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 was researching the word vale and checking if any usage of this word in Spanish is similar to the common usage of vale in Chabacano which expresses appreciation. An example is vale man ese tuyo camisa which means your shirt is quite nice.
I did, however, stumble upon some information on a particular usage of the Spanish valer which is quite similar to one of the usages of this word in Chabacano.
If you are ever in Zamboanga city and see a group of children making up rules for a game that they are about to play, you might probably hear them say *no hay vale ___________. Or, if you see some kids playing, you might probably hear one of them say to one another nuay vale ansina.
Here is a dialogue which features this phrase:
Boy 1: Juga kita entramos! (entramos is the Chabacano equivalent of the game patintero)
Boy 2:Ok. Pero no hay vale ta jala mano o brazo.
Boy 3: Oo, no hay vale ansina. No hay tambien vale ta quita camisa.
Here is a rough English translation of this dialogue:
Boy 1: Let’s play entramos!
Boy 2: Ok. But pulling of hands or arms is not allowed.
Boy 3: Right. That’s not allowed. Also, you can’t remove your clothes.
The above dialogue is not realistic. It is used just to show how one would use this phrase in Chabacano.
In Spanish, eso no vale would mean something like it’s not allowed or you can’t do that.
At the office, I heard somebody who belonged to a Spanish-speaking family in the Philippines say, no vale la comida. This may be what is called Philippine Spanish and it means that the food wasn't good.
Finally, I would like to add this song that kids sing whenever they are choosing teams
The song goes like this:
Buscahan partner
Negro Blanco
Saging Frito
Bien Sabroso
A rough English Translation would be:
Finding Partners
Black White
Fried Banana
Very Delicious
*No hay is frequently spelled and pronounced as nuay in Chabacano.
I did, however, stumble upon some information on a particular usage of the Spanish valer which is quite similar to one of the usages of this word in Chabacano.
If you are ever in Zamboanga city and see a group of children making up rules for a game that they are about to play, you might probably hear them say *no hay vale ___________. Or, if you see some kids playing, you might probably hear one of them say to one another nuay vale ansina.
Here is a dialogue which features this phrase:
Boy 1: Juga kita entramos! (entramos is the Chabacano equivalent of the game patintero)
Boy 2:Ok. Pero no hay vale ta jala mano o brazo.
Boy 3: Oo, no hay vale ansina. No hay tambien vale ta quita camisa.
Here is a rough English translation of this dialogue:
Boy 1: Let’s play entramos!
Boy 2: Ok. But pulling of hands or arms is not allowed.
Boy 3: Right. That’s not allowed. Also, you can’t remove your clothes.
The above dialogue is not realistic. It is used just to show how one would use this phrase in Chabacano.
In Spanish, eso no vale would mean something like it’s not allowed or you can’t do that.
At the office, I heard somebody who belonged to a Spanish-speaking family in the Philippines say, no vale la comida. This may be what is called Philippine Spanish and it means that the food wasn't good.
Finally, I would like to add this song that kids sing whenever they are choosing teams
The song goes like this:
Buscahan partner
Negro Blanco
Saging Frito
Bien Sabroso
A rough English Translation would be:
Finding Partners
Black White
Fried Banana
Very Delicious
*No hay is frequently spelled and pronounced as nuay in Chabacano.
This article was also published in the International Year of Indigenous Languages Philippines website.
Jajaja yo extraño con ese juego, Jerome.
ReplyDeleteJerome: ¿por qué "nuay vale" en vez de "hende vale"? Muchas gracias
ReplyDeleteHola Mauro! No estoy seguro pero creo que es como decir que algo no tiene valor.
Delete