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Showing posts from October, 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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The Chabacano Logra

Whenever I speak my very limited Spanish, I sometimes use the word lograr to mean that I was able to do something. A few days ago, I met with my Zamboangueño friend whom I have not seen for some time. Imagine my surprise when he used this word. The way he used this word though told me that it’s Chabacano meaning is different from the Spanish meaning of this word. Camins’ dictionary defines this word as 'to avail one’s self of and he translates the word as lograr in Spanish. Santos’ dictionary meanwhile defines this word as 'to succeed', 'to enjoy', 'to achieve', and 'to take advantage'. When my friend used this word, he actually meant 'to enjoy'. Here are his exact words: logra, logra ya kamo (meaning to take advantage of the moment and to enjoy it). The difference between Camins’ and Santos’definition of this word is a bit puzzling. Does this mean that the definitions to enjoy and to take advantage just evolved from the original mea...
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The Chabacano Guinda

I initially had a hard time looking for the word guinda in my Chabacano dictionary. I thought that this word was spelled as ginda (without the u). I even thought that this word could not come from the Spanish language since gi would be pronounced as the English hi . Then I heard the word guisa during a cooking show. Then I thought, ‘hey, guisa is derived from the Spanish guisar , wait a minute…’. It was then that I realized that ginda must be spelled as guinda. I can’t establish though whether this word comes from the Spanish guindar as its meaning is very far from the Chabacano meaning of guinda . Wordreference.com defines the Spanish word guindar as either to pinch, swipe, win, or hang up. The Portuguese guindar’s meaning is also very far from the Chabacano meaning. So what does the word guinda mean in Chabacano? Camins defines it as 'to get there'. Santos meanwhile defines it as 'to arrive' or 'to get there'. Here are some sentences in Chabaca...
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The Chabacano Maridable

A few days ago, I received a question from a reader of this blog on what the word maridable means.  I instantly set out to do some research on this word. While the Chabacano maridable sounds very Spanish, I was shocked to learn that it does not exist in Spanish (or at least in standard Spanish). I was able to find some websites which said that this word is an adjective related to marriage but they were all vague at best. The Chabacano maridable is a noun meaning 'a married couple'. In Zamboanga city, its people being relatively conservative, you would still find a lot of maridables . Unmarried couples living together are still frowned upon in this part of the Philippines. A very important grammatical point to take note is that the Chabacano maridable can only be used for MARRIED couples. It cannot be used on just any couple (i.e. unmarried couples). Here are some sentences using the Chabacano maridable . Chabacano: Despierto ya ba el maridable? English: Are the cou...
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The Chabacano Mañana

In Spanish, the word  mañana  can mean both 'tomorrow' and 'morning'. In Chabacano, the same word exists along with the word  aga . In the following sentences, you will learn how the Chabacano aga and mañana are used. Chabacano: Mañana, a las diez del aga el casamiento. English: The wedding is tomorrow at 10 AM. Chabacano: Vira ya lang yo aqui mañana aga. English: I’ll just come back tomorrow morning. Chabacano: Tiene ba misa mañana tarde? English: Is there a mass tomorrow afternoon? Chabacano: Mañana de noche ba kita mira cine? English: Is it tomorrow night that we are watching a movie? Chabacano: A la mañana ya lang kita continua kay ta escurece ya. English: Let’s just continue this tomorrow morning because it’s getting dark already. Chabacano: Okay lang ba si pasao mañana ya yo paga contigo el de mio debe? English: Is it okay if I pay you my debt the day after tomorrow? Chabacano: Aga ya ba? Despierto ya man tu? English: Is it morning already...
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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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