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The Little Prince By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Is Now Available In Chabacano!

While Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) written by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry in 1943 now has over 300 translations in different languages worldwide and is now considered the world’s most translated book (not counting religious works), there have been surprisingly only two translations of his book in the Philippines (Filipino and Bicol). El Diutay Principe is only the third edition featuring a Philippine language. The Little Prince is a classic French novella about a pilot who gets stranded in the desert after a plane crash and encounters a little fellow who asks him to draw a sheep for him. Through the course of their meeting, the pilot rediscovers the true meaning of life and what people should value the most. When I came across the book in 2013, I found that I could relate very well to the negative image given to “growing up” in the book. When the idea to translate the book into my mother tongue was presented to me, I didn’t think twice. I thought, ‘a lot of people my

Origins of the Chabacano Vene and Uste

I was watching an Argentine film when I heard this woman telling his husband, “veni, veni!” She was obviously calling on her husband to come to her.

Now, in my attempt to learn Spanish, I have learned that the imperative form of venir is ven (informal) and venga (formal), so you could probably imagine how perplexed I was to hear this form of venir. My shock was replaced by amusement when I realized that in Chabacano, we say vene to ask someone to come to us. Here are some sample Chabacano sentences using vene.

Chabacano: Vene aqui!
Standard Spanish: Ven/ Venga aca!
English: Come here!

According to my research, veni is the informal imperative form of venir in some countries like Argentina, and Guatemala (where vos is used).

Normally, Chabacano verbs are formed out of Spanish infinitives (i.e. habla from hablar, vivi from vivir, and come from comer), but vene is an exception to this rule because we never say veni in Chabacano.

Another thing that I heard when I was watching this film is the word uste. This word also exists in Chabacano and is used exactly the same way as it is used in Spanish. According to some forums online, uste is a colloquial form of usted and is used in some indigenous communities, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.

Sadly though, uste is fast disappearing from the Chabacano de Zamboanga. Much like vosotros, and nosotros, this is a word used mostly by the old Zamboangueños.

To me, these are important discoveries which cement Zamboanga city’s claim to being Asia’s Latin city. 😀

This article was also published in the International Year of Indigenous Languages Philippines website.

Comments

  1. Exactly, Jerome.

    Uno ese del mana razones si porque na todo mi mana obra lingüística, ta preferí yo usá "vosotros, usted, nosotros(kita/kame) y ellos", ese para manda recorda canaton que estos palabras ta existí na de aton vocabulario..

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