–object–subject sentence structure typical of Hiligaynon or Tagalog in declarative affirmative sentences:

 * Ta comprá (verb) el maga/mana negociante (subject) con el tierra (object).
 * Ta comprá (verb) tierra (object) el maga/mana negociante (subject).
 * Hiligaynon: Nagabakal (verb) ang mga manogbaligya (subject) sang duta (object).
 * Hiligaynon: Nagabakal (verb) sang duta (object) ang mga manogbaligya (subject).
 * Tagalog: Bumibili (verb) ang mga negosyante (subject) ng lupa (object).
 * Tagalog: Bumibili (verb) ng lupa (object) ang mga negosyante (subject).
 * (‘The businessmen are buying land.’)

The subject always appears after the verb, and in cases where pronominal subjects (such as personal pronouns) are used in sentences, they will never occur before the verb:

 * Ya andá yo na iglesia enantes.
 * (‘I went to church a while ago.’)

Declarative negative sentences in the simple present, past, and future tenses
When the predicate of the sentence is negated, Chavacano uses the words hindê (from Tagalog ’hindi’ or Hiligaynon 'indi' which means ’no’; the Cebuano uses 'dili', which shows its remoteness from Chavacano as compared to Hiligaynon) to negate the verb in the present tense, no hay (which literally means ’none’) to negate the verb that was supposed to happen in the past, and hindê or nunca (which means ’no’ or ’never’) to negate the verb that will not or will never happen in the future respectively. This manner of negating the predicate always happens in the verb–subject–object or verb–object–subject sentence structure:

Present Tense

 * Hindê ta comprá (verb) el maga/mana negociante (subject) con el tierra (object).
 * Hindê ta comprá (verb) tierra (object) el maga/mana negociante (subject).
 * (Eng: The businessmen are not buying land. Span: Los hombres de negocio no están comprando terreno)

Past Tense

 * No hay comprá (verb) el maga/mana negociante (subject) con el tierra (object).
 * No hay comprá (verb) tierra (object) el maga/mana negociante (subject).
 * (Eng: The businessmen did not buy land. Span: Los hombres de negocio no compraron terreno)

Future Tense

 * Ay hindê comprá (verb) el maga/mana negociante (subject) con el tierra (object).
 * Ay hindê comprá (verb) tierra (object) el maga/mana negociante (subject).
 * (Eng: The businessmen will not buy land. Span: Los hombres de negocio no comprarán terreno)
 * Nunca ay/Ay nunca comprá (verb) el maga/mana negociante (subject) con el tierra (object).
 * Nunca ay/Ay nunca comprá (verb) tierra (object) el maga/mana negociante (subject).
 * (Eng: The businessmen will never buy land. Span: Los hombres de negocio nunca comprarán terreno)

The negator hindê can appear before the subject in a subject–verb–object structure to negate the subject rather than the predicate in the present, past, and future tenses:

Present Tense

 * Hindê el maga/mana negociante (subject) ta comprá (verb) con el tierra (object) sino el maga/mana empleados.
 * (Eng: It is not the businessmen who are buying land but the employees. Span: No es el hombre de negocio que están comprando terreno sino los empleados)

Past Tense

 * Hindê el maga/mana negociante (subject) ya comprá (verb) con el tierra (object) sino el maga/mana empleados.
 * (Eng: It was not the businessmen who bought the land but the employees. Span: No fue el hombre de negocio que compró el terreno sino los empleados)

Future Tense

 * Hindê el maga/mana negociante (subject) ay comprá (verb) con el tierra (object) sino el maga/mana empleados.
 * Ay hindê comprá (verb) el maga/mana negociante(s) (subject) con el tierra (object) sino el maga/mana empleados.
 * (Eng: It will not be the businessmen who will buy land but the employees. Span: No sería el hombre de negocio que comprará el terreno sino los empleados)

The negator nunca can appear before the subject in a subject–verb–object structure to strongly negate (or denote impossibility) the subject rather than the predicate in the future tense:

Future Tense

 * Nunca el maga/mana negociante (subject) ay comprá (verb) con el tierra (object) sino el maga/mana empleados.
 * Nunca ay comprá (verb) el mana/maga negociante (subject) con el tierra (object) sino el maga/mana empleados.
 * (Eng: It will never be the businessmen who will buy land but the employees. Span: Nunca sería el hombre de negocio que comprará el terreno sino los empleados)

The negator no hay and nunca can also appear before the subject to negate the predicate in a subject–verb–object structure in the past and future tenses respectively. Using nunca before the subject to negate the predicate in a subject–verb–object structure denotes strong negation or impossibility for the subject to perform the action in the future:

Past Tense

 * No hay el maga/mana negociante (subject) comprá (verb) con el tierra (object).
 * (Eng: The businessmen did not buy land. Span: el hombre de negocio no compró terreno)

Future Tense

 * Nunca el maga/mana negociante (subject) ay comprá (verb) con el tierra (object).
 * (Eng: The businessmen will never buy land. Span: el hombre de negocio nunca comprará terreno)

Nouns and articles
The Chavacano definite article el precedes a singular noun or a plural marker (for a plural noun). The indefinite article un stays constant for gender as 'una' has almost completely disappeared in Chavacano, except for some phrases like "una vez". It also stays constant for number as for singular nouns. In Chavacano, it is quite common for el and un to appear together before a singular noun, the former to denote certainty and the latter to denote number:

 * el cajón (’the box’) – el maga/mana cajón(es) (’the boxes’)
 * un soltero (’a bachelor’) – un soltera (’a spinster’)
 * el un soltero (’the bachelor’) – el un soltera (’the spinster’)

Nouns in Chavacano are not always preceded by articles. Without an article, a noun is a generic reference:

 * Hindê yo ta llorá lagrimas sino sangre.
 * (’I do not cry tears but blood’.)
 * Ta cargá yo palo.
 * (’I am carrying wood’).

Proper names of persons are preceded by the definite article si or the phrase un tal functioning as an indefinite article would:

 * Un bonita candidata si Maria..
 * (’Maria is a beautiful candidate’.)
 * un tal Juancho
 * (’a certain Juancho’)

Singular nouns
Unlike in Spanish, Chavacano nouns derived from Spanish do not follow gender rules in general. In Zamboangueño, the article 'el' basically precedes every singular noun. However, this rule is not rigid (especially in Zamboangueño) because the formal vocabulary mode wherein Spanish words predominate almost always is the preferred mode especially in writing. The Spanish article 'la' for feminine singular nouns does exist in Chavacano, though it occurs rarely and mostly in the formal medium of writing, such as poems and lyrics. When accompanying a Spanish feminine noun, the 'la' as the article is more tolerated than acceptable. Among the few exceptions where the 'la' occurs is as a formal prefix when addressing the Blessed Virgin Mary, perhaps more as an emphasis of her importance in Christian devotion. But the real article is still the 'el', which makes this use of a "double article" quite unique. Thus it is common to hear the Blessed Virgin addressed in Chavacano as 'el La Virgen Maria' (the "L" of the 'la' capitalized to signify its permanent position within the noun compound). In general, though, when in doubt, the article 'el' is always safe to use. Compare:

And just like Spanish, Chavacano nouns can have gender but only when referring to persons. However, they are always masculine in the sense (Spanish context) that they are generally preceded by the article 'el'. Places and things are almost always masculine. The -o is dropped in masculine nouns and -a is added to make the noun feminine:

Not all nouns referring to persons can become feminine nouns. In Chavacano, some names of persons are masculine (because of the preceding article 'el' in Spanish context) but do not end in -o.

