Skip to main content

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 ...

How to say the Names of Animals in Chabacano

The Chabacano animals are more or less the same as Spanish animals. Differences are limited mostly to pronounciaton. One peculiarity though that stands out is that there are some Chabacano animal names that in Spanish refers to the meat or the food (cooked) that comes from that animal. A good example is the Chabacano pescao. In Chabacano, pescao is used both for fish as a food and as an animal. Meanwhile in Spanish, pescao (pescado) is used exclusively for fish as in the food. Pez is used to refer to fishes that are alive (which are not intended for cooking).
Another example of this Chabacano anomaly is the word cabrito. In Spanish cabrito means a small goat (a kid) and goat as a food. In Chabacano though, cabrito is used to refer to goats as animals (small or adult) and food. Spanish uses the word cabra to refer to adult goats.

Chabacano animals that differ in pronounciation to their Spanish counterparts are the following:


Chabacano
Spanish
Tiboron
Tiburón
Baliena
Ballena
Baca
Vaca
Cabalio
Caballo
Colebra
Culebra
Cucuracha
Cucaracha
Pero
Perro

*The Chabacano words here were spelled as they are pronounced using Spanish spelling*

Other differences include the word that we use for rat and mouse. In Spanish rat is rata and mouse is raton. In Chabacano though raton both means rat and mouse (I really wouldn't even know the difference between a rat and a mouse). Another is the Chabacano langostas meaning grasshopper. In Spanish, it means locusts. Note that this word is always plural in Chabacano. Moscas is another always-plural Chabacano word for fly, similar to Spanish in meaning except for the always-plural rule. Lastly, there are two words for bird in Spanish, ave and pájaro. In Chabacano though, we only use pajaro.

Chabacano animals that are exactly the same as their Spanish counterparts are the following:


Chabacano
Spanish
Gusano
Gusano
Puerco
Puerco
Aguila
Aguila
Tigre
Tigre

Other Chabacano animals were derived from other local dialects:

English
Chabacano
Ant
Subay
Termite
Anay

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

Comments

  1. Dao mali man ese "lio". Acorda yo antes cuando ta tajeá pa yo Wahoy, este el exacto deletreada de ila "caballo, culebra o culebrón, Tiburón, Ballena, Vaca". Tiene kita letra "LL" na de aton alfabeto.
    Los demás lingüístico también ya habla, words originated from Castilian will Spell the same way and words originated from Philippine Austronesian will also spell the same way. Though witj regards to Austronesian origin, we most of the time, have/had already Chavacanized those words, e.g. kanaton 》 canaton or con aton, kaninyo 》 caniño, de inyo o diinyo 》 de iño o diiño, kame 》 came, kita 》 quítâ, et.al

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...

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...

A Chabacano Christmas Song + An Interview in Spanish With A Former Zamboanga Mayor

It’s that time of the year again when we all feel generous and kind towards one another. For most of us, Christmas is a very busy time of the year with family reunions and Christmas dinners to think about. But there was a time in the not so distant past when Christmas was a quiet holiday. This is what is being described in the song that is featured in this blog post. Noche sagrao, brillante maga estrellas oh noche que el Salvador ya nacé. Por largo tiempo el mundo ya esperá se que aquí canaton el Dios hay vené. Ta gozá el mundo por este esperanza, un día nuevo hay podé llegá. Todo hincá y oí voces del ángel, oh noche divino, el Cristo ya nacé ! Divino noche, oh noche de amor! Ta llevá el luz de fe sereno y claro, y adorá con el Niño Jesús. Ta llevá el luz del cielo bien ardiente, ya llegá Magos de lejos lugar. Na un pesebre el rey de los reyes, amigo diaton, Ele ahí quedá. Sabé el Señor hacé lo que se debe, mirá con el rey y na su presencia incá. Ta aquí el ...