As of today, the history of the Spanish language spoken in the Philippines remains an unfinished task, despite its evident importance for a better understanding of the historical dialectology of this language. Building upon this assessment, the present work aims to contribute with new data about 19th-century Filipino vocabulary through the analysis of indigenous elements found in the glossary of the Filipino Vademecum or Spanish-Tagalog Family Conversation Manual (Manila: C. Miralles, 1874) by V. M. Abella. This work is particularly intriguing as it compiles terms commonly used in Manila during the latter part of the 1800s. Therefore, after extracting all loans originating from Asian and American sources in the work, they will be studied in relation to the sociohistorical circumstances that shape the lexicon of this variety. Additionally, a specific analysis will be conducted regarding the significance of these elements – and, by extension, language contact – in terms of dialectalizing the Spanish language in the Philippines and endowing it with the strong identity that it currently exhibits at this linguistic level.