Skip to main content

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 Era

The Chabacano era is one of the many words that when used by a Chabacano speaker will tell you that that person is very fluent in the language. This word has multiple uses in the Chabacano de Zamboanga language.

In the Chavacano de Zamboanga Compendio y Diccionario by Rolando Arquiza Santos, the author explains that the word can mean perhaps and almost.

Here are some examples given by the book mentioned above.

Chabacano: Ya olvida yo era llama contigo.
English: I almost forgot to call you.

Chabacano: Ya visita era tu con ele.
English: Perhaps you should have visited him.

Note that you only use the word era to mean almost when you mean that you almost were or weren't able to do something but still ended up not doing or doing it (respectively). Here is another example:

Chabacano: No hay era yo puede mira American Idol.

English: I nearly forgot to watch American Idol.

In the Chabacano de Zamboanga handbook by Camins, he translates the word as the English 'should have'.

Here are some more examples.

Chabacano: Era ya hace tu acaba tuyo estudio.
English: You should have finished your studies.

Chabacano:  Ya dormi era anay yo.
English: I should’ve slept first.

A note on word order, the word era (when used to mean 'should have') can come at the beginning of the sentence or after the noun.

For forming these sentences in the negative (i.e. should not have), put no hay at the beginning followed by era.

Now let’s turn the two sentences above negative.

Chabacano: No hay era yo hace acaba mio estudio.
English: I should not have finished my studies.

Chabacano: No hay era anay yo dormi.
English: I shouldn’t have slept yet.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Chabacano era comes from the Spanish imperfect subjunctive tense. Here are some examples of words in their past subjunctive tense: hablara, comiera, viviera. In Camins’ dictionary, he explains that the Spanish equivalent of the Chabacano era is debiera haber.

Another usage of era (which was suggested by one of the comments below) is for attenuation. Here is an example.

Chabacano: Ta habla lang man era yo...
English: I was just saying...

Note that the sentence above can also exist without the era in it.

This article was also published in Riquezas: Chabacano Essays and Studies Volume II (an annual journal published by the Local Government of Zamboanga).

Comments

  1. I super like your blog! Keep on posting about the chavacano language! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. “Note that you only use the word era when you mean that you almost weren’t able to do something but still ended up doing it”

    It seems to me that the inverse is also possible: when something negative almost happens to you (or someone else) but finally it doesn’t happen and you are saved. Consider this example, I have found it some ten years ago, in an Internet forum (“Serioso y Pendehadas”):
    Ya consulta yo con mi nobia abogada, ya cay ya era le na su silla cuando ya relata yo tu problema conele!

    Mauro Fernandez (from Spain)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes. That's right. This is another usage of the word era. Thanks for the information.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Couldn't it also have a meaning of attenuation? As in:
    "No mas rabia, ta pregunta lang man era yo"
    Mauro

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Porque by Maldita Lyrics (Original Chabacano and Translated Spanish version)

Original Chabacano Version: Solo-solo na mi cuarto Hinde ta puede dormi Vira-vira na cabeza El dolor yo ya senti Por que pa contigo yo ya quiere? Como bula lang tu ya perde Por que contigo yo ya escoge? Ahora mi corazon ta sufri Bien simple lang yo ta pedi Era senti tu el cosa yo ya senti Ta pedi milagro, vira'l tiempo El mali hace derecho Na de mio rezo ta pedi yo Era olvida yo contigo Todo-todo yo ya dale Ahora ta arrepenti Sobra-sobra el dolencia Tormento para vivi Por que pa contigo yo ya quiere? Como bula lang tu ya perde Por que contigo yo ya escoge? Ahora mi corazon ta sufri Bien simple lang yo ta pedi Era senti tu el cosa yo ya senti Ta pedi milagro, vira'l tiempo El mali hace derecho Na de mio rezo ta pedi yo Era olvida yo contigo No tu distorba Y no atraca kay baka palmadea yo contigo Nunca acepta Si tu ay vira por el dolor ya senti Por que contigo yo ya escoge? Ahora mi corazon ta suf

How To Say 'I Love You' And 'I Hate You' In Chabacano

Saying I love you in Chabacano is a bit tricky. Most people just say 'I love you' (pronouncing the word love as lab ). But in songs or formal occasions, Chabacano speakers say 'I love you like this': ta ama yo contigo . Let’s dissect this sentence. Ta= Present tense indicator Ama= love Yo= I Contigo= you Again, you’ll only hear this in songs. You really won’t hear people saying to each other  ta ama yo contigo. Saying I hate you in Chabacano is also a bit difficult. In the dictionary of Santos (2010), the word hate in Chabacano is rabia or odia . However I’m not really sure how to use these two words in a sentence because to me ta rabia yo contigo or ta odia yo contigo just doesn’t sound natural. Rabiao yo contigo (which is something people frequently say in Chabacano) just doesn't convey the correct emotion because it means something like I am angry at you (milder than hate). So how do we say the English 'I hate you' in Chabacano? One of

The Chabacano Expression 'Todo Bagon'

That’s a load of Crap! B*ullsh*t! These are expressions in the English language that are used to mean nonsense, foolishness or hogwash (which is another expression). In the Chabacano de Zamboanga, we say lasang or lasangan . Lasang or lasangan came out during the early 2000s (I think) and was in use for about a decade. Previously though, the favored word was tonterias, pendejadas or locuras . All these words are actually falling into disuse. Today, the favored word is todo bagon.   Todo means 'all' and bagon means shrimp paste (from  bagoong ). So literally, it means all shrimp paste. When you say that a person is todo bagon , it means that that person is not making any sense. One may also say todo vos bagon or you are all shrimp paste. A word of caution though, this sounds very offensive. I heard that this expression is very popular among the people who live in the rural areas or on the outskirts of Zamboanga city. It is quickly gaining popularity though in main