PHILIPPINE HYBRID HOKKIEN AS A POSTCOLONIAL MIXED LANGUAGE: EVIDENCE FROM NOMINAL DERIVATIONAL AFFIXATION MIXING

Abstract

This thesis investigates nominal derivational affixation mixing in Philippine Hybrid Hokkien (PHH), a Hokkien-based (Southern Min) mixed code of the (Manila) Chinese Filipino community that has features of Tagalog and English. Using an experimental approach, it shows the affixation mixing acceptability judgments of 63 Chinese Filipinos and subjects them statistical analyses using linear mixed-effects regression modeling. Findings demonstrate that, in the context of mixing, Chinese Filipinos have high judgments for one or two-syllable Tagalog prefixes. Results also show that age is a significant predictor of such mixing. Complemented by actual spontaneous data involving affix mixing, the consistency of these judgments across individual participants and social groups supports the notion that PHH is not merely a case of extensive code-switching, but could be, in fact, a mixed language. Overall, the findings demonstrate widespread acceptance and conventionalization among all but the oldest members of the community, suggesting that PHH could have emerged around the 1950s.