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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

The Chabacano No Hay Nada

The Chabacano no hay nada no doubt comes from the Spanish no hay nada. No hay nada, however in Spanish means there is nothing. In Chabacano, this means that something is not good or no good.

Here are some sentences using the Chabacano no hay nada.

Chabacano: No hay nada man el mall alla.
English: That mall over there was not very nice/good.

Chabacano: No hay nada gayod este computer de mio.
English: This computer is not worth anything/ not nice.

Among some people (especially old people), no hay nada has more or less retained its original Spanish meaning. Here is how I heard somebody use the Chabacano no hay nada: no hay nada ya gayod sila (when she was talking about our neighbor). What she meant by this was what they (our neighbors) didn’t have anything anymore (in terms of material and/or financial possessions).

I doubt if there are still young Chabacano speakers today who know this other meaning of the Chabacano no hay nada. What I’m sure of is that the meaning of the Spanish hay is already lost on all Chabacano speakers. While there are people who would still spell the word no hay (nuay) as no hay (which was the original Spanish spelling), they would not know the grammar behind it.

Comments

  1. I did notice that in the word "nada" in the Bible translations would usually mean "anything" as in materials and finances or would also be in the idiomatic phrase "no hay nada" meaning "not good".

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