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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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The Chabacano Enamora

The concept of courtship is mostly lost in today’s youth. Only a few people today go through the stage of courtship. Courtship is the phase in a relationship wherein two people get to know each other, go out and watch movies, or have dinner. People nowadays mostly just “hook up”.

The word for courting (someone) in Chabacano is enamora. This word comes from the Spanish enamorar which also means to win somebody's love.

Here are some examples of how to use this word in Chabacano:

Chabacano: Tiene quien ta enomara conmigo.
English: Somebody is courting me.

Chabacano: Masquin quelaya de tarda ele conmigo enamora, hinde yo conele ay contesta.
English: No matter how much time he spends in courting me, I won't answer him. *literal translation

Chabacano: Ya enomara conmigo ese viejo antes.
English: That old guy courted me in the past.

Chabacano: Por que tu ta dale conmigo flores? Ta enomara ba tu conmigo?
English: Why are you giving me flowers? Are you courting me?

In the Tagalog language, the word for the Chabacano enamora is ligaw. This word also comes from Spanish, specifically from the Spanish ligar.

Another related word in Spanish is the word enamorado(a). This word is very common in the Spanish language because it means to be in love. I didn't know that we had the same word in Chabacano but in the dictionary of Camins, the word inamorao (meaning to fall in love) exists. Though I am sure that this word is not very much in use today.

I'm pretty sure that most young Chabacano speakers today (even those who don't speak English that well) would prefer to use the English term 'in love' or in lab (as it would be pronounced in the Chabacano language). So if you are a young Chabacano speaker, I challenge you to use the Bien Chabacano word inamorao in your everyday conversations. 😜

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

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