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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 Volve

In Chabacano, the word volve means to go home. This most probably comes from the Spanish volver.

Here are some examples of how we use the word volve in Chabacano.

Chabacano: Que hora tu volve?
English: What time will you go home?

Chabacano: De noche ya cuando ya puede yo volve ayer.
English: It was already night time when I was able to go home yesterday.

Chabacano: Cuando tu volve na Zamboanga?
English: When are you coming home to Zamboanga?

Chabacano: Volve ya yo.
English: I'm going home already.

Chabacano: Donde tu ta volve?
English: Where do you go home to?

A word that is derived from volve is pavolvida. It means to head home. For example, you could say pavolvida ya ba tu (are you heading home already).

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