 * Examples: el alcalde, el capitan, el negociante, el ayudante, el chufer

All names of animals are always masculine—in Spanish context—preceded by the article 'el'.

 * Examples: el gato (gata is uncommon), el puerco (puerca is uncommon), el perro (perra is uncommon)

Names of places and things can be either masculine or feminine, but they are considered masculine in the Spanish context because the article 'el' always precedes the noun:

 * el cocina, el pantalón, el comida, el camino, el trapo, el ventana, el mar

Plural nouns
In Chavacano, plural nouns (whether masculine or feminine in Spanish context) are preceded by the retained singular masculine Spanish article 'el'. The Spanish articles 'los' and 'las' have almost disappeared. They have been replaced by the modifier (a plural marker) 'maga/mana' which precedes the singular form of the noun. Maga comes from the native Hiligaynon 'maga' or the Tagalog 'mga'. The formation of the Chavacano plural form of the noun (el + maga/mana + singular noun form) applies whether in common, familiar or formal mode. It may be thought of as roughly equivalent to saying in English, "the many (noun)" instead of "the (noun)s", and in fact "the many (noun)s" is used more in Philippine English than elsewhere.

There are some Chavacano speakers (especially older Caviteño or Zamboangueño speakers) who would tend to say 'mana' for 'maga'. 'Mana' is accepted and quite common, especially among older speakers, but when in doubt, the modifier 'maga' to pluralize nouns is safer to use.

Again, this rule is not rigid (especially in the Zamboangueño formal mode). The articles 'los' or 'las' do exist sometimes before nouns that are pluralized in the Spanish manner, and their use is quite accepted:

 * los caballeros, los dias, las noches, los chavacanos, los santos, las mañanas, las almujadas, las mesas, las plumas, las cosas

When in doubt, it is always safe to use 'el' and 'maga or mana' to pluralize singular nouns:

 * el maga/mana caballero(s), el maga/mana día(s), el maga/mana noche(s), el maga/mana chavacano(s), el maga/mana santo(s), el maga/mana día(s) que viene (this is a phrase; 'el maga/mana mañana' is uncommon), el maga/mana almujada(s), el maga/mana mesa(s), el maga/mana pluma(s)

In Chavacano, it is common for some nouns to become doubled when pluralized (called Reduplication, a characteristic of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages):

 * el maga cosa-cosa (el maga cosa/s is common), el maga casa casa (el maga casa is common), el maga gente gente (el maga gente is common), el maga juego juego (el maga juego is common)

But note that in some cases, this "reduplication" signifies a difference in meaning. For example, 'el maga bata' means 'the children' but 'el maga bata-bata' means one's followers or subordinates, as is a gang or mob.

In general, the suffixes -s, -as, -os to pluralize nouns in Spanish have also almost disappeared in Chavacano. However, the formation of plural nouns with suffixes ending in -s, -as, and -os are accepted. Basically, the singular form of the noun is retained, and it becomes plural because of the preceding modifier/plural marker 'maga' or 'mana':

 * el maga/mana caballeros (accepted)
 * el maga/mana caballero (correct)
 * el maga/mana días (accepted)
 * el maga/mana día (correct)

Adding the suffix -es to some nouns is quite common and accepted. Nouns ending in -cion can also be pluralized by adding the suffix -es:

 * el maga meses, el maga mujeres, el maga mayores, el maga tentaciones, el maga contestaciones, el maga naciones, el maga organizaciones

However, it is safer to use the general rule (when in doubt) of retaining the singular form of the noun preceded by the modifier/plural marker 'maga' or 'mana':

 * el maga mes, el maga mujer, el maga mayor, el maga tentación, el maga contestación, el maga nación, el maga organización

Pronouns
Chavacano pronouns are based on Spanish and native sources; many of the pronouns are not used in either but may be derived in part.

In contrast to the other varieties of Chavacano, the variety spoken in Zamboanga uses more pronouns derived from a native Philippine language (I.e. Hiligaynon) in addition to Spanish. In Zamboangueño, there are three different levels of usage for certain pronouns depending on the level of familiarity between the speaker and the addressee, the status of both in family and society, or the mood of the speaker and addressee at the particular moment: common, familiar, and formal. The common forms are, particularly in the second and third person plural, derived from Cebuano while most familiar and formal forms are from Spanish. The common forms are used to address a person below or of equal social or family status or to someone is who is acquainted. The common forms are used to regard no formality or courtesy in conversation. Its use can also mean rudeness, impoliteness or offensiveness. The familiar forms are used to address someone of equal social or family status. It indicates courteousness, and is commonly used in public conversations, the broadcast media, and in education. The formal forms are used to address someone older and/or higher in social or family status. It is the form used in writing.

Additionally, Zamboangueño is the only variety of Chavacano which distinguishes between the inclusive we (kita) – including the person spoken to (the addressee) – and the exclusive we (kame) – excluding the person spoken to (the addressee) – in the first person plural except in the formal form where nosotros is used for both.

Personal (nominative/subjective case) pronouns
Below is a table comparing the personal pronouns in three varieties of Chavacano.

Possessive pronouns (Zamboangueño Chavacano, Castellano Abakay)
The usage modes also exist in the possessive pronouns especially in Zamboangueño. Amon, aton, ila and inyo are obviously of Hiligaynon but not Cebuano origins, and when used as pronouns, they are of either the common or familiar mode. The inclusive and exclusive characteristics peculiar to Zamboangueño appear again in the 1st person plural. Below is a table of the possessive pronouns in the Chavacano de Zamboanga:

Verbs
In Zamboangueño, Chavacano verbs are mostly Spanish in origin. In contrast with the other varieties, there is rarely a Zamboangueño verb that is based on or has its origin from other Philippine languages. Hence, verbs contribute much of the Spanish vocabulary in Chavacano de Zamboanga.

Generally, the simple form of the Zamboangueño verb is based upon the infinitive of the Spanish verb, minus the final /r/. For example, continuar, hablar, poner, recibir, and llevar become continuá, hablá, poné, recibí, and llevá with the accent called "acento agudo" on the final syllable.

There are some rare exceptions. Some verbs are not derived from infinitives but from words that are technically Spanish phrases or from other Spanish verbs. For example, dar (give) does not become 'da' but dale (give) (literally in Spanish, to "give it" [verb phrase]). In this case, dale has nothing to do with the Spanish infinitive dar. The Chavacano brinca (to hop) is from Spanish brincar which means the same thing.

