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 ...
My friend and I were speaking about the company Christmas party recently and something she said caught my attention. She said yung comida no vale talaga.
This friend of mine had a Spanish mestiza grandmother who taught her how to speak Spanish.
I was more intrigued though when I was chatting with a Mexican friend of mine and she told me mas vale si… (when she was telling me what I ought to do).
The reason why these caught my attention is that these usages of the word vale are very close to the Chabacano usage.
Here are some sentences using the word vale (meaning 'good' or 'nice') in Chabacano.
Chabacano: Vale gale aqui na Manila…
English: I didn’t know that Manila was nice.
Chabacano: Vale man ese tuyo cellphone…
English: Your cellphone is nice.
Chabacano: Mas vale si cen ya lang tu conmigo dale.
English: It’s better if you just give me money.
There is also another way to use the word vale in Chabacano and I discussed that here.
This friend of mine had a Spanish mestiza grandmother who taught her how to speak Spanish.
I was more intrigued though when I was chatting with a Mexican friend of mine and she told me mas vale si… (when she was telling me what I ought to do).
The reason why these caught my attention is that these usages of the word vale are very close to the Chabacano usage.
Here are some sentences using the word vale (meaning 'good' or 'nice') in Chabacano.
Chabacano: Vale gale aqui na Manila…
English: I didn’t know that Manila was nice.
Chabacano: Vale man ese tuyo cellphone…
English: Your cellphone is nice.
Chabacano: Mas vale si cen ya lang tu conmigo dale.
English: It’s better if you just give me money.
There is also another way to use the word vale in Chabacano and I discussed that here.
Comments
Post a Comment