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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

A New Breed of Chabacano Speakers

During the first ten years of the new millennium, the call center industry experienced exponential growth. Along with the many US-based companies outsourcing their customer service operations in the country comes the need for Spanish-speaking employees. This is because of the huge number of Hispanics in the US who have a hard time speaking English.

In the Philippines, there aren’t many Spanish speakers so call center companies tap on the Chabacano-speaking population of Zamboanga city and hire them for Spanish customer service positions. These call center companies are typically based in Manila.

Aside from the Zamboangueños’ capability to adapt the Spanish language quickly (I know of one Pampanga-based call center which hired a lot of Zamboangueños and trained them to speak Spanish for only one month 😱), Zamboangueños’ proficiency in English is at par (and at times even better) than that of  Manileños (owing largely to the very many good schools in the city like the Ateneo de Zamboanga university). This makes Zamboangueños very attractive to employers.

While this group of Chabacano speakers is not that large, a new type of Chabacano is emerging from these people. Because these people work in Manila (wherein Tagalog is the chief language for everyday communication), there is a tendency to replace Chabacano words with Tagalog words (especially if the Chabacano word is already forgotten or can’t be remembered quickly by the speaker). While this phenomenon already exists among Chabacano speakers in Zamboanga city, it is more frequent in this new breed of Chabacano speakers.

This group of Chabacano speakers also has the tendency to Chabacanize Spanish. For example, instead of saying manbreak ya yo (I’m taking my break)*as a Chabacano speaker from Zamboanga city would, they might say toma ya yo mio pausa.  They would also be prone to using Spanish when saying words like credit card, account, email address, and other words (which are frequently used in call centers) instead of English as a Chabacano speaker from Zamboanga city would.

Chabacano speaker from Zamboanga city might say: tiene tu credit card?

But a person in this group of new breed of Chabacano speakers would probably say: tiene tu tarjeta de credito?

Chabacano speaker from Zamboanga city might say: cosa tuyo email address?
But a person in this group of new breed of Chabacano speakers would probably say: cosa tuyo correo/correo electronico?

These people also would greet each other by saying hola and como estas and would be prone to saying no se (I don't know) instead of no sabe yo.

When it comes to numbers, these people would at times say cien (for 100) and mil (for 1000) instead of the Chabacano ciento (100) and un mil (1000). They

These people would also know the Spanish alphabet and so would sometimes spell out things in Spanish which they don’t want other people to understand what they are saying. This happens mostly with names.

These people’s comprehension of Spanish is quite good (these people speak with Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, etc every day). I would not say the same with regards to their ability to speak Spanish though because Spanish would be their fourth or fifth language already (along with Chabacano, Tagalog, English, and for some Cebuano).

It is hard to say whether this type of Chabacano will have some influence in the Chabacano spoken in Zamboanga city as these people probably only number to a hundred but what I am sure of is that Chabacano is being taken to another direction by these people and we might one day see a Chabacano which has Spanish vocabulary not found in the Chabacano spoken in Zamboanga city.

I know that there are also Chabacano call center agents manning Spanish customer service positions in Davao  and if you are one of them, please do share any information on the kind of Chabacano that you speak.

Disclaimer: This post only talks about the Chabacano call center agents in Manila who deal with Spanish clients. Very little research has been conducted to write this article and only five people who work in just one office were observed.

Comments

  1. This blog is so fascinating...I wish all of Filipinas spoke Chavacano.

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    Replies
    1. I am working for a Spanish account in a call center here in Manila. I agree with the observation of Jerome that we already use "Hola" to greet each other. However, we still do not say algo de 'toma un pausa" when we want to take a break. Claro que hinde kita ta usa ese expression na chavacano mientras el 'hola' ta usa kita masquin na maga oficinas publicas na zamboanga, ta usa ese maga empleados cuando ta contesta el telefono. Poreso bien facil adopta ese expresion.

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  2. Tiene ba chavacano website que solo Chavacano lang ta usa?

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  3. ¡Hola! I work in a call center here in Davao city and yes your right we hire people from Zambo for our Spanish markets. I'm from Zamboanga too. Saludos desde Davao!

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  4. i heard once a person in davao talking in the Chavacano Language but quite different from our Chavacano in Zamboanga City or what we call it the Zamboangueño Dialect.

    Once i spoke to a Chavacano native Speaker Taxi Driver in Davao. i was surprise that he could understand me well but i couldn't understand him well. when i ask him, "de donde tu? de aqui ba gayot tu?

    he replied: yes! i am really from Davao even my great great grandparents. wow really?--- i've said. ^_^
    bdw, that time i was going to Calinan, Davao for a Convention.
    so we'll go back to him, according to him they call their Chavacano as Castellano Abakay. estaba dao na Zamboanga el de ila Chavacano pero ya tiene ya dao Mezcla otro palabra que origen alla na Davao y Bukidnon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ese es intersante.

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    2. Magkaiba ang chavacano depende sa lugar sa davao,cotabato,at ibang part ng mindanao chavacano mix bisaya..sa cavite iba din chavacano lalo na mvga bata..ibang tono at words may halong tagalog.

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  5. bueno este Jerome!

    ese un indicación que mas años ta pasa, ta desarrolla también el de atón Lenguaje Chavacano porque mas mucho nuevo palabras ta omenta na su vocabulario. masquen yo mismo si ya olvida yo el palabra na Chavacano gayot, ta usa ya yo el palabra de Español en vez de Inglés.
    tupao tambien tu... antes ta usa yo email y password pero ahora correo y contraseña ya yo ta usa, y masquen si ta conversa yo con mi tata, nana y hermanos.
    computer - Ordenadora, Optic Mouse - Raton Optico, Update - Actualiza, Sandstorm - Tormenta de Arena (sabe yo no hay kita sandstorm na Filipinas por eso ya usa lang yo el palabra estaba na Español)... ^_^

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  6. Onde yo pwde man apply spanish call call center agent akel ta insinya un mes man spanish?

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    Replies
    1. I am working in a call center here in Manila for a Spanish account. Mucho yo aqui ya man encuentro (meet) chavacano quien ta trabaja tambien na BPO con spanish accounts quien estaba na Davao. Segun conila, na Davao sila ya aprende de ila espanol. Ya man hire konila call center alla y solamente chavacano sila sabe y ya ensena conila alya espanol. But here in Manila, they only come here when they already have learned spanish from the call centers such as in Davao.

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  7. Hi Joy. No hay yo sabe. proba ya lang tu pone tuyo resume na Jobstreet y Jobsdb.

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  8. Poco ya lang el ta conversa chavacano .ya tarda ya yo aqui na manila .noway yo oie ta conversa chavacano ..ta olvida ya yo otro words ta usa ..mga de zamboanga el quere yo oie ta conversa chavacano

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tiene vez, tiene yo tan encuentro aqui na Manila de Zamboanga pero ralo lang. Igual lang kita. Ta olvida olvida ya yo mucho palabra. :)

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  9. Does Chavacano in Davao still exist untill now?
    Hope some will respond because if yes... It means Davao Chavacano is not yet extinct untill now...my groupmates are making a assignment about Chavacano and they assigned me to know if the variants Chavacano still exist...Hope you would respond.🥺
    Latest 2020 census is not yet available:<

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really don't know but I think it's already dead.

      Delete

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