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Showing posts from September, 2010

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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The Chabacano Enbuenamente

I have always been curious about the Chabacano enbuenamente . I have always thought that it sounded very Spanish especially since the word is used as an adjective which meant to do something properly (very similar to its Spanish counterpart). Recently though, I tried researching on the origins of enbuenamente , but all I could find were Chabacano texts in blogs and other websites. I have come to the conclusion then that it is a Chabacano word without Spanish origins. However, I encountered some texts online (in Chabacano) which spelled enbuenamente as en buena mente and it is there that I found its Spanish origins.The Chabacano word which I have been using all my life to describe an action is actually Spanish. Here are some examples of how enbuenamente is used in Chabacano along with their rough English translation: Chabacano: Conversa daw enbuenamente English: Would you speak properly... Chabacano: Ta hace ya gane yo enbuenamente... English: I'm doing it properly already…...
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The F Word in Chabacano

One of the things that my friend picked up from his Chabacano roommates is the word chinga, he tells me. Indeed, if you listen to Chabacano spoken between friends, you would hear a lot of chinga. According to urbandictionary.com, chingar is a Mexican Spanish word that is the equivalent of the English f word. Another word I presume is derived from chingar which is used often in Chabacano is 'chingona'. It is used towards a female and means whatever it is you think it means. It is sometimes used affectionately among female friends though. When you hear a girl saying chingona vos to another girl, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're quarreling. Another bad word in Chabacano is coño de vos nana (mother). Most Chabacano speakers though would not pronounce the de and s in vos and would say conyobohnana. Now this is something you say to someone you're very angry with. Other adjectives which has a bad meaning in Chabacano are: -pendejo -animal -de mal herencia...
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Origins of the Chabacano Ansina, Endenantes, Enantes, and Masquin

When I read an article wherein Gemma Cruz-Araneta (former tourism secretary) was saying that she would hear Mexican Indians use the word ' ansina ', I automatically thought that ansina is a Nahuatl word. Nahuatl is a language spoken by the Aztecs and rumor has it that there are a number of Chabacano words with Nahuatl origin. Immediately, I set out to research the word ansina . To my surprise though, it turned out that ansina is not a Nahuatl word but it is actually Spanish, old Spanish that is. Well, considering that Spanish reached the shores of Zamboanga in the early 1600s, it is actually no surprise that Chabacano is peppered with old Spanish words. There are two varieties of this word, the other being ansí though it is not used in Chabacano. According to the Diccionario de la Lengua Española de la Real Academia Española (DRAE) , besides in old Spanish documents, this word is still used in parts of rural Spain like Aragón and some states in the United States that b...
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Porque by Maldita Lyrics (Original Chabacano and Translated Spanish version)

Here are the original lyrics of the song Porque by Maldita as well as a rough Spanish translation below. 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 Nunc...
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A Christmas Greeting in Chabacano

In the Spanish-speaking world, the popular greeting during Christmas time is f eliz navidad . There's even a popular Christmas song with this title. In the Chabacano-speaking world, however, the more common greeting is f elices pascuas as shown below in a Facebook greeting by the present mayor of Zamboanga city in her Facebook page. Owing to the fact however that some Chabacano speakers tend not to pronounce the letter 's', this gets spelled as  Felices Pascua at times, as is the case in the greeting below. Source: Facebook page of the mayor This also happens with f eliz cumpleanos . In Chabacano, people tend to say f eliz cumpleano , without the 's' at the end. Now if you are wondering why we say f elices pascuas  instead of f eliz navidad in Chabacano, here is a possible explanation. In case you haven't noticed, there's a tiny inscription in the photo that reads v aya con dios . This is the mayor's sort-of slogan which literally means ...
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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...
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