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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 Tiene Vez

In Chabacano, the word for sometimes is tiene vez. It is often spelled and pronounced as chene bes. In Spanish, this Chabacano phrase is a veces or hay veces. From this comparison, we can see how very similar the two languages are.


Here are some sentences using the Chabacano tiene vez.

Chabacano: Tiene vez, hinde yo ta puede dormi.
English: Sometimes, I’m not able to sleep.

Chabacano: Tiene vez lang yo ta anda na casa de mi tata.
English: I only go to my dad’s house sometimes.

Chabacano: Tiene vez no sabe gayod kita cosa ay pasa na deaton mga vida.
English: Sometimes, we really don’t know what is going to happen to our lives.

Here is a song titled Tiene Ves. It is in the Chabacano de Zamboanga language.


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Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 27, 2013 at 8:03 PM

    Thank you for setting up this blog! My dad, and relatives speak chanakano and i grew up hearing he language Often thus making me understand but cannot speak... This blig of yours will help me continue my family's zamboangenio blood running through our veins despite the fact that i have never been there. ( im from cebu btw )

    Anyway thAnks once more

    ReplyDelete
  2. keiichiJune 20, 2013 at 7:18 PM

    can you translate the song for me please ... thanks ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jerome HerreraJune 21, 2013 at 11:10 PM

    Hi keiichi. I'll try to come up with an english translation soon. Thanks for visiting!

    ReplyDelete

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