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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-ExupĂ©ry 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 Queda

In Spanish, the word quedar is used sometimes in place of estar. Other times it is used to mean 'become' or 'left over'.

In Chabacano, you will also find similar uses. Here are some examples (along with a Spanish and English translation):

Chabacano: Cuanto zapatos ya lang ya queda contigo?
Spanish: Cuántos zapatos te quedan?
English: How many shoes are left with you?

Chabacano: Ya queda malo el TV
Spanish: La televisión no funciona más
English: The TV is not functioning anymore.

Chabacano: Hinde de suyo culpa si ya queda le dormido na mi coche.
Spanish: Ella no tiene la culpa de quedarse dormida en mi coche.
English: It isn't her fault that she fell asleep in my car.

Chabacano: Donde tu ta queda?
Spanish: Donde vives?
English: Where do you live?

As you may have noticed in the last sentence, we don't use the word vivi to express the word live (to reside) in Chabacano. Instead we say queda. Interestingly, the Spanish quedarse means to stay and it is very possible that this could be where this particular Chabacano meaning of queda came from.

The other uses of queda in Chabacano are more or less similar to the Spanish usage.

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

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 2, 2021 at 3:03 AM

    A free, but valid translation in Spanish with queda would be this one.
    Chabacano: Ya queda malo el TV
    Spanish: El televisor se ha quedado estropeado

    ReplyDelete

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