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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

Philippine Elections in Chavacano de Cavite

This is a conversation between a blogger and her grandma in Chavacano de Cavite regarding an election day in the Philippines. This conversation was taken from Habla Chabacano which is a blog about the Chavacano de Cavite. I will be translating the conversation to the Chabacano de Zamboanga and will point out differences between the Chabacano de Zamboanga and the Chavacano de Cavite that I will find. The English translation is courtesy of the blogger at Habla Chabacano.

This is the original conversation in Chavacano de Cavite:

My Grandmother (MG): Temprano yo ya anda na Cavite. Ya kumbida Lauring con niso alla ya lang daw almusa. Al llegando alla, que mucho genti. Mucho ya atraca comigo, hija daw de si quien. No ma yo ta conoci. Muchong mucho genti, kalat na kalat, ta lluvi de papel. Pobre naman ilo si no gana.

Me: Ya escribi tu plojo.

MG: Plojong plojo yo. Ya haci yo claro para pudi ilo le.

Me: Con quien tu ya vota?

MG: Con Aquino siyempre Diyes nombre lang. No hay kasi ta habla comigo si quien pa.

Me: Con quien pa tu ya vota?

MG: Con Lacson din. De Imus aquel. El tata no se de Imus. Paredes pa rin di gana. Recio pa rin no se eli alla. Pero bueno kaya quel?

Me: Ewan ko

This is my translation of the conversation to the Chabacano de Zamboanga:

My Grandmother (MG): Temprano yo ya anda na Cavite. Ya combida si Lauring conamon alla ya lang almorza. Bien mucho gayod gente del ya llega kame alla. Mucho quien ya atraca conmigo, hija daw sila de este… de aquel. Hinde mas yo ta conoce. Bien mucho gayod gente, donde donde lang. El papel daw ulan ya cae. Pobre man aquellos si hindi sila gana.

Me: Enbuenamente tu ya escribi?

MG: Enbuenamente yo ya escribi. Ya precura yo hace claro para entende sila.

Me: Con quien tu ya vota?

MG: Con Aquino, siempre. Diez nombre lang. No hay kasi quien ya habla conmigo con quien pa yo vota.

Me: Con quien pa tu ya vota?

MG: Con Lacson tamen. De Imus aquel. El tata gaha suyo de Imus. Si Paredes ay gana. Fuerte siempre ele gaha alla na suyo lugar. Puero bueno gaha aquel?

Me: No sabe yo.

This is the English translation of the blogger:

My Grandmother (MG): I went to Cavite early. Lauring [my niece] invited me to have breakfast at her place. There were so many people approaching me, children of whoever, I don't know them anymore. There were so many people, so much trash everywhere, it rained paper. What a waste if they didn't win.

Me: You wrote slowly?

MG: Very slowly. I tried to make it clear so they could read it.

Me: Whom did you vote for?

MG: For Aquino, of course. Just ten names. No one told me who else to vote for.

Me: Who else did you vote for?

MG: For Lacson also. He's from Imus. I think his father is from Imus. Paredes [mayoralty candidate] will win. He's still strong. Is he a good mayor?

Me: I don't know.

I have to admit that it was quite a challenge translating this conversation and I often had to peek at the English translation. One of the funny things that I noticed was that Chavacano de Cavite uses the word plojo to mean slow. In Chabacano de Zamboanga, flojo (pronounced and spelled by many as ploho) would mean lazy (as in a lazy person). But it does make sense I guess because, in English, you could use the word lazily as an adverb (for example 'he walked lazily'). I translated this word in Chabacano as enbuenamente because in this context, writing slowly can also mean to write well. Enbuenamente means well in Chabacano.

Another thing that caught my attention is the usage of no se. From my understanding, it is used to denote uncertainty. No se in Spanish means 'I don’t know'. The Chabacano de Zamboanga equivalent would be the word gaha.

I would just like to point out that I don’t speak Chavacano de Cavite but I am a native speaker of the Chabacano de Zamboanga.

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