Verb tenses – simple tenses
Chavacano of Zamboangueño uses the words ya (from Spanish ya [already]), ta (from Spanish está [is]), and ay plus the simple form of the verb to convey the basic tenses of past, present, and future respectively:

Caviteño uses the words ya, ta, and di plus the simple form of the verb to convey the basic tenses of past, present, and future respectively:

While Bahra uses the words a, ta, and di plus the simple form of the verb to convey the basic tenses of past, present, and future respectively:

Unlike in the Zamboangueño, Caviteño, and Bahra, Castellano Abakay (Davaoeño) doesn't have the ya and ta prefix. The infinitives and their conjugations are somehow retained, and there are some that have simplified conjugations:

Perfect constructions
In Zamboangueño, there are three ways to express that the verb is in the present perfect. First, ya can appear both before and after the main verb to express that in the present perspective, the action has already been completed somewhere in the past with the accent falling on the final ya. Second, ta and ya can appear before and after the verb respectively to express that the action was expected to happen in the past (but did not happen), is still expected to happen in the present, and actually the expectation has been met (the verb occurs in the present). And third, a verb between ta and pa means an action started in the past and still continues in the present:

The past perfect exists in Zamboangueño. The words antes (before) and despues (after) can be used between two sentences in the simple past form to show which verb came first. The words antes (before) and despues (after) can also be used between a sentence in the present perfect using ya + verb + ya and another sentence in the simple past tense:

Zamboangueño Chavacano uses a verb between "hay" and "ya" to denote the future perfect and past perfect respectively:

Zamboangueño Chavacano also uses a verb between "ta" and "ya" to denote the present perfect:

Passive and active voice
To form the Zamboangueño Chavacano active voice, Zamboangueños follow the pattern:

El maga soldao ya mata con el criminal The soldiers killed the criminal.

As illustrated above, active (causative) voice is formed by placing the doer el maga soldao before the verb phrase ya mata and then the object el criminal as indicated by the particle con

Traditionally, Zamboangueño does not have a passive construction of its own.

Archaic Spanish words and false friends
Chabacano has preserved plenty of archaic Spanish phrases and words in its vocabulary that modern Spanish no longer uses; for example:

 * "En denantes" which means 'a while ago' (Spanish: "hace un tiempo"). Take note that "En denantes" is an archaic Spanish phrase. Modern Spanish would express the phrase as "hace poco tiempo" or "hace un tiempo", but Chabacano still retains this archaic Spanish phrase and many other archaic Spanish words. This word is still being used in some areas of southern Spain.

 * "Masquen"/"Masquin" means 'even (if)' or 'although'. In Spanish, "mas que" is a somewhat out of fashion Spanish phrase meaning 'although', nowadays replaced by the Spanish word "aunque" most of the time.

 * In Chavacano, the Spanish language is commonly called "castellano". Chavacano speakers, especially older Zamboangueños, call the language as "castellano" implying the original notion as the language of Castille while "español" is used to mean a Spaniard or a person from Spain.

 * The pronoun "vos" is alive in Chavacano. While "vos" was used in the highest form of respect before the 16th century in classical Spanish and is quite archaic nowadays in modern Spanish (much like the English "thou"), in Chavacano it is used at the common level of usage (lower than tu, which is used at the familiar level) in the same manner of the works of Miguel de Cervantes and in the same manner as in certain Latin American countries such as Argentina (informally and in contrast with usted, which is used formally). Chavacano followed the development of vos in same manner as in Latin America – (the voseo) or, incidentally, as with English "thou" vs. "you".

 * "Ansina" means 'like that' or 'that way'. In modern Spanish, "así" is the evolved form of this archaic word. The word "ansina" can still be heard among the aged in Mexico and is the only way of expressing this meaning in Ladino.

On the other hand, some words from the language spoken in Spain have evolved or have acquired totally different meanings in Chavacano. Hence, for Castillian speakers who would encounter Chavacano speakers, some words familiar to them have become false friends. Some examples of false friends are:

 * "Siguro"/"Seguro" means 'maybe'. In Spanish, "seguro" means 'sure', 'secure', or 'stable', although it could imply probability as well, as in the phrase, "Seguramente vendrá" (Probably he will come).

 * "Siempre" means 'of course'. In Spanish, "siempre" means 'always'.

 * "Firmi" means 'always'. In Spanish, "firme" means 'firm' or 'steady'.

title: Chavacano


text:
Talk:Henge

Untitled
A Henge is a circular or sub-circular prehistoric enclosure unique to the British Isles defined by a raised circular bank, and a circular ditch which normally runs inside the bank. Without incurring nationalistic rage, how is one to define Goseck circle, since it is so clearly outside this definition of a "henge?" I selected "circle" when I wrote that entry, not to get embroiled. Any Florence Chadwicks here to swim La Manche and make a link to Goseck circle? Not me, for one. Wetman 22:10, 6 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I still find it odd that "unique to the British Isles" is part of the archaeological definition of "henge," rather than being a matter of discussing where "henges"— in the most accepted archaeologists' sense— are actually located. A discussion of some specific examples that an educated but neutral observer might naturally take for henges, and why they are not henges in adamsan's unique definition, might help the Wikipedia reader. It appears that if an earthen ring around stones is for defense the structure is not a "henge"; but whether the ring is located inside or outside the ditch is not diagnostic among professionals.Wetman 19:46, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Hi Wetman. Here is the definition of a henge. This is what all archaeologists accept it to be, including myself; try typing henge definition into Google. If you have substantiated examples of a wider geographical distribution of henges then please include them. Regarding your second point, surely our time is better spent describing what a henge is rather than what it isn't, the former seems to me to render the latter unnecessary.  Stone circles exist, henges exist, sometimes they are present at the same site. Nobody has said that an earth ring surrounding a stone circle is for defence, merely that a ditch within a bank would be an illogical defensive configuration which leads archaeologists to discount that interpretation. There are plenty of Neolithic monuments with external ditches, see causewayed enclosure. adamsan  20:18, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I'm afraid the British and Irish have fist dibs on 'henge' Wetman. Earthworks come in many, many different morphologiocal classifications some with names and some with just Type numbers. As I understand it, the important thing about a henge is the internal ditch which is not employed elsewhere as it obviously serves little *functional* purpose as a barrier. Whatever word the Germans call their monuments would be the natural home for Gosek. With great affection --adamsan 08:57, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

