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
Counting in Chabacano is almost the same as in Spanish. Cardinal numbers are the same except for the words we use for 100 and 1000 in Chabacano. Here's a comparison between the Spanish and Chabacano 100 and 1000:
100
Chabacano: Ciento
Spanish: Cien
Sample Chabacano sentence: Ciento euro lang ba ese camisa?
Spanish translation: Cuesta solamente cien euros esa camisa?
English: Does that shirt cost only a hundred euros?
Notes on this word: In Chabacano, the noun after the word hundred (ciento) does not become plural as it would in Spanish. Also, the only time that you use ciento in Spanish is when counting after 100 (ciento uno, ciento dos, etc). Cien is used to say 100 in Spanish.
In Chabacano, we don't have a word similar to the Spanish costar. Instead, we use the Tagalog 'lang' which is like saying only. In fact, if you would translate the above Chabacano sentence directly to English, it would sound like this: Is the shirt only a hundred euros?
1000
Chabacano: Un mil
Spanish: mil
Sample Chabacano sentence: un mil gente el ya atende con el concierto.
Spanish translation: mil personas asistieron el concierto.
English: A thousand souls attended the concert.
Un mil is never used in Spanish as it would sound redundant. The only time that we use a numeral in front of the word mil in Spanish is after 1000 thus in Spanish, we say mil, dos mil, tres mil, cuatro mil, etc. In contrast, we say un mil, dos mil, tres mil, cuatro mil, etc in Chabacano.
As you may have noticed, we use the word gente in Chabacano to mean person. In Spanish though, gente is a collective noun referring to a group of people.
In Spanish, un, and una are used in front of nouns to mean 'a' or 'an' (an apple, a pillow). When it is masculine, you use un and una, when it is feminine. In Chabacano though, only un is used. Here are some examples:
Chabacano: Un camisa lang yo ya lleva
Spanish: Lleve solamente una camisa
Chabacano: Un ventana lang ba tiene este casa?
Spanish: Esta casa tiene solamente una ventana?
Below is a graphic made by Ronan Paul Dayot y Bulahan containing the Chabacano numbers from 0-1,000,000,000. It also has each number's corresponding pronunciation and English translation.
100
Chabacano: Ciento
Spanish: Cien
Sample Chabacano sentence: Ciento euro lang ba ese camisa?
Spanish translation: Cuesta solamente cien euros esa camisa?
English: Does that shirt cost only a hundred euros?
Notes on this word: In Chabacano, the noun after the word hundred (ciento) does not become plural as it would in Spanish. Also, the only time that you use ciento in Spanish is when counting after 100 (ciento uno, ciento dos, etc). Cien is used to say 100 in Spanish.
In Chabacano, we don't have a word similar to the Spanish costar. Instead, we use the Tagalog 'lang' which is like saying only. In fact, if you would translate the above Chabacano sentence directly to English, it would sound like this: Is the shirt only a hundred euros?
1000
Chabacano: Un mil
Spanish: mil
Sample Chabacano sentence: un mil gente el ya atende con el concierto.
Spanish translation: mil personas asistieron el concierto.
English: A thousand souls attended the concert.
Un mil is never used in Spanish as it would sound redundant. The only time that we use a numeral in front of the word mil in Spanish is after 1000 thus in Spanish, we say mil, dos mil, tres mil, cuatro mil, etc. In contrast, we say un mil, dos mil, tres mil, cuatro mil, etc in Chabacano.
As you may have noticed, we use the word gente in Chabacano to mean person. In Spanish though, gente is a collective noun referring to a group of people.
In Spanish, un, and una are used in front of nouns to mean 'a' or 'an' (an apple, a pillow). When it is masculine, you use un and una, when it is feminine. In Chabacano though, only un is used. Here are some examples:
Chabacano: Un camisa lang yo ya lleva
Spanish: Lleve solamente una camisa
Chabacano: Un ventana lang ba tiene este casa?
Spanish: Esta casa tiene solamente una ventana?
Below is a graphic made by Ronan Paul Dayot y Bulahan containing the Chabacano numbers from 0-1,000,000,000. It also has each number's corresponding pronunciation and English translation.
This article was also published in the International Year of Indigenous Languages Philippines website.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI discovered Chabacano from your blog, and I am very interested in that language as being one of the very few Spanish-based creole.
Can you tell me though if the hundreds names above one hundred are formed like in Castilian, which is by grouping their multiplier with the cientos word, or if they are regular? In other words, do you write 'dos cientos' or 'doscientos'?
And what about the bigger numbers, like 'mil millones' (or is it 'un mil millones'?)?
Thanks a lot for your help,
Mancko
Hi. Thanks for your interest. Counting above one hundred is like in Spanish but most people would spell 200 as dos cientos (separating the two words). regarding mil millones, most people would say billon (pronounced like the Spanish millon). I hope that helps.
DeleteHi,
DeleteThanks a lot for your reply.
Another question: what about quinientos? Is is actually used, or is it replaced by 'cinco cientos'?
Yes we do use quinientos and not cinco cientos.
ReplyDeleteI never heard from anyone us using "Cinco Cientos" and as far as i know, i am using since child and even our antepasados the word "Quinientos". :-)
ReplyDelete