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
12 comments

How To Say 'Beautiful' in Chabacano


Did you know that there is a difference between the usage of the words bonito and bonita in the Chabacano language?

In the Chabacano language, adjectives generally don’t have genders like in Spanish. The only time that adjectives will have gender in the Chabacano language is when referring to persons. For example, we say:

Alto mi hermano, Alta mi hermana
In English: My brother is tall, My sister is tall

Blanca el mujer, Blanco el hombre
In English: The girl is white, The boy is white

Flaco el mio tio, Flaca el mio prima
In English: My uncle is thin, My (female) cousin is thin

However, for inanimate objects or when referring to people in general, adjectives don’t have genders (they are always masculine). For example, we say:

Blanco el casa
In English: The house is white

Blando el cama mio
In English: My bed is soft

Negro el camisa suyo
In English: His/her shirt is black

With regards to the words bonito and bonita however, they exist independently with their own separate meanings. Bonito is used to say that something is nice while bonita is used to say that a girl is pretty.

Here are some examples of these two words being used:

Chabacano: Bonito el programa na TV ayer.
English: The program on TV yesterday was good.

Chabacano: Bonito el zapatos tuyo.
English: Your shoes are nice.

Chabacano: Bonito el tuyo pelo.
English: Your hair is nice.

Chabacano: Bonita el tuyo prima.
English: Your cousin is pretty.

Note that in Chabacano, we never use the word bonito to say that a boy or a man is good-looking. This word is only used for inanimate objects. Normally, we use the word guapo to say that a boy or a man is good-looking. For women, I have never heard anybody use the word guapa to say that a girl or a woman is pretty. As has already been established, the word bonita is used to say that a woman or a girl is pretty.

This word is pronounced and spelled by most as bunito and bunita. Camins' dictionary has the words bonito and bunito, while Santos' dictionary has bunito and bunita. Camins and Santos both defines the word bunito as 'good looking', although, I don’t think that you will meet anybody who will say bonito el hombre or bonito el mio amigo. To my ears at least, it just sounds really awkward if I will hear someone use the word bonito like this.

Please don't forget to follow me and like Bien Chabacano on Facebook!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Here are the original lyrics of the song Porque by Maldita as well as a rough Spanish translation below. 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 Nunc
17 comments
Read more

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
98 comments
Read more

How to say I Miss You in Chabacano

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
13 comments
Read more