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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 Vacia

The Chabacano vacia is pronounced as basha. For this article, we will use the Spanish spelling vacia.

The Spanish vaciar means 'to empty or drain'. Obviously, this comes from the Spanish word vacio (or at least the two words are connected) which means 'empty'.

In Chabacano, the word vacia can mean either 'to pour' or 'to empty'. So when asking somebody to pour the contents of a container, it is often necessary to specify whether you mean to pour everything or just a partial amount in Chabacano.

Here are some examples of how this is used in the Chabacano language.

Chabacano: Vacia todo aqui.
English: Pour everything here.

Chabacano: *Un poco lang vacia na balde.
English: Pour a little into the bucket.

Chabacano: Vacia agua favor na palangana.
English: Pour water into the basin, please.

In Spanish, the word vaciar also means to empty out or drain something. However, I am not certain if this word can also mean to pour in the Spanish language.

*Un poco is often pronounced as umpoco in Chabacano.

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