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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 ...
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Origins of the Chabacano Estaba and Pensaba

The Spanish imperfect tense in Spanish occurs (in my observation) only twice in Chabacano vocabulary. It can be found in the words pensaba and estaba. These two words are probably one of a handful verbs in Chabacano which are conjugated. Note however that only these two forms exists (pensabas, pensaban, etc. and estabas, estaban, and etc. do not exist).

Here are some examples of how Chabacano uses the word pensaba:

Chabacano: Pensaba yo hinde tu ta come carne
English: I thought you didn't eat meat

Chabacano: Pensaba le ya mori ya tu.
English: He thought that you already died.

Chabacano: Pensaba mio nana volve tu este diciembre.
English: My mother thought that you will come home this December.

As you may have noticed Chabacano pensaba is similar to Spanish pensaba. The Chabacano usage of estaba also seems to be similar to that of its Spanish meaning. Here are some examples:

Chabacano: Estaba yo alli.
English: I was there.

Chabacano: Estaba mio nana na pueblo.
English: My mom was in the downtown.

Chabacano: Estaba yo na casa de mi hermana.
English: I was at my sister's house.

Here is a more comprehensive article that I wrote about the Chabacano estaba.

This article was also published in the International Year of Indigenous Languages Philippines website.
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