There's still no link to any Wikipedia sites beyond the ditch to compare to, or any distinctions given between a British henge and a continental "ring" or "circle." They would illuminate the reader. Without affectation. Wetman 15:15, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Hello Wetman. How are you? I am very well! I suppose an amended enclosure entry would be starting points for that whole prehistoric circle making craze. Henge and stone circle and whatever the Germans call Gosek could all be linked neatly from there along with other worldwide examples. I fear we'd need a polyglot archaeologist to get the terminology right for all these types though. Perhaps we could ask the international Wiki archaeology writers to pitch in? It would also be necessarily vague due to all the regional and chronological differences so we'd have to sure we weren't exposing ourselves to accusations of DicDef-ing.
 * I'm sorry to hear your affectations are missing, I'm sure I saw some on your User page, why don't you check there? Tee hee! adamsan 15:58, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

Some of the finest and best-known henges include Avebury Henge, about 20 miles N. of Stonehenge on, The Ring O'Bookan in Orkney, Thornborough Henge complex in Yorkshire and the Great Circle at Stanton Drew in Wiltshire. It sure sounds as if some British henges are locally called "Ring" or "Great Circle." Wetman 22:23, 12 May 2004 (UT)

 * Paul Bahn's The Penguin Archaeology Guide doesn't say anything about henges being British, and he's the editor of the New Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dougweller (talk • contribs) 5 April 2008

Ring of Bookan vs. Ring of Brodgar
The most famous stone circle in Orkney is the Ring of Brodgar, not the Ring of Bookan (which as of this writing doesn't even have its own page yet). The latter is nothing but a mound - a very interesting mound that was likely a magnificent stone circle, but a mound nonetheless. The Ring of Brodgar on the other hand is largely intact, with 27 of the 60 original stones still in place. It surprises me that anyone could make this error, given the obscurity of Bookan compared to Brodgar. Thorf 06:32, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Very precise definition
I've never seen an archeology term defined with such precision before. The definition seems terribly precise, as though the ancient builders used exacting floor plans. The definition provided comes from a UK government web site, making it look more like a legal term for conservation purposes rather than an archeology term. What happens if a henge is found that is a bit less than 20 metres?

 * I think it's just a term used to classify things for the benefit of both government and archeology. It's not really that precise - Stonehenge, for example, doesn't qualify as a henge under the strictest interpretation! Gymnophoria (talk) 12:33, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Merger Henge monument, Henge enclosure, and Hengiform monument, into Henge
Please see discussion on Articles for deletion/Henge monument as a central place to discuss this proposal, which was triggered by the AfD proposal for Henge monument. Aarghdvaark (talk) 22:58, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

AfD/Henge monument result was to merge all 3 pages into henge. Done - just tidying up to do now. Aarghdvaark (talk) 07:40, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

International aspects
This page only seems to cover the British Isles. Afraid I'm ignorant on the subject, but are henges are particularly British feature, or do they appear elsewhere in Europe and further afield? If so perhaps would be a good idea to flag this page for expansion. Gymnophoria (talk) 12:31, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
 * This is a tricky area and I'm not aware its really been discussed fully on wiki, except on a few scattrered talk pages and edit summaries. The predominant school of thought (as I see it at any rate) is that henge's are a British phenomena. There are a few similar monuments in Europe, but they are mostly of a different design and (assumed) purpose. For example Goloring. One day, when I have time, I'll check it a bit more thoroughly. I don't think its worth an expansion tag though. Even if they do exist outside of Britain, they are definately a British centric monument. Cheers, Ranger Steve (talk) 12:51, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

A source
1 - Jack Sebastian (talk) 08:56, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140519201955/http://orgs.man.ac.uk/research/dunragit/ to http://orgs.man.ac.uk/research/dunragit/
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Henges in Galicia (Spain)
There are confirmed references of the existence of henges in NW of Ibearian Peninsula, in Galicia region. It should be referenced in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nachonion (talk • contribs) 08:46, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Henge


text:
CONFIG.SYS

CONFIG.SYS is the primary configuration file for the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. It is a special ASCII text file that contains user-accessible setup or configuration directives evaluated by the operating system's DOS BIOS (typically residing in IBMBIO.COM or IO.SYS) during boot. CONFIG.SYS was introduced with DOS 2.0.

Usage
The directives in this file configure DOS for use with devices and applications in the system. The CONFIG.SYS directives also set up the memory managers in the system. After processing the CONFIG.SYS file, DOS proceeds to load and execute the command shell specified in the SHELL line of CONFIG.SYS, or COMMAND.COM if there is no such line. The command shell in turn is responsible for processing the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

CONFIG.SYS is composed mostly of name=value directives which look like variable assignments. In fact, these will either define some tunable parameters often resulting in reservation of memory, or load files, mostly device drivers and terminate-and-stay-resident programs (TSRs), into memory.

In DOS, CONFIG.SYS is located in the root directory of the drive from which the system was booted.

The filename is also used by Disk Control Program (DCP), an MS-DOS derivative by the former East-German VEB Robotron.

Some versions of DOS will probe for alternative filenames taking precedence over the default CONFIG.SYS filename if they exist:

While older versions of Concurrent DOS 3.2 to 4.1 did not support CONFIG.SYS files at all, later versions of Concurrent DOS 386 and Concurrent DOS XM, as well as Multiuser DOS, System Manager and REAL/32 will probe for CCONFIG.SYS (with "C" derived from "Concurrent") instead of CONFIG.SYS. Some versions of Multiuser DOS use a filename of CCONFIG.INI instead, whereas REAL/32 is known to look for MCONFIG.SYS. These operating systems support many additional and different configuration settings (like INIT_INSTALL ) not known under MS-DOS/PC DOS, but they are stored in the binary repository named CCONFIG.BIN rather than in CCONFIG.INI. Both files are typically modified through a configuration utility named CONFIG.EXE only.

Under DR DOS 3.31, PalmDOS 1.0, Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, a file named DCONFIG.SYS (with "D" derived from "DR DOS"), if present, will take precedence over CONFIG.SYS. Since DR DOS 6.0 this was used in conjunction with disk compression software, where the original boot drive C: would become drive D: after loading the compression driver (and the "D" in the file name came in handy as well), but it is commonly used to help maintain multiple configuration files in multi-boot scenarios. In addition to this, OpenDOS 7.01 and DR-OpenDOS 7.02 will look for a file named ODCONFIG.SYS,  whereas some issues of DR-DOS 7.02 and higher will instead also look for DRCONFIG.SYS. Further, under DR DOS 6.0 and higher, the  command can be used to change the default file extensions. For example, with  the written Volume Boot Record would look for a renamed and modified IBMBIO.703 system file (instead of the default IBMBIO.COM) and the IBMBIO.703 would look for IBMDOS.703 and [D]CONFIG.703 (instead of IBMDOS.COM and [D]CONFIG.SYS), so that multiple parallel sets of files can coexist in the same root directory and be selected via a boot-loader like LOADER, supplied with Multiuser DOS and DR-DOS 7.02/7.03. The SHELL directive is enhanced to provide means to specify alternative AUTOEXEC.BAT files via /P[:filename.ext] and in this specific scenario, COMMAND.COM will accept file extensions other than " " as well (both features are also supported by 4DOS). Under DR DOS 6.0 and higher, the CONFIG.SYS directive CHAIN=filespec can be used to continue processing in the named file, which does not necessarily need to reside in the root directory of the boot drive. DR-DOS 7.02 and higher optionally support an additional parameter as in CHAIN=filespec,label to jump to a specific :label in the given file. DR-DOS 7.03 and higher support a new  parameter in order to copy the corresponding CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files along with the system files.

