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Showing posts from April, 2012

The Little Prince By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Is Now Available In Chabacano!

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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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The Chabacano Corre

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The word corre can mean three different things in the Chabacano language. The Chabacano corre  can be a verb meaning 'to run'. This meaning is similar to the Spanish correr . However, corre  can also be an adjective or an adverb meaning 'fast' and this second definition of corre  in Chabacano does not occur in the Spanish correr . The last meaning of the word corre is to function or work (like in English). This last meaning of corre does not appear in any of my Chabacano dictionaries and is not used all the time and may not be known by many people. Here are some examples of how the word corre is used in the Chabacano language. Chabacano: Todol dia yo ta corre na Pasonanca Park. English: I run every day at the Pasonanca Park. Chabacano: Por que tu ta corre? English: Why are you running? Chabacano: Corre man gayod aquel coche… English: That car sure runs fast… Chabacano: Corre gayod t a conversa el de amon maestra. English: Our teacher speaks very fast.
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Differences between the Chavacano in Ternate and the Chabacano in Zamboanga

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A year ago, I bought some books at the Dia de Libro book fair in Instituto Cervantes. One of the books that I bought was a book regarding the Ternateños in Cavite. It talks about the history and language of this people. It is titled The Ternateños: their history, languages, customs, and traditions, it was written by Esteban A. De Ocampo. Through this book, I was able to learn a great deal about the Chavacano de Ternate. It is amusing at how much our two languages are similar and yet we are so far away from each other. It is like the English language which was originally from Britain but was later transported across the Atlantic to the Americas and over the Pacific, to Australia and New Zealand. I was at first apprehensive to write this article because while the book of Esteban A. De Ocampo was published just recently, the research was actually done in the 1940s. 60 years is a lot of time for a language to evolve and transform itself. Take the Chabacano de Zamboanga for example, peo
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Forming Nouns out of Verbs in Chabacano

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In English, the word cooking can be used as a noun (e.g. how is your cooking, I love his cooking), and of course as a verb (e.g. I am cooking at home, I am cooking pasta). There are not a lot of –ing verbs that can be used as a noun in English though. You can’t say 'I like your playing' (as in I like how you played) or your 'walking is weird' (as in you walk weird). But here are other –ing verbs turned into nouns in English and how one can use them as a noun: Acting His acting is good. Writing His writing is legible Singing Your singing makes me cry Reasoning My reasoning is correct. Staring Staring is impolite In Chabacano, we can also easily form nouns out of -ing verbs. This is especially useful when describing (the quality) how an action was done. Here is a list of nouns that comes from -ing verb: Cocinada (from cocina ) Hacida (from hace ) Lavada (from lava ) Quemada (from quema ) Usada (from usa ) Conversada (from conversa ) Ponida (from p
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The Chabacano Decir

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When asking someone to tell a person to do something, we follow this sentence construction pattern in Chabacano: habla con (name) na/que (what you want that person to do) . Much to my chagrin, this was how my Chabacano speaking friend at the office (who didn’t speak Spanish very well) attempted to communicate to a Mexican that he needed to tell someone to do something. Here is an example of how this is used in full. Chabacano: Habla con tu tata que necesita yo habla con ele. English: Tell your father that I need to speak with him. In Spanish, this sentence would be: dile a tu papa que necesito hablar con el . If you have noticed, the Spanish dile or  digale  becomes habla con  in Spanish. In Spanish, habla con would mean 'to speak with (somebody)'. Here is another example. Chabacano: Habla con Nena que anda le na iglesia mañana. English: Tell Nena to go to church tomorrow. The only time that decir is used in Chabacano is in the phrase quiere decir . The Cha
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Origins of the Chabacano Hechura

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Last Saturday, I was reading a book while the TV was on a channel showing a preacher answering questions about the Bible. The bible verses he was quoting were in Spanish. So I was absentmindedly listening to the bible verses in Spanish when one word that he mentioned caught my attention: hechura . The reason why that word interested me was because there is a similar word in Chabacano although we used it differently. Most people will probably know this word as ichura . It is spelled as ichura  in Camins' dictionary. Here are some examples of how this word is used in Chabacano. Chabacano: Cosa hechura del tuyo tata? English: How does your father look like? Chabacano: Ansina hechura de tuyo. English: That’s how you look like. Chabacano: Cosa hechura del casa de ila? Vale ba? English: What does their house look like? Is it nice? As you can see, the word hechura in Chabacano is used to mean 'to look like'. It can be used either on people or on things. The meaning
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Origins of the Chabacano Encanta

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The Chabacano word encanta would often be heard in the boutiques, department stores, and malls in Zamboanga city. The word encanta in Chabacano usually means to fall in love with a thing. It is used mostly when shopping or window shopping. Here is a dialogue between two friends shopping in the mall: Pilar: Fred, mira tu este camisa. Dao ta encanta man yo con este. Fred: Cuanto man ese? Pilar: Doscientos lang. Cosa tu ta pensa? Compra ba yo con este? Here is the English version of this Chabacano dialogue: Pilar: Fred, look at this dress. I think I like this dress. Fred: How much is that? Pilar: It’s only two hundred (pesos). What do you think? Will I buy this? Here is another one: Pilar: Anteayer, ya anda yo na mall y tiene yo ya encanta aretes. Fred: Ansina? Ay, bien mucho ya gane gayod tu aretes. Here is the English translation: Pilar: The day before yesterday, I went to the mall and there was an earring that really got my attention. Fred: Really? But you alre
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Porque by Maldita Lyrics (Original Chabacano and Translated Spanish version)

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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 Nunca acepta Si tu ay vira por el dolor ya senti Por que contigo yo ya escoge? Ahora mi corazon ta suf
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How To Say 'I Love You' And 'I Hate You' In Chabacano

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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
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How to say I Miss You in Chabacano

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In Facebook groups, a lot of people, even Chabacano speakers themselves, seem to be wondering how to say 'I miss you' in Chabacano. Most Chabacano speakers get away with just saying tan miss ya yo contigo . However, the verb miss is still untranslated. The English verb to miss (someone or something) may very well be untranslatable. I googled I miss you in Tagalog  and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw what Google Translate had to say: In very formal Tagalog, one can say nangungulila ako sa iyo although it will probably make you cringe saying it. Most formal Chabacano translations of I miss you  are similar; they will make you cringe saying them. Besides, most people wouldn't understand you anyway, if you use them. In Cebuano, they actually have a translation for I miss you  and that is gimingaw kaayo ko nimo. I'm not sure though if Cebuano speakers actually say this. My friend tells me that it's more common to hear people say namiss na ta ka which if yo
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