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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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The Chabacano Regorda

I have always thought that the word regorda in Chabacano has Spanish origins. Upon checking my Spanish dictionary however, it seems that this is not true.

The Chabacano regorda means to burp or to belch. This word is not included in the Chabacano dictionary of Camins. It does appear however in the more recent Chabacano dictionary of Rolando Arquiza Santos. Santos defines this word as 'to belch' or 'to have stomach acid reflex'.

Here are some sentences using this word.

Chabacano: Hinde bueno mira na un mujer ta regorda.
English: It’s not polite for a woman to burp.

Chabacano: Si ta regorda el un gente, quiere decir busug ya le.
English: When someone burps, it means that he is already full.

Chabacano: No tu bastus. No regorda en frente de mio.
English: Don’t be rude. Don’t burp in front of me.

A month after I published this article somebody was able to solve this puzzle. Eduardo Tobar posted a comment below in which he says that regorda comes from the Spanish regoldar. According to the DRAE, this word means eructar los gases del estómago or to let out gases from the stomach. I think we can safely conclude that indeed, this was where the Chabacano regorda came from.

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  1. AnonymousDecember 9, 2013 at 8:29 PM

    Hola Jerome: En castellano se usa la palabra "regorda",para indicar que una persona esta muy,muy gorda.Seria algo asi como "dos veces gorda".Tambien tiene un significado tipo "sorpresa" o un problema grande.Saludos desde el sur de espana!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 16, 2013 at 11:05 AM

    Regordá has the same meaning in Caviteño (usually pronounced rigurdá) and it certainly does have Spanish origins in the word regoldar which is from latin regurgitare.

    However, I think regoldar might be español antiguo as I rarely hear it much less use it, preferring the word eructar instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jerome HerreraDecember 16, 2013 at 9:35 PM

      Yes this could possibly where it originated. Thanks for the information.

      Delete
  3. Eduardo TobarJanuary 25, 2014 at 6:53 AM

    Hola Jerome, I think I have the answer... It is in the Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua www.rae.es: regoldar
    : http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=regolda
    Regoldar: Eructar los gases del estómago.

    Es español sin duda.
    Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eduardo TobarJanuary 25, 2014 at 6:53 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

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