FreeDOS implements a similar feature with its FDCONFIG.SYS configuration file. RxDOS 7.24 and higher use RXCONFIG.SYS instead. PTS-DOS uses CONFIG.PTS.

Both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT can be found included in the root folder of Windows 95, and Windows 98 boot drives, as they are based on DOS. Typically, these files are left empty, with no content.

Windows ME does not even parse the CONFIG.SYS file during the Windows boot process, loading environment variables from the Windows Registry instead:
 * HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Environment
 * HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Environment

Under FlexOS, CONFIG.SYS is a binary file defining the resource managers and device drivers loaded.

:;*?!

 * : (DR DOS 5.0 and higher only) : Defines labels in CONFIG.SYS as jump targets for CHAIN, DRSWITCH, GOTO, GOSUB and SWITCH directives.
 * ; (DOS 6.0 and DR DOS 6.0 and higher) : Similar to REM, but can be used also for in-line comments (following other CONFIG.SYS directives). See COMMENT. (Under MS-DOS/PC DOS the inline-comment is not ignored if put in double-quotes.)
 * * (PTS-DOS only) : Used to lead in in-line comments in addition to the ; directive.
 * ? (DR DOS 3.41 and higher, Embedded DOS and FreeDOS only) : Displays a Yes/No query and (since DR DOS 5.0) optional message to ask the user for confirmation to execute the following CONFIG.SYS directives. (FreeDOS does not support optional messages, but optional conditions in conjunction with boot menus defined with MENU and MENUDEFAULT.) (DOS 6.0 and higher supports a similar feature by adding a ? after the corresponding CONFIG.SYS directive, f.e. DEVICE? or DEVICE?= instead of ?DEVICE. This variant is also supported by DR DOS.)
 * ! (FreeDOS only) : Unconditionally execute the following CONFIG.SYS directive.

AC

 * ABORT (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if programs can be aborted on errors.
 * ACCDATE (MS-DOS 7.0 and higher only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher): Configures which drives should store file access date stamps in the reserved area of directory entries in FAT file systems.
 * AT (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on AT-compatible machines only.
 * AUTOCHECK (PTS-DOS only) : Boot manager.
 * AUTOFAIL (OS/2 only) : Configures verbosity of error messages.
 * AUX (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Changes internal default serial device driver (COM1: to COM4:) for AUX: device.
 * AVAILDEV (DOS 2.0-2.1 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only ) : Disables the availability of character devices outside phantom \DEV directory.
 * BASEDEV (OS/2 only) : Loads base device driver into memory.
 * BEEP (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Emits a short beep, even if audible notifications are disabled via SWITCHES=/Q.
 * BOOTNEXT (DRMK only) : Specifies operating system to be booted.
 * BREAK (DOS 2.0 and DR DOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Sets or clears extended checking.
 * BUFFERS (DOS 2.0 and DR DOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Specifies the number of disk buffers to allocate.
 * BUFFERSHIGH (MS-DOS 7.0 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher and FreeDOS only) : Same as BUFFERS, but explicitly loads buffers into HMA or UMB (like HIBUFFERS under DR DOS 6.0 and higher).
 * CACHESIZE (Embedded DOS 6-XL only) : Maximum number of 512-byte cache blocks dynamically allocated from system pool.
 * CACHETTL (Embedded DOS 6-XL only) : Maximum time in ms before unused cache blocks are returned to system pool.
 * CACHEFLUSH (Embedded DOS 6-XL only) : Maximum time in ms before a dirty cache block gets flushed to disk.
 * CALL (OS/2 4.0 and higher only) : Similar to INSTALL under DOS, loads programs in CONFIG.SYS. Similar to RUN under OS/2, but runs in foreground and halts CONFIG.SYS processing until return.
 * CAPSLOCK (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Specifies whether the keyboard status is turned on or off.
 * CDDNAME (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the name of the CD-ROM hardware driver.
 * CDDBUFFERS (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the number of buffers for CD-ROM access.
 * CHAIN (DR DOS 5.0 and higher and Embedded DOS only) : Continues CONFIG.SYS processing in new file and (since DR-DOS 7.02) at optional label.
 * CLOCK (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the type of clock used by the system.
 * CLS (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : Clears screen.
 * CODEPAGE (OS/2 only) : Specifies the OEM codepage(s).
 * CMOSADDR (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the address of the CMOS RAM.
 * COLOR (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies colors for boot menus.
 * COM1 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for COM1: device.
 * COM2 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for COM2: device.
 * COM3 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for COM3: device.
 * COM4 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for COM4: device.
 * COMAREA (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies buffer for DMA.
 * COMMENT (DOS 4.0 and higher and RxDOS, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, under Embedded DOS and under PTS-DOS) : Redefines the lead-in character(s) for CONFIG.SYS inline-comments, or causes the following line to be ignored.
 * COUNTRY (DOS 3.0 and DOS Plus 2.1 with FIDDLOAD and DR DOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Enables and configures international support.
 * CPOS (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : Sets display cursor to specified position for configuration menus.
 * CPSW (MS-DOS 4.00-4.01 only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher ): For codepage switching support.
 * CPU (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies RAM refresh speed.
 * CPU88 (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 8088 CPUs only.
 * CPU88+ (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 8088 and higher CPUs only.
 * CPU86 (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 8086 CPUs only.
 * CPU86+ (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 8086/8088 and higher CPUs only.
 * CPU286 (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 286 CPUs only.
 * CPU286+ (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 286 and higher CPUs only.
 * CPU386 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher and PTS-DOS only): Conditional execution on 386 and higher CPUs only, f.e. CPU386 DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE or CPU386 GOTO label386
 * CPU386+ (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 386 and higher CPUs only.
 * CPU486 (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 486 CPUs only.
 * CPU486+ (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on 486 and higher CPUs only.

