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 words guevon and haragan are colloquial words found mostly in Latin American Spanish. They both mean lazy.
These words also occur in the Chabacano language. There are however some differences in how these words are used in the Spanish and Chabacano language.
In Chabacano, the word haragan is an adjective meaning glutton. The word guevon meanwhile is an adjective that can mean 'somebody with big testicles' and 'a lazy person'. The word guevon is also colloquial (and offensive) in the Chabacano language and it doesn’t, in fact, appear in the dictionary of Camins and Rolando Arquiza Santos (2010). The word haragan does appear in both these dictionaries because it is not considered colloquial.
Rolando Arquiza Santos defines the word haragan as 'glutton', 'greedy', and 'ravenous'. Camins meanwhile defines it as 'a glutton'. Santos’ dictionary also has the word 'guevos' which he defines as testicles (the more used word though for testicles is bola-bola).
Some people pronounce this word as aragan and some pronounce it as haragan (like h in 'hat'). Note that the last 'a' in haragan has a stress in it. This occurs both when said in the Spanish and Chabacano languages.
A note on the word guevon. This word does not appear in the speech of all Chabacano speakers. It is mostly spoken by people who live in rural areas. The more conventional word for lazy is flojo/floja.
These words also occur in the Chabacano language. There are however some differences in how these words are used in the Spanish and Chabacano language.
In Chabacano, the word haragan is an adjective meaning glutton. The word guevon meanwhile is an adjective that can mean 'somebody with big testicles' and 'a lazy person'. The word guevon is also colloquial (and offensive) in the Chabacano language and it doesn’t, in fact, appear in the dictionary of Camins and Rolando Arquiza Santos (2010). The word haragan does appear in both these dictionaries because it is not considered colloquial.
Rolando Arquiza Santos defines the word haragan as 'glutton', 'greedy', and 'ravenous'. Camins meanwhile defines it as 'a glutton'. Santos’ dictionary also has the word 'guevos' which he defines as testicles (the more used word though for testicles is bola-bola).
Some people pronounce this word as aragan and some pronounce it as haragan (like h in 'hat'). Note that the last 'a' in haragan has a stress in it. This occurs both when said in the Spanish and Chabacano languages.
A note on the word guevon. This word does not appear in the speech of all Chabacano speakers. It is mostly spoken by people who live in rural areas. The more conventional word for lazy is flojo/floja.
Of course guevon won't appear in the dictionary, you need to look under huevón.
ReplyDeleteAlso, regarding the aspirated h, it was voiced this way in Medieval Spanish. You can still hear it pronounced this way among some people in Extremadura, Andalucía, and Islas Canarias.