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

The Chabacano Estaba

The word estaba in Spanish means someone or something used to be somewhere. If you say yo estaba en Mexico, it means I was or used to be in Mexico.

This is obviously where the Chabacano estaba came from. Estaba in Chabacano means 'to come from'. Here are some examples of how the Chabacano estaba is used.

Chabacano: Donde estaba ese comida?
English: Where did that food come from?

Chabacano: Estaba na mi tata este camisa.
Engish: This shirt came from my dad.

Chabacano: Con quien estaba ese regalo?
English: Who is that gift from?

In some instances though, the way we use the Chabacano estaba somehow looks like the way it used in Spanish. This is the other definition of estaba. Here some examples.

Chabacano: Donde tu estaba?
English: Where were you? (or where did you go)

Chabacano: Estaba yo na banco.
English: I was at the bank. (or I went to the bank)

Chabacano: Estaba, nurse mi nana.
English: My nurse used to be a nurse.

Chabacano: Estaba, na San Roque mi nana ta queda.
English: My mom used to live in San Roque.

In the last two sentences, the word estaba is used to express that something happened a long time ago (like a synonym of antes).

the Chabacano word pensaba is another Spanish word that was incorporated into it in the same grammatical tense.


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

Comments

  1. Buenas dias! =D

    Chene iyo el blog post written in Chabacano. Practice-practice lang para queda bueno mi abilidad hablar el lenguaje. :)

    Por favor, can you read my post? :) Check if I used the words correctly. :)Gracias :)

    http://amahbee.tumblr.com/post/30791474116/el-tres-gentes-my-first-post-in-this-language-3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Emily. I read your post. Okay ya aquel. Tiene mga mali pero entende ya con aquel mga gente. :D

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Porque by Maldita Lyrics (Original Chabacano and Translated Spanish version)

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

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

The Chabacano Expression 'Todo Bagon'

That’s a load of Crap! B*ullsh*t! These are expressions in the English language that are used to mean nonsense, foolishness or hogwash (which is another expression). In the Chabacano de Zamboanga, we say lasang or lasangan . Lasang or lasangan came out during the early 2000s (I think) and was in use for about a decade. Previously though, the favored word was tonterias, pendejadas or locuras . All these words are actually falling into disuse. Today, the favored word is todo bagon.   Todo means 'all' and bagon means shrimp paste (from  bagoong ). So literally, it means all shrimp paste. When you say that a person is todo bagon , it means that that person is not making any sense. One may also say todo vos bagon or you are all shrimp paste. A word of caution though, this sounds very offensive. I heard that this expression is very popular among the people who live in the rural areas or on the outskirts of Zamboanga city. It is quickly gaining popularity though in main