DF

 * DDSCS (EDR-DOS 7.01.07 only) : Configures the relocation of the drive descriptor tables.
 * DEBLOCK (DRDOS 6.0 (1993 update) and higher only) : Specifies the memory segment address up to which multi-sector disk data deblocking is allowed.
 * DEBUG (DRDOS 3.31 - 6.0 and 7.02 and higher only ) : Enables internal debugger support.
 * DEFAULT (PTS-DOS only) : Boot manager.
 * DEVICE (DOS 2.0 and DOS Plus 2.1 with FIDDLOAD and DRDOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Loads a device driver into memory.
 * DEVICEHIGH (DOS 5.0 and DRDOS 6.0 and higher; OS/2 ) : Loads a device driver into upper memory. (Same as HIDEVICE in DRDOS 5.0.)
 * DEVINFO (OS/2 only) : Configures country and codepage information for KBD, SCR, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3 devices.
 * DISKCACHE (OS/2 only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher) : Configures cache memory sizes.
 * DISKETTE (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies floppy disk compatibility mode.
 * DISPLAY (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies display font.
 * DOS (DOS 5.0 and DRDOS 6.0 and higher; OS/2 ) : Specifies whether to load DOS into the high memory area and/or use upper memory. (Similar to HIDOS=ON under DRDOS 5.0.)
 * DOSDATA (PC DOS 7.0 and higher, FreeDOS, EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : Specifies whether to load DOS tables (BUFFERS, FCBS, FILES, LASTDRIVE, STACKS) into upper memory.
 * DOSDIR (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies alternative path to search for DOS files.
 * DPBS (DRMK only)
 * DPATH (OS/2 3.0 and higher only) : Specifies the search path for data files.
 * DRIVATTR (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies physical parameters of disk drives.
 * DRIVPARM (DOS 3.2 and higher ) : Define parameters for unrecognized drives.
 * DRSWITCH (DRDOS 7.02 and higher only) : See SWITCH.
 * DUMPPROCESS (OS/2 3.0 and higher only) : Enables and specifies drive for  error logs.
 * ECHO (DRDOS 5.0 and higher, and PTS-DOS and FreeDOS only) : Displays a message on screen.
 * EECHO (FreeDOS only) : Displays a message including ANSI Escape sequences.
 * ERREXE (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if additional checks should be carried out when starting programs.
 * ERROR (DRDOS 6.0 and higher only) : Specifies an error / return code to be assumed in the following.
 * EXECA20OFF (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the state of the A20 gate when starting a program.
 * EXIT (DRDOS 6.0 and higher only) : Finishes CONFIG.SYS processing before the end of the file has been reached (except for SWITCHES and SHELL directive processing under some conditions).
 * FASTOPEN (DRDOS 3.31 and higher and PTS-DOS only): Specified the size of the hash table for fast file open operations. Works considerably differently from the external MS-DOS/PC DOS FASTOPEN driver.
 * FCBS (DOS 3.0 and DRDOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Specifies the number of cached FCBs that can be opened at once. (Under DR-DOS, FCBS and FILES dynamically share the same internal buffer.)
 * FCBSHIGH (MS-DOS 7.0 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only ) : Same as FCBS, but explicitly loads FCBs into upper memory.
 * FILENAME (PTS-DOS only) : Boot manager.
 * FILES (DOS 2.0 and DRDOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Specifies the number of files that can be opened at once.
 * FILESHIGH (MS-DOS 7.0 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher and FreeDOS only) : Same as FILES, but explicitly loads file handles into upper memory.
 * FORCE (PTS-DOS only) : Include execution of specified CONFIG.SYS subsections. See IGNORE.

GI

 * GETKEY (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : Waits for key (or timeout) and sets error level to its ASCII code (or 1024 on timeout).
 * GOTO (DR DOS 5.0 and higher only) : Continues CONFIG.SYS processing at specified label.
 * GOSUB (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : Continues nested CONFIG.SYS processing at specified label, with RETURN returning to old location.
 * HIBUFFERS (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : See BUFFERSHIGH or DOS=HIGH,UMB or DOSDATA.
 * HIDEVICE (DR DOS 5.0 and higher only) : See DEVICEHIGH.
 * HIDOS (DR DOS 5.0 and higher only) : See DOS=HIGH,UMB.
 * HIFCBS (DR DOS 7.02 and higher, EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : See FCBSHIGH or DOSDATA.
 * HIFILES (DR DOS 7.02 and higher, EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : See FILESHIGH or DOSDATA.
 * HIINSTALL (DR DOS 5.0 and higher only) : See INSTALLHIGH.
 * HIINSTALLLAST (EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : Installs a TSR program into memory, like HIINSTALL, but installs after the DOS data segment relocation. Compare also: INSTCDEX.
 * HILASTDRIVE (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : See LASTDRIVEHIGH or DOS=UMB or DOSDATA.
 * HISHELL (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : See SHELLHIGH.
 * HISTACKS (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : See STACKSHIGH or DOSDATA.
 * HISTORY (DR DOS 3.41 and higher only) : Enables and configures console and command line history buffer and extended pattern search functionality.
 * HMAREA (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the address of the HMA segment.
 * IDLEHALT (FreeDOS only) : Configures HLT energy saving.
 * IDTCHK (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if the system should check for boot sector viruses.
 * IFS (MS-DOS 4.00-4.01 only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher; OS/2 ) : Loads installable file systems.
 * IGNORE (PTS-DOS only) : Exclude execution of specified CONFIG.SYS subsections. See FORCE.
 * IOPL (OS/2 only) : Specifies programs (which would normally run at the CPU's IOPL ring 3) which should be allowed to run at ring 2 in order to directly access the hardware for I/O.
 * INCLUDE (DOS 6.0 and higher, not DR-DOS, not FreeDOS) : Include directives from another menu block. (Can be emulated using GOSUB and RETURN under DR-DOS.)
 * INSERT (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Specifies whether the keyboard mode status is turned on or off.
 * INSTALL (DOS 4.0 and DR DOS 3.41 and higher ) : Installs a TSR program into memory.
 * INSTALLHIGH (DOS 6.0 and DR DOS 6.0 and higher ) : Installs a TSR program into upper memory. (Same as HIINSTALL in DR DOS 5.0.)
 * INSTALLLAST (EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : Installs a TSR program into memory, like INSTALL, but installs after the DOS data segment relocation. Compare also: INSTCDEX.
 * IRQPRIORITY (Embedded DOS 6-XL only) : Rotates PIC controller interrupt priorities so that specified number gets the highest priority

