Bien Chabacano

Ticang: Ay de veras! Cosa ya tiempo aquel? Ni no hay mas respeta ni el maga iglesia, cay todo gayot ya saquea. Buchang: Si ñora, hasta el maga tela colorao, el maga cinta, el maga galon ya hace divisa-divisa el maga militar del Republica. Ticang: Ay bueno lang si ese; ya saca-saca el maga vestido del Padre, el maga muebles y hasta maga alajas. Jesus, Maria y Jose! Ta profana gayud sila todo, por eso gende na ta sale el castigo de Dios aqui na Zamboanga. Zamboanga is cursed! In the continuing saga of a distant time, that may not be so distant after all depending on how one perceives time, we hear Ticang and Buchang talk about a tumultuous time in Zamboanga's history when looting took place at the church (the old cathedral?) by the military of the Zamboanga Republic. When I first came across these conversations in 2014, my mind was in shambles and had a hard time comprehending them. More than 10 years later, I now find it easier to understand them. My father was in the city recently ...

During last year's Día del Libro, I was placed in a booth along with a foundation. A guy from the foundation walked up to me and asked what “hello” was in Chabacano. My mind went into a spiral because one of my pet peeves is when I see people online say that “hello” is hola in Chabacano. I mean, you have the same issue in Tagalog or Filipino. I notice that when foreigners ask what “hello” is in Tagalog, they usually say magandang araw or kumusta, which are all indirect translations. When he saw that I was having a hard time answering the question, he said, “Oh come on, you translated Le Petit Prince but you can’t translate one simple word?” But isn’t it possible that the concept of a verbal greeting is a Western import? I mean, what if the original native greeting was just a nod or raising of the eyebrows, or even a grunt? For me, the best answer to the question “what is hello in Tagalog, Filipino, or even Chabacano?” is simply that it is also “hello.” I also wrote about the word ...

Chabacano Merchandise Alert! About twenty years since I started this blog, I have now finally come around to creating some merchandise. Last year, I joined Dia del Libro, and all I had in my booth was El Diutay Principe. This year, I asked Instituto Cervantes if I could sell some merchandise aside from the book, and they agreed. So I decided to have some Chabacano stickers designed to be debuted in person at the upcoming Dia del Libro. Note that except where the name of the blog is mentioned (Bien Chabacano), I decided to spell the name of the language with a V. The Chabacano words were spelled using the system I created for El Diutay Principe, in which words deemed to be of Philippine origin are spelled using Filipino and based on how they are pronounced in Chabacano. Words from the Spanish language or any of the languages in Spain are spelled in Spanish, generally without taking into account how they are pronounced in Chabacano. This is a preview of how these stickers will be present...

The Philippine venao has been spotted once again. Upon hearing that the once-thought-to-be-extinct Philippine deer has made a comeback, I was reminded of one of the conversations from a letter in 1883 sent to Hugo Schuchardt (a German linguist) by Jacinto Juanmartí, a priest, wherein the venao, or the Philippine deer, was mentioned. According to the distribution map of the Philippine deer, or the Rusa marianna, on Wikipedia, this animal was definitely present in almost the entire Philippine archipelago. Funny enough, the conversation from 1883 starts out like most conversations today do: Cosa el ulam? Here is the original text. -Cosa el de iño ulam -no hay nada ñora, yá andá gane yó na tiangui endenantes, no hay gayot nada que puedé comprá. -Yá jablá comigo sí Nita, taba dao tá llevá pescao el maga moro? -Nosé ñora, cay yó aga pá estaba allá, y no hay man yó mirá ní un pescao -Sí Biboy yá andá vá na sugut mirá venao? -Nóse ñora, tallí man cajá si Nita, preguntá usté si yá andá ó no ha...

Back in the early 2000s, rumors of an SM Mall in Zamboanga City were always abound but theyn remained just that, rumors. At that time, there was a collective sense of despair that the city was being left behind economically compared to other cities.  Having been born in the late 80s, I have never experienced the more progressive Zamboanga city that my dad talked about, famous for the Pasonanca tree house as well as beautiful mestiza dalagas.  I was born at a time when there was constant news of bomb threats and the opening of a fastfood chain such as McDonalds and Jollibee felt like rain after a drought. It's very much a different story nowadays where stores only once seen in Manila are already setting up shop in Zamboanga city all the time. Today, we finally have an SM City in Zamboanga and we are going to take a look at Chabacano signs spotted during its soft opening. The first sign simply says Hola which means hello. I dont believe this is a traditional greeting in Chabacan...

Are we living through hyperinflation? Today, I was floored when I saw cans of luncheon meat in a locked shelf at the nearby supermarket. It instantly reminded me of the 1901 Chabacano conversation between Ticang and Buchang, where they mentioned that during the short-lived Zamboanga Republic, rice was being confiscated, causing severe food shortages. Moments like these in our history are not hard to imagine because major transitions often bring periods of hyperinflation. Ticang: Ay! Cosa ya man gane este tiempo! Nunca gayot ya observa carestia como ahora ni ya subi el precio del ganta del arroz hasta cuatro reales. Buchang: Quilaya uste, cuando el tiempo del Republica ta decomisa todo el arroz y no hay pa pode sembra ninguno cay no sabe pa quita aquel si quilaya ba quita ay queda. When I first read the word carestia in the dialogues, I did not recognize it from either Spanish or Chabacano. A bien Chabacano colleague in the office later explained that it referred to an increase in the ...

Languages often surprise us in the most unexpected ways. Even with a language as familiar and personal to me as Chabacano, there are moments when a small detail suddenly reveals a bigger story connecting variants, hinting at histories, or simply reminding us how alive and adaptive languages truly are. Recently, I stumbled upon one such detail. Look! The Chabacano of Cavite City also uses the term “viña!” This instantly caught my attention because, in Zamboanga Chabacano, we have “venya,” a word I’ve only connected to the Spanish ven ya (“come now”) when I started studying Spanish as a hobby while in university. This can perhaps even be a contracted "vene ya". Whether through evolution, simplification, or just natural linguistic drift, seeing a similar form in the Cavite city variant makes the connection so fascinating. For reference, I previously wrote about the Chabacano word vene, which, contrary to what many might assume, is not a standard Spanish word. You can read that p...