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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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How To Say 'Law' in Chabacano

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 the law, one can't spit in the streets.

Chabacano: Amo yo, ta na ley el cosa yo ta habla.
English: I am right, what I'm saying is in the law.

Chabacano: Tiene ba ta habla na ley que no puede yo planta case aqui?
English: Does it say anywhere in the law that I can't put up a house here?

Here is a conversation between two friends featuring the word ley.

-Necesita yo abogao kay no hay yo cosa sabe na ley.
-Porque man? Cosa ya pasa?
-Quiere planta caso conmigo mi vecinos. Ya ruba daw yo de ila manok.
-Ay cosa ya! Para na manok lang, man peleahan pa gayod.
-Amo gane.

Here is an English translation.

-I need a lawyer because I don't know anything about the law.
-Why, what happened?
-My neighbor wants to file a case against me for allegedly stealing their chicken.
-What? You guys are going to fight just because of a chicken?
-Yeah, I know.

I hope that after reading this, you will start using this word in your everyday Chabacano conversations. 😀

Comments

  1. יאן סבייסקי דייוטApril 21, 2014 at 4:52 AM

    Pero si dentro casa, mi nana firmi se ta habla kanamon "si cosa el regulación que yo ya hablá, entonces sabe creé y seguí. " ^_^

    ReplyDelete

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