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 ...
While most people in Zamboanga city pronounce the spanish word vez as bes, there are still many of us who spell it with a 'v' at the beginning and a 'z' at the end.
What is curious is the fact that there are some phrases using this word that conforms with Spanish grammar and there are those that don’t. First, let us enumerate these phrases:
*Otra vez (again)
Una vez (once)
Dos veces (twice)
Primera Vez (first time)
Ultimo Vez (last time)
Cuanto veces (how many times…)
As you may see in the list above, the phrase otra vez (again) conforms with Spanish grammar. We can see that instead of otro, we use otra as vez is a feminine noun. This goes the same for una vez, dos veces, primera vez. However this is not true in ultimo vez and cuanto veces.
So why this linguistic anomaly? It sounds to me like these spanish-sounding phrases were implanted in Chabacano during a period of hispanization of the Chabacano de Zamboanga during the 19th century (this is a theory from one of Lipski's studies on Chabacano)? Note that when placing an article in front of primera vez and ultimo vez, we use el and not la.
Here now are some sentences using the vez phrases listed above:
Chabacano: Ya olvida yo otra vez mi llave na casa
English: I forgot my keys at home
Chabacano: Una vez pa lang yo ya puede anda na Manila
English: I have only been to Manila once
Chabacano: Dos veces ya tu ‘se ya habla conmigo
English: You’ve told me that twice already.
Chabacano: Este ba el primera vez tuyo na Manila?
English: Is this your first time in Manila?
Chabacano: Cuando el ultimo vez tu ya visita conmigo?
English: When was the last time you visited me?
Chabacano: Cuanto veces bay o necesita habla contigo…
English: How many time do I have to tell you…
*Often spelled and pronounced as otrabes
What is curious is the fact that there are some phrases using this word that conforms with Spanish grammar and there are those that don’t. First, let us enumerate these phrases:
*Otra vez (again)
Una vez (once)
Dos veces (twice)
Primera Vez (first time)
Ultimo Vez (last time)
Cuanto veces (how many times…)
As you may see in the list above, the phrase otra vez (again) conforms with Spanish grammar. We can see that instead of otro, we use otra as vez is a feminine noun. This goes the same for una vez, dos veces, primera vez. However this is not true in ultimo vez and cuanto veces.
So why this linguistic anomaly? It sounds to me like these spanish-sounding phrases were implanted in Chabacano during a period of hispanization of the Chabacano de Zamboanga during the 19th century (this is a theory from one of Lipski's studies on Chabacano)? Note that when placing an article in front of primera vez and ultimo vez, we use el and not la.
Here now are some sentences using the vez phrases listed above:
Chabacano: Ya olvida yo otra vez mi llave na casa
English: I forgot my keys at home
Chabacano: Una vez pa lang yo ya puede anda na Manila
English: I have only been to Manila once
Chabacano: Dos veces ya tu ‘se ya habla conmigo
English: You’ve told me that twice already.
Chabacano: Este ba el primera vez tuyo na Manila?
English: Is this your first time in Manila?
Chabacano: Cuando el ultimo vez tu ya visita conmigo?
English: When was the last time you visited me?
Chabacano: Cuanto veces bay o necesita habla contigo…
English: How many time do I have to tell you…
*Often spelled and pronounced as otrabes
Dos veces is twice, not thrice.
ReplyDeleteThank for alerting me on that. :D
ReplyDelete