KM

 * KEYBOARD (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the keyboard layout.
 * KEYBUF (FreeDOS only) : Specifies the address of the relocated keyboard buffer.
 * LASTDRIVE (DOS 3.0 and DOS Plus 2.1 with FIDDLOAD and DR DOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Specifies the maximum of drives that can be accessed.
 * LASTDRIVEHIGH (MS-DOS 7.0 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, and FreeDOS only) : Same as LASTDRIVE, but explicitly loads the Current Directory Structure (CDS) into upper memory.
 * LIBPATH (OS/2 only) : Specifies a list of search paths for DLLs.
 * LOADFIX (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies how old programs should be handled.
 * LOCKS (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies number of file locks.
 * LOGO (MS-DOS 7.0 and higher and PTS-DOS only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher) : Configures boot logo support under MS-DOS. Allows to display startup message in conjunction with PTS-DOS boot manager.
 * LPT1 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for LPT1: device.
 * LPT2 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for LPT2: device.
 * LPT3 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for LPT3: device.
 * LPT4 (some versions of DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only ) : Enables, defines count and logical order and configures I/O address and timeout for LPT4: device.
 * MAXWAIT (OS/2 only) : Specifies time before a waiting process gets a higher priority.
 * MEMMAN (OS/2 only) : Configures memory allocation strategy
 * MEMORY (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the default DOS memory allocation strategy.
 * MENU (FreeDOS only) : Defines menu options.
 * MENUCOLOR (DOS 6.0 and higher, not DR DOS, not FreeDOS) : Specifies menu colors. (Can be emulated using ECHO under DR-DOS.)
 * MENUDEFAULT (DOS 6.0 and higher and FreeDOS, not DR DOS) : Specifies the default menu block. (Can be emulated using TIMEOUT and SWITCH under DR-DOS.)
 * MENUITEM (DOS 6.0 and higher, not DR DOS, not FreeDOS) : Specifies a menu block. (Can be emulated using ECHO and SWITCH under DR-DOS.)
 * MULTITRACK (DOS 4.0 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher; ignored under PTS-DOS) : Specifies whether multitrack disk operations are used or not.
 * NEWFILE (Datalight ROM-DOS only) : Continues CONFIG.SYS processing in new file (similar to DR-DOS CHAIN) and optionally after loading a specific device driver and setting %NEWFILE% environment variable.

NQ

 * NOCHAR (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Specifies the default No character in Yes/No/Resume questions.   )
 * NUMLOCK (DOS 6.0 and Novell DOS 7 and higher) : Specifies whether the keyboard Num Lock status is turned on or off.
 * ONERROR (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : Conditional execution depending on last return code/error status only, f.e. ONERROR > 0 GOTO failload or ONERROR > 10 ONERROR <> 17 ONERROR <= 30 ECHO Error 11-16 or 18-30 occurred.
 * PAUSE (PTS-DOS only) : Similar to ECHO and GETKEY under DR-DOS, displays a text and waits for a key press.
 * PAUSEONERROR (OS/2 only) : Specifies if user must acknowledge errors in CONFIG.SYS.
 * PRINTMONBUFSIZE (OS/2 only) : Configures buffer size for LPT1, LPT2, LPT3.
 * PC (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on PC-compatible machines only.
 * PRIORITY (OS/2 only) : Configures priority scheduler.
 * PRIORITY_DISK_IO (OS/2 only) : Configures priority of programs using disk I/O.
 * PRN (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only): Changes internal default printer device driver (LPT1 to LPT3, or even LPT4) for PRN device.
 * PROTECTONLY (OS/2 only) : Specifies if DOS programs can be run or not.
 * PROTSHELL (OS/2 only) : Loads user interface.
 * PS1 (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on PS/1-compatible machines only.
 * PS2 (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on PS/2-compatible machines only.
 * QUIET (PTS-DOS and DRMK only) : Mutes display output send to STDOUT.

RT

 * REIPL (OS/2 3.0 and higher only) : Specifies if system should reboot automatically on errors.
 * REM (DOS 4.0 and DR DOS 3.31 and higher; ignored under PTS-DOS) : Allows comments in CONFIG.SYS.
 * RESERVEDRIVELETTER (OS/2 3 FixPack 24 and higher only) : Specifies a drive letter not to be used up for local block device drivers.
 * RESUMECHAR (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only): Specifies the default Resume character in Yes/No/Resume queries.  )
 * RETURN (DRDOS 6.0 and higher only) : Returns nested CONFIG.SYS processing at previous location of GOSUB or SWITCH directive. An optional return code can be given, otherwise 0 is assumed.
 * RMSIZE (OS/2 only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher) : Defines the real mode memory size.
 * RUN (OS/2 only) : Similar to CALL, loads programs in CONFIG.SYS. Similar to INSTALL under DOS and CALL under OS/2, but loads programs in background concurrently.
 * SAVENAME (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies, if the first character of deleted files should be stored in the reserved area of directory entries in the FAT file system.
 * SCREEN (FreeDOS and PTS-DOS only) : Similar to VIDEOMODE under PTS-DOS, specifies the video mode to be used under FreeDOS. Under PTS-DOS, SCREEN does not specify the video mode but screen access methods.
 * SCROLLOCK (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Specifies whether the keyboard Scroll Lock status is turned on or off. )
 * SET (DOS 6.0 and DRDOS 6.0 and higher; OS/2 ) : Sets environment variables.
 * SHELL (DOS 2.0 and DRDOS 3.31 and higher; OS/2 ) : Loads the command interpreter shell.
 * SHELLHIGH (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher and PTS-DOS and FreeDOS only) : Same as SHELL, but supports an additional SIZE parameter to define the size of the pre-allocation for COMMAND.COM to relocate its resident portion into the HMA (with ). Can be useful to avoid HMA fragmentation in conjunction with third-party shells which cannot load into the HMA. SHELLHIGH under PTS-DOS tries to load the shell into UMBs instead.)
 * SHIFTSTATE (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the state of the keyboard modifiers like Shift Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock or Insert mode.
 * SHUTDOWN (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if files should be closed on.
 * SOFTREBOOT (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if POST should be skipped on reboots.
 * STACK (ignored under DRDOS 3.31-5.0 and 7.02 and higher only) : Compatibility dummy - DR DOS 3.31 - 6.0 were mostly reentrant and had a different stacks layout.
 * STACKS (DOS 3.2 and Novell DOS 7 and higher, ignored under DR DOS 6.0 and PTS-DOS) : Specifies the number of stacks for hardware interrupts.
 * STACKSIZE (Embedded DOS 6-XL only) : Default stack size allocated for new threads.
 * STACKSHIGH (MS-DOS 7.0 and DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, and FreeDOS only) : Same as STACKS, but explicitly loads buffers into upper memory.
 * STORAGE (PTS-DOS only) : Boot manager.
 * STRING (MS-DOS 3.0 only, ignored under DR-DOS 7.02 and higher) : Internal use.
 * STUBA20 (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies how XMS A20 gate control should work.
 * SUBMENU (DOS 6.0 and higher, not DRDOS, not FreeDOS) : Specifies a submenu block. (Can be emulated using CLS, ECHO and SWITCH under DR-DOS.)
 * SUPPRESSPOPUPS (OS/2 3.0 and higher only) : Specifies a drive where to log error information instead of displaying a textmode popup screen.
 * SWAPPATH (OS/2 only) : Specifies swap file path.
 * SWITCH (DR DOS 6.0 and higher only) : Conditionally continues nested CONFIG.SYS processing at one of the specified labels depending on keys pressed, with RETURN returning to old location.
 * SWITCHAR (DOS 2.0-2.1, DOS Plus 2.1 with FIDDLOAD, DR-DOS 7.02 and higher, PTS-DOS, FreeDOS and RxDOS only): Defines the default SwitChar used by the system (either '/' or '-').
 * SWITCHES (DOS 4.0 and Novell DOS 7 and higher; ignored under PTS-DOS) : Specifies special options.
 * SXFAKEHWFPU (OS/2 Warp 4 FixPak 1 (and higher) only) : Specifies if a fix for a FPU rounding bug should be activated or not.
 * SYSBOOT (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies file name of alternative DOS operating systems to boot.
 * SYSGEN (PTS-DOS only) : Configures the location of the various DOS parts in memory.
 * SYSLOAD (PTS-DOS only) : Load system from alternative disk area.
 * SYSTEMPOOL (Embedded DOS 6-XL only) : Size of system memory pool from which the system dynamically allocates for various purposes
 * SYSTOUMB (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if DOS data and code should be loaded into UMBs.
 * THREADS (OS/2 only) : Specifies number of concurrent threads.
 * TIMEOUT (DRDOS 6.0 and higher and PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the timeouts in CONFIG.SYS single-stepping and with SWITCH, GETKEY and ?, and the default answers for Yes/No queries and SWITCH selections.  PTS-DOS only supports the timeout value.
 * TIMESLICE (OS/2 only) : Configures minimum and maximum time slices for scheduler.
 * TMPEXT (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the file extension for temporary files.
 * TRACE (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher and PTS-DOS only; OS/2 ) : Globally or locally enables or disables CONFIG.SYS (and AUTOEXEC.BAT) single-stepping execution. The functionality under OS/2 differs significantly from that under DOS.
 * TRACEBUF (OS/2 only) : Specifies size of TRACE log buffer.
 * TRAPDUMP (OS/2 3.0 and higher only) : Logs detailed error information.

