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

The Chabacano Moho

My brother recently asked me why the word moho in Spanish means sauce but means 'mold' in Chabacano. My brother thought that this word was spelled as mojo in Spanish because in Chabacano, the 'h' in moho is not silent. I have however in the past heard one or two people say this word with a silent 'h' in Chabacano. 


Source: http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/which-food-will-mold-fastest/

I did a quick survey in the office and asked them how they would spell this word and most said that they would spell it with a 'j' and pronounce the 'j' like in Spanish or the equivalent of the English 'h'.

Some people I know think that moho means 'spoiled food'. This is most probably the result of Chabacano being mainly a spoken language. When enough people say yan mojo ya or even mojo ya ese when talking about spoiled food, more and more people will think that mojo means 'spoiled food'. 

The noun moho in Chabacano can become a verb by adding man at the beginning and it will mean molds growing on (something).

Chabacano: Ya man moho el pan.
English: Molds grew on the bread.

Camins' Chabacano dictionary spells this word as moho while Santos' dictionary spells it as mojo.

Other words in Chabacano that are spelled with an 'h' in Spanish but are pronounced by many with the English 'h' are the following almohada (pillow) and hinca (hincarse). Santos' dictionary spells almohada as almujada while Camins' dictionary doesn't have this word. A friend of mine even commented to me that he hears some people pronounce the 'h' in habla like the 'h' in 'hat'.

Comments

  1. Sabe yo el moho ese tiene ya ta crecí un cosa verde na comida . . . Aquel spoiled amo "pah-nus, manuciao, pasao". :-)

    Igual también que como ta habla kame . . "Si después jugá basketbol, no poné enseguida con el camisa adentro junto con el mana ropa sucio sino dejá anay seca para jendêh man moho."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting article, amigo. It's nice to see you publishing something here again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My mom pronounces "moho" as "mojo", it's an old Spanish pronounciation that survived in some dialects, but it's basicaly dead as only elder people use it and younger ones (as me) pronounce "mo" and some others "mo-o".

    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

How to say I Miss You in Chabacano

In Facebook groups, a lot of people, even Chabacano speakers themselves, seem to be wondering how to say 'I miss you' in Chabacano. Most Chabacano speakers get away with just saying tan miss ya yo contigo . However, the verb miss is still untranslated. The English verb to miss (someone or something) may very well be untranslatable. I googled I miss you in Tagalog  and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw what Google Translate had to say: In very formal Tagalog, one can say nangungulila ako sa iyo although it will probably make you cringe saying it. Most formal Chabacano translations of I miss you  are similar; they will make you cringe saying them. Besides, most people wouldn't understand you anyway, if you use them. In Cebuano, they actually have a translation for I miss you  and that is gimingaw kaayo ko nimo. I'm not sure though if Cebuano speakers actually say this. My friend tells me that it's more common to hear people say namiss na ta ka which if yo