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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 Casillas

The Spanish word casilla may mean 'an outhouse' or 'an outdoor toilet'. In Chabacano, this word becomes casillas (with an 's'), and it means 'toilet'. To some, a distinction exists between casillas and baño (baño being indoors and casillas outdoors) but there are people who apply the word casillas to toilets in general (whether they are indoors or outdoors).

These words (baño and casillas) are mostly used to refer to toilets at home. When in public, people prefer to use the words 'toilet' or 'CR'. I’m not sure about other Zamboangueños, but I feel like it’s a bit too vulgar if I ask where the baño or the casillas is when I’m in a mall. 😂

Here are some words using the Chabacano casillas.

Chabacano: Donde el casillas?
English: Where is the toilet?

Chabacano: Puede tu limpia (con) el casillas?
English: Can you clean the toilet?

Chabacano: Aquel ba el casillas?
English: Is that the toilet?

In Camins’ dictionary, he defines the word casillas as a stool outhouse. This word is pronounced as kasilyas.

Comments

  1. Jerome,

    Thank you so much for your interest in Chabacano de Zamboanga. I love the way you present the different topics and I always read them all.

    Could you enlighten us on the word maridable? Also, I see there is a difference in Chabacano de Zamboanga between tomorrow (mañana in Spanish) and morning (the early part of the day). You use the word aga, don't you? In Spanish tomorrow morning is mañana por la mañana.

    Congratulations on your Chabacano writings!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. Maridable means couple in Chabacano. Ill try to write about it soon. Yes in Chabacano manana is only used to mean tomorrow. The other meaning of the Spanish manana is aga in Chabacano.

    ReplyDelete
  3. please consider the part of the house..what chavacano speakers called them in the old time and now...just like escusao, sala, cosina, cuarto and the like

    ReplyDelete

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