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

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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
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Origins of the Chabacano Encanta

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The Chabacano word encanta would often be heard in the boutiques, department stores, and malls in Zamboanga city. The word encanta in Chabacano usually means to fall in love with a thing. It is used mostly when shopping or window shopping.

Here is a dialogue between two friends shopping in the mall:

Pilar: Fred, mira tu este camisa. Dao ta encanta man yo con este.
Fred: Cuanto man ese?
Pilar: Doscientos lang. Cosa tu ta pensa? Compra ba yo con este?

Here is the English version of this Chabacano dialogue:

Pilar: Fred, look at this dress. I think I like this dress.
Fred: How much is that?
Pilar: It’s only two hundred (pesos). What do you think? Will I buy this?

Here is another one:

Pilar: Anteayer, ya anda yo na mall y tiene yo ya encanta aretes.
Fred: Ansina? Ay, bien mucho ya gane gayod tu aretes.

Here is the English translation:

Pilar: The day before yesterday, I went to the mall and there was an earring that really got my attention.
Fred: Really? But you already have a lot of earrings.

As you very well may have observed, the Chabacano word encanta is used to mean great liking on an item (primarily) when shopping. I personally would use it when I “fall in love” or get fixated with something that I saw on the mall like a watch for example.

In Spanish, the word encantar means to 'love something' or 'to be bewitched'. It is commonly used to express likes and dislikes. Here is an example of how it is commonly used in Spanish,

Spanish: Me encanta leer libros.
English: I love reading books.


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

  1. AnonymousApril 3, 2012 at 7:27 PM

    Quilaya gale este, "Su Hermosura se Encantada"?

    jendeh man este un cosa sino un gente o persona esp. una mujer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jerome HerreraApril 3, 2012 at 10:03 PM

    To be honest, I haven't heard this phrase before. I think it's not being said anymore today. Anyway, I think what is being referred to here is the beauty and not the person. I think the sentence roughly translates to I like your beauty. So it's not really the person that we're liking, but the beauty of that person.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 18, 2012 at 8:18 PM

    si! correcto tu.

    ya lee yo este na un libro zamboangueño... actualmente ese es un poema para con un mujer que el hombre ta ama gayot.

    tambien ya olvida ya yo el tema de este libro pero sabe lang yo el color que verde.

    na ese libro hay puede tambien encontra todo el mana adivinanza, proverbios, poemas, canciones de amor, de alabanza, de despedida, de harana, et.al., tambien el mana historia acerca el cada barrio del ciudad de zamboanga, mismo el fortaleza del pilar, tambien el mismo ciudad de aton.

    ReplyDelete

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