UZ

 * UMB (Embedded DOS only) : Configures DOS management to use a specific segment as UMB memory.
 * UMBSRV (PTS-DOS only) : Configures the UMB server used.
 * USERAM (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies the address ranges used as UMB RAM.
 * VERIFY (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher and Embedded DOS only) : Enables or disables disk write verification.
 * VERSION (FreeDOS, Embedded DOS, and EDR-DOS 7.01.07 only) : Specifies the DOS version (and optionally the true DOS version) to be reported to programs.
 * VGASCREEN (PTS-DOS only) : Configures VGA display status.
 * VIDEOMODE (PTS-DOS only) : Similar to SCREEN under FreeDOS, specifies current video mode.
 * VIRTDMA (PTS-DOS only) : Specifies if virtual DMA can be used.
 * VME (OS/2 only) : Specifies if the processor's Virtual Mode Extensions (VME) should be deactivated or not.
 * VXD (PTS-DOS only) : Configures VxD driver for Windows.
 * WINDOWS (PTS-DOS only) : Configures system support for Windows.
 * XBDA (EDR-DOS 7.01.07 and DRMK only) : Configures the relocation of the Extended BIOS data area (XBDA)
 * XT (PTS-DOS only) : Conditional execution on XT-compatible machines only.
 * YEAR2000 (DR-DOS 7.02 and higher only) : Configures the built-in Year 2000 support.
 * YESCHAR (PalmDOS 1.0, DR DOS 6.0 updates and Novell DOS 7 and higher only) : Specifies the default Yes character in Yes/No/Resume queries.
 * ZOMBIEDRV (PTS-DOS only) : Configures deletion tracking.

Issues
The system can still boot if this file is missing or corrupted. However, this file, along with AUTOEXEC.BAT, is essential for the complete bootup process to occur with the DOS operating system. These files contain information that is used to customize the operating system for personal use. They also contain the requirements of different software application packages. A DOS system would require troubleshooting if either of these files became damaged or corrupted.

If CONFIG.SYS does not contain a SHELL directive (or the file is corrupt or missing), DOS typically searches for COMMAND.COM in the root directory of the boot drive. If this is not found, versions of DOS before 6.0 will not start up. MS-DOS 6.0/PC DOS 6.1 and Novell DOS 7 and higher will instead display a prompt to enter the path and filename of a command processor. This recovery prompt is also displayed when the primary command processor is aborted due to faults or if it is exited deliberately. (In the case of COMMAND.COM, the internal  command is disabled only when the shell was started with  .) This also provides limited means to replace the shell at runtime without having to reboot the system. Since the MS-DOS 7.0 and higher COMMAND.COM executable is incompatible with DR-DOS, but typically resides in the root of drive C: in dual-boot scenarios with DR-DOS, DR-DOS 7.02 and higher no longer allow to bypass SHELL directives in (+)// "skip"/"trace"/"step" modes. (Some later issues added (+) to reinvoke the former "skip" behaviour in order to allow recovery from problems with invalid SHELL arguments as well. ) Also, if no SHELL directive could be found when skipping CONFIG.SYS processing via (+) (and also with (+)/, when the default file extension has been changed with  ), the user is prompted to enter a valid shell file name before trying to load COMMAND.COM from the root. Pressing without specifying a file will assume the former default.

Depending on the version, the size of the CONFIG.SYS file is limited to a few kilobytes under MS-DOS/PC DOS (up to 64 KB in most recent versions), whereas the file's size is unlimited under DR-DOS. This is because the former operating systems (since DOS 3.0 ) will compile the file into some tokenized in-memory representation before they sort and regroup the directives to be processed in a specific order (with device drivers always being loaded before TSRs), whereas DR-DOS interprets the file and executes most directives line-by-line, thereby giving full control over the load order of drivers and TSRs via DEVICE and INSTALL (for example to solve load order conflicts or to load a program debugger before a device driver to be debugged) and allowing to adapt the user interaction and change the flow through the file based on conditions like processor types installed, any type of keys pressed, load or input errors occurring, or return codes given by loaded software. This becomes particularly useful since INSTALL can also be used to run non-resident software under DR-DOS, so that temporary external programs can be integrated into the CONFIG.SYS control flow.

In MS-DOS/PC DOS 2.0 through 4.01, the length of the SHELL line was limited to 31 characters, whereas up to 128 characters are possible in later versions. DR-DOS even accepts up to 255 characters. CONFIG.SYS directives do not accept long filenames.

Dual booting DOS and Windows 9x
When installing Windows 95 over a preexisting DOS/Windows install, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are renamed to CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS. This is intended to ease dual booting between Windows 9x and DOS. When booting into DOS, they are temporarily renamed CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Backups of the Windows 95 versions are made as CONFIG.W40 and AUTOEXEC.W40 files.

When Caldera DR-DOS 7.02/7.03 is installed on a system already containing Windows 95, Windows' CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT retain those names. DR-DOS' startup files are installed as DCONFIG.SYS (a name already used in earlier versions of DR DOS) and AUTODOS7.BAT.

OS/2 / Windows NT
OS/2 uses the CONFIG.SYS file extensively for setting up its configuration, drivers and environment before the graphical part of the system loads.

In the OS/2 subsystem of Windows NT, what appeared as CONFIG.SYS to OS/2 programs was actually stored in the registry.

There are many undocumented or poorly documented CONFIG.SYS directives used by OS/2.

CONFIG.SYS continues to be used by the OS/2 derivatives eComStation and ArcaOS.

title: CONFIG.SYS