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 ...
I had always been curious about the word caga and miya in Chabacano. It sounds Spanish but somehow, I can’t seem to find it in any Spanish dictionary.
It wasn’t until I tried my luck using WordReference.com that I found the possible Spanish origins of caga and miya. There is indeed a Spanish verb cagar meaning to have a sh*t and mear meaning to have a p*ss. These two words though are considered very vulgar which explains why I couldn't find them in standard Spanish dictionaries.
In the Chabacano dictionaries that I have, this word is spelled as miya, which is also the spelling I decided to use in this article.
Here are some sample Chabacano sentences using these two words.
Chabacano: Quiere tu caga?
English: Do you want to defecate?
Chabacano: Que hora tu ultimo ya miya?
English: When was the last time that you urinated?
In hospitals, they tend to use the word ensucia instead of caga to refer to defecating. Thus, caga is also informal in Chabacano but not necessarily vulgar. Mia though can be used in formal and informal settings.
A Chabacano word that is related to caga is caganera, which means loose bowel movement. Other Chabacano words related to miya are miyao and miyon. Miyao possibly comes from the Spanish meado and it is a noun meaning 'urine'. Miyon is an adjective in Chabacano and it means 'somebody who urinates frequently'.
It wasn’t until I tried my luck using WordReference.com that I found the possible Spanish origins of caga and miya. There is indeed a Spanish verb cagar meaning to have a sh*t and mear meaning to have a p*ss. These two words though are considered very vulgar which explains why I couldn't find them in standard Spanish dictionaries.
In the Chabacano dictionaries that I have, this word is spelled as miya, which is also the spelling I decided to use in this article.
Here are some sample Chabacano sentences using these two words.
Chabacano: Quiere tu caga?
English: Do you want to defecate?
Chabacano: Que hora tu ultimo ya miya?
English: When was the last time that you urinated?
In hospitals, they tend to use the word ensucia instead of caga to refer to defecating. Thus, caga is also informal in Chabacano but not necessarily vulgar. Mia though can be used in formal and informal settings.
A Chabacano word that is related to caga is caganera, which means loose bowel movement. Other Chabacano words related to miya are miyao and miyon. Miyao possibly comes from the Spanish meado and it is a noun meaning 'urine'. Miyon is an adjective in Chabacano and it means 'somebody who urinates frequently'.
This article was also published in the International Year of Indigenous Languages Philippines website.
Fuera el caganera, ta habla también kita "Puriguit". :)
ReplyDeleteSi de guachi, ta uaa kame "cagá" pero si buenamente el cuento entre familia, ta usá kame "ensucía".
Jerome, ¿Mía o Méa? Mi tata se ya habla "méa' es el correcto deletreada que ta significa "to urinate".
In Mexico we say it like that: "miar" for urinate, "miado" (pronounced miao and even miau in some coastal areas) for the urine, and "mión" for someone who urinates a lot. "Cagadera" sounds normal in my environment and can be understood as loose bowel movement, very impolite by the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments Jaime! :)
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