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Showing posts from January, 2014

The Little Prince By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Is Now Available In Chabacano!

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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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How To Say 'From' in Chabacano

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I was recently asked how to say the word 'from' in Chabacano and while I was thinking about this question, I realized just how difficult it is to say the word from in our language. You see, the English from translates to different words in Chabacano depending on the context. In this post, I will illustrate how to say the word from in Chabacano during different scenarios. Getting something from somewhere: Chabacano: Favor man withdraw para conmigo cen na banco. English: Please withdraw money for me from the bank. Chabacano: Puede tu anda na mi cuarto y saca mio aretes na mesa? English: Can you go to my room and get my earrings from the table? Getting something from somebody (definite person): Chabacano: Puede tu saca el vaso con Arlene? English: Can you get the glass from Arlene? Chabacano: Puede tu saca el libro con Misis Aguilar? English: Can you get the book from Mrs. Aguilar? Getting something from somebody (indefinite person): Chabacano: Puede tu anda na
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How to say 'Fast' in Chabacano

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It is often tricky to say the word 'fast' in Chabacano. Often it depends on the context on how you say the word 'fast' in Chabacano. There are five ways I can think of to say the word 'fast' in Chabacano. Paspas : This word comes from the Cebuano language. This, I think, is the most common word for 'fast' in Chabacano, especially among young Chabacano speakers. Todas: The word todas is defined as in full force or with much force by the Chabacano dictionary of Rolando Arquiza Santos (2010). This word is sometimes also used to mean 'fast' or 'loud' by other people but these definitions don’t exist in Santos’ Chabacano dictionary because these definitions are very colloquial. Camins’ Chabacano dictionary was published more than twenty years before Santos’ does not have the word todas . Pronto: This word comes from the Spanish language and it also means quick or fast in that language. In Italian , the word pronto also exists and means
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Na Maldito Arena by Jesus Balmori (A Poem Written in the Chavacano de Ermita)

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A few days ago, I received a comment from a certain "JPS" on a blog post which I wrote regarding the Chavacano de Ermita . On his comment, JPS says that the Chavacano de Ermita poem excerpt which I talked about in my post was from a poem written by Jesus Balmori (in 1917) titled Na Maldito Arena . Upon learning about this, I immediately set out to do some research on this poem as there are not a lot of Chavacano de Ermita samples around anymore. The first thing that I discovered from my research (READ Google Search) was that Jesus Balmori was a poet who wrote mainly in Spanish and was even dubbed by some as being as good as Jose Rizal. According to Wikipedia, he was born in 1887 (the time period which saw the rise of the Philippine bourgeoisie) and died in 1948 (a few years after WW2). Here is the complete text of the poem Na Maldito Arena: I. Ta sumí el sol na pondo del mar. ....Y el mar, callao el boca, ta jugá con su mana marejadas como un muchacha nerbiosa con s
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The Traditional Chabacano de Zamboanga

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If you are a Chabacano de Zamboanga speaker in your early 20's or 30's, you probably did not understand a lot of the words used in the article. This is because this article was written in the traditional Chabacano de Zamboanga. Unfortunately, this article is not dated but according to some friends, it may have been written during the 1970s onwards. If you observe, there are no English, Tagalog, Cebuano, or Hiligaynon words mixed in the Chabacano used in the article.You do see English translations from time to time though notably only on very deep Chabacano words which is for the benefit of the readers.You even see some semblance of Spanish grammar in the usage of se  instead of sabe and  sus ( dos hijos ) instead of just su . Here now is a translation made by my friend of this article to English: Prominent Families In my entire life, I have never heard any news, neither verbal nor written, about the Atilano family of Zamboanga. A branch of this family is living sim
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A Sample of the Chavacano in Cavite

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I recently found a Facebook group for speakers of the Chabacano variant in Cavite city. What is great about this discovery is that this Facebook group has conversations between Chavacano de Cavite speakers and these conversations show us how this language is being spoken among Caviteños themselves.  For me, it is more interesting to study actual unedited conversations rather than edited ones because it ensures the presence of certain lexical items such as those that appear as a result of code-switching and spelling changes.  The conversation above was started by somebody who laments the state of the Chavacano de Cavite and hopes that it can be revived. The first comment suggests that street signs be bilingual (English and Chavacano) like in the United States so that kids will learn to read Chavacano. The second comment asks where he could get a book about Chavacano which he intends to give to his grandfath
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Porque by Maldita Lyrics (Original Chabacano and Translated Spanish version)

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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 Nunca acepta Si tu ay vira por el dolor ya senti Por que contigo yo ya escoge? Ahora mi corazon ta suf
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How To Say 'I Love You' And 'I Hate You' In Chabacano

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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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How to say I Miss You in Chabacano

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In Facebook groups, a lot of people, even Chabacano speakers themselves, seem to be wondering how to say 'I miss you' in Chabacano. Most Chabacano speakers get away with just saying tan miss ya yo contigo . However, the verb miss is still untranslated. The English verb to miss (someone or something) may very well be untranslatable. I googled I miss you in Tagalog  and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw what Google Translate had to say: In very formal Tagalog, one can say nangungulila ako sa iyo although it will probably make you cringe saying it. Most formal Chabacano translations of I miss you  are similar; they will make you cringe saying them. Besides, most people wouldn't understand you anyway, if you use them. In Cebuano, they actually have a translation for I miss you  and that is gimingaw kaayo ko nimo. I'm not sure though if Cebuano speakers actually say this. My friend tells me that it's more common to hear people say namiss na ta ka which if yo
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