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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-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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Origins of the Chabacano Corazonada

It’s funny how one word means one thing in Spanish and another thing in Chabacano. Take the word corazonada for example. In Chabacano, corazonada means to have feelings for somebody or a crush. In Spanish, it means to have a gut feeling or a hunch.

Now if you speak Chabacano, you probably won’t be able to recognize the word that I’m talking about in this form. You probably know it more as cursunada. Yes, those two are one and the same. I don’t know if there’s still anyone who would pronounce this word as corazonada as most people I know would say cursunada.

Here is an example of how this word would be used in Chabacano de Zamboanga:

Chabacano: Corazonada contigo aquel gente
English: That guy has a crush on you

The word corazonada also is sometimes used to mean preference.

Here is an example:

Chabacano: Cosa tu alli cursunada?
English: Which one do you like?

The corazonada is also present in Tagalog, although I rarely hear people use it. According to this blog post, the word kursunada (in Tagalog) means a condition of intense liking for an object or for a member of the opposite sex. It can also mean a sadistic and lusty fancy when it refers to a condition of dislike. It also says that it can also mean one Filipino resenting the glance of another and striking out in anger.



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