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Showing posts from June, 2013

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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4 Simple And Polite Ways To Give Advice In Chabacano

Here are four simple ways on how you can give advice effectively and politely in Chabacano. 1. Put yourself in the shoes of the other person One very good way to introduce an advice in English is by saying ‘if I were you…’. Giving an advice this way is very tactful and polite. This translates to si yo contigo... in Chabacano. Here are some examples: Chabacano: Si yo contigo, dona yo cen para na mga pobre. English: If I were you, I would donate money to the poor. Chabacano: Si yo contigo,anda yo na iglesia *todo'l semana. English: If I were you, I would go to church every week. As you may have noticed, would + verb is expressed in the future tense in Chabacano. If you have a hard time figuring out why I’m saying the verbs presented above are in the future tense form, just note that there is no ya nor ta in front of the verb. In this context, it can’t be in the imperative tense either. Thus, you can conclude it is in the future tense. As I have discussed in a differe...
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The Chabacano Rampago and Rayo

The words rampago and rayo are interjections in the Chabacano language. They both can mean 'damn it', 'darn it', 'damn', or 'darn'. Both of these I believe come from the Spanish relampago and rayos (respectively). The words relampago and rayo  in Spanish mean 'lightning' or 'a flash of lightning'. As far as the research I have done on the word relampago , it is never used as an interjection in the Spanish language. The interjection rayos (with an s) does occur in the Spanish language and it means 'damn' or 'damn it'. And because of the Chabacano accent wherein Chabacano speakers normally drop the 's' at the end of a word, we can safely assume that the Chabacano rayo came from the Spanish rayos . This word also exists in the Chavacano de Ternate languagee. Esteban A De Ocampo, in his book, defines this word as 'ray', 'thunderbolt', and 'an insulting word or remark'. The word can ...
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Origins of the Chabacano Casillas

The Spanish word casilla  may mean 'an outhouse' or 'an outdoor toilet'. In Chabacano, this word becomes casillas (with an 's'), and it means 'toilet'. To some, a distinction exists between casillas and baño ( baño being indoors and casillas outdoors) but there are people who apply the word casillas to toilets in general (whether they are indoors or outdoors). These words ( baño and casillas ) are mostly used to refer to toilets at home. When in public, people prefer to use the words 'toilet' or 'CR'. I’m not sure about other Zamboangueños, but I feel like it’s a bit too vulgar if I ask where the baño or the casillas is when I’m in a mall. 😂 Here are some words using the Chabacano casillas . Chabacano: Donde el casillas? English: Where is the toilet? Chabacano: Puede tu limpia (con) el casillas? English: Can you clean the toilet? Chabacano: Aquel ba el casillas? English: Is that the toilet? In Camins’ dictionary, ...
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Origins the Chabacano Escucha

One of the things that can make Spanish a bit confusing to somebody who speaks Chabacano is that some of the words which exist in both languages would have different meanings in each language. One of these words is the Chabacano escucha . I had a hard time adjusting to the fact that the Spanish escuchar means to listen. In Chabacano, escucha means 'to peep'. What makes this very interesting is that the Chabacano meaning of this word doesn’t go very far from its Spanish meaning. I can imagine a Spanish speaking guy and a Chabacano speaking guy standing in front of a door. The Spanish speaking person tells the Chabacano speaking person, escucha  (meaning 'to listen'). The Chabacano speaking guy (misinterpreting the command) opens the door slightly and tries to take a peek into the room instead of harking which was what he was asked to do. This is probably how the Chabacano word escucha came about. Here are some sentences in Chabacano which uses the word escucha . ...
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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...
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A Christmas Greeting in Chabacano

In the Spanish-speaking world, the popular greeting during Christmas time is f eliz navidad . There's even a popular Christmas song with this title. In the Chabacano-speaking world, however, the more common greeting is f elices pascuas as shown below in a Facebook greeting by the present mayor of Zamboanga city in her Facebook page. Owing to the fact however that some Chabacano speakers tend not to pronounce the letter 's', this gets spelled as  Felices Pascua at times, as is the case in the greeting below. Source: Facebook page of the mayor This also happens with f eliz cumpleanos . In Chabacano, people tend to say f eliz cumpleano , without the 's' at the end. Now if you are wondering why we say f elices pascuas  instead of f eliz navidad in Chabacano, here is a possible explanation. In case you haven't noticed, there's a tiny inscription in the photo that reads v aya con dios . This is the mayor's sort-of slogan which literally means ...
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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...
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