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Showing posts from April, 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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An Easter Message in Chabacano

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I was browsing a forum about Zamboanga city when I happened upon the local government’s Easter message. I must say that I really like how the Easter message was written in simple but formal Chabacano. It’s sad however that a number of young Zamboangueños probably wouldn’t understand fully this Chabacano text. So here’s a vocabulary guide to make this Easter message more understandable. I actually picked out the words which in my opinion would not be known to Zamboangueños who don’t speak Chabacano well or those that speak it as a second language. En calor de  (on behalf of) Felicita  (to greet) Culminacion  (culmination) Amediante  (amid) Mejor  (better) Ama  (to love) Muerte  (death) Guia  (to guide) Bendici  (to bless) Rezo  (prayer) Domingo De Pascua  (Easter Sunday) Dificultad ( hardship) Fe  (faith) If you watch or listen to Chabacano news or attend public school, you probably wouldn’t have a hard time understanding the message above as Chabacano i
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How To Say 'Law' in Chabacano

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In this post, I shall be talking about the word ley . If you regularly watch or listen to news in Chabacano, this word might ring a bell. Ley in Chabacano means the law. I bet you never guessed that. If you are young, chances are you never knew this word and so you always use the English equivalent. Don't worry, you are not alone. I actually only know this word from Spanish but have never heard it in Chabacano conversations in the past. I actually thought about writing this word because I heard it being used by my brother's wife when we were dining out a few days ago. She probably watches a lot of Chavacano TV Patrol. 😜 Now let us take a look at the different useful phrases using this Chabacano word. Chabacano: Segun na ley English: According to the law Chabacano: Ta na ley / No hay na ley English: (Something) is in the law/ not in the law Here are some sentences using the Chabacano ley . Chabacano: Asegun na ley, prohibido escupi na camino. English: According to
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The Chabacano Sonsaca

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In Tagalog, whenever a person reminds you of a good thing that he or she did for you in a bid to make you do something good for them in return, it is called pagsusumbat or pagmumukha. In Chabacano, we say sonsaca . Santos' Chabacano dictionary defines sonsaca as 'to remind someone of earlier favor granted and favor is not reciprocated'. Most of the people that I know would spell and pronounce this word as sunsaca (with a u). Surprisingly, Camins' dictionary does not have this word. In my opinion, this is one of those words that young Chabacano speakers would probably identify as hondo Chabacano or deep Chabacano. I myself don't use this word a lot though I know some people who love to use this word. A possible candidate of the origin of sonsaca is the Spanish sonsacar . The problem with this theory is that the Spanish sonsacar has a totally different meaning from the Chabacano sonsaca . Here is a sentence using the Chabacano sonsaca . Chabacano: No t
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The Chabacano Señorita and Amigo

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A few hours ago, I come back from a vacation to my lonely and small apartment to find out that my stock of brown rice grew black crawling insects. I was horrified. I debated whether I should just throw the rice away. Having paid a premium for it though, I decided not to. I belatedly asked my dad about it and he said that I should simply wash the rice and remove the insects. He also said that those black crawling insects are called amigo in Chabacano. That prompted me to write this. I don’t know about you but I’ve never heard the word amigo in used like this in Chabacano. Maybe it was because we consumed a lot of rice in the house and never had old stocked rice that there was never any opportunity to learn this word. Anyway, I wonder why these insects would be called amigo , they're hardly anyone's friends. I remember a friend who grew up in Manila but whose father spoke to her in Chabacano, and so she could speak Chabacano only to a certain degree of fluency, say that in
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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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