Chabacano Animals

The Chabacano animals are more or less the same as Spanish animals. Differences are limited mostly to pronounciaton. One peculiarity though that stands out is that there are some Chabacano animal names that in Spanish refers to the meat or the food (cooked) that comes from that animal. A good example is the Chabacano pescao. In Chabacano, pescao is used both for fish as a food and as an animal. Meanwhile in Spanish, pescao (pescado) is used exclusively for fish as in the food. Pez is used to refer to fishes that are alive (which are not intended for cooking).

Another example of this Chabacano anomaly is the word cabrito. In Spanish cabrito means a small goat (a kid) and goat as a food. In Chabacano though, cabrito is used to refer to goats as animals (small or adult) and food. Spanish uses the word cabra to refer to adult goats.

Chabacano animals that differ in pronounciation to their Spanish counterparts are the following:

Chabacano	Spanish
Tiboron	Tiburón
Baliena	Ballena
Baca	Vaca
Cabalio	Caballo
Colebra	Culebra
Cucuracha	Cucaracha
Pero	Perro

*The Chabacano words here were spelled as they are pronounced using Spanish spelling*

Other differences include the word that we use for rat and mouse. In Spanish rat is rata and mouse is raton. In Chabacano though raton both means rat and mouse (I really wouldn't even know the difference between a rat and a mouse). Another is the Chabacano langostas meaning grasshopper. In Spanish, it means locusts. Note that this word is always plural in Chabacano. Moscas is another always-plural Chabacano word for fly, similar to Spanish in meaning except for the always-plural rule. Lastly, there are two words for bird in Spanish, ave and pájaro. In Chabacano though, we only use pajaro.

Chabacano animals that are exactly the same as their Spanish counterparts are the following:

Chabacano	Spanish
Gusano	Gusano
Puerco	Puerco
Aguila	Aguila
Tigre	Tigre

Other Chabacano animals were derived from other local dialects:

English	Chabacano
Ant	Subay
Termite	Anay