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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 ...

Another Public Announcement in Chabacano


I was browsing an online when I saw this billboard announcing Zamboecozone's application for conversion of land use from Agricultural to Industrial. I decided to post it here since we don't see a lot of written Chabacano. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to contact the person who originally posted the photo so I wasn't able to get a clearer photo. Below is a transcription of the text in the billboard in English and Chabacano. If you see any errors in the transcription, please feel free to let me know about them.

ENGLISH

Notice of Land Conversion Application

Notice is hereby given that Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority And Freeport or Zamboecozone has filed an application for land use conversion of the land situated at Sitio San Ramon, Barangay Talisayan, Zamboanga city, specifically identified as follows:

Registered Owner: Zamboecozone
Area applied for conversion: 33.7 hectares

The above parcel is sought to be converted from Agricultural to Industrial use for the construction of a 500 MW Power Plant by San Ramon Power Incorporated (SRPI)

Any person with valid objection to the said land use conversion application may file his/her objection/protest thereto in writing and address it to the MARO, National Highway, Barangay Ayala, Zamboanga city or CLUPPA Chairperson DAR Central office, Diliman, Quezon city not later than thirty (30) days from posting of the Billboard or not later than fifteen (15) days from conduct of ocular inspection, whichever is later.

Date Posted:
Schedule of Ocular Inspection:
Approving Authority and Address:
Date of Approval:

CHABACANO

Anuncio de Applicasion Para Conversion de Lote

Ta informa el Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority y Freeport o Zamboecozone cay presentamente tiene applicasion (##word unclear**) para converti pedaso parcel de lote na Sitio San Ramon, Barangay de Talisayan identificao (this word was not clear in the photo, so I just guessed it) como:

Registrao dueno: Zamboecozone
Grandor del lote para converti: 33.7 hectares

Este parcel de lote ay converti estaba na Agricultural para Industrial para el construcion de un 100 MW planta de electricidad que construji  el San Ramon Power Incorporated (SRPI).

Si tiene valido reclamo na applicasion del Zamboecozone para el segun conversion, puede ustedes escribi na MARO, National Road, Barangay Ayala, Ciudad de Zamboanga con el cabesa mayor del CLUPPA Dar Central Office, Diliman, Quezon city, treinta (30) dias duespues de este anuncio or por de mas quinse (15) dias despues del inspeccion ocular o cosa man mas ulihi con el dos.

Pecha del anuncio:
Pecha del inspeccion ocular:
Otoridad del Aprovada:
Pecha de Aprovada:

Since the Chabacano used above is very modern, I am pretty sure that it will be understood by almost everyone who speaks the language. Some words that may not be known to some Chabacano speakers will still be understood because these words are recognizable by English speakers which most of them are.

While I love that they made the effort to translate this announcement into Chabacano, I feel like the translator was not very thorough in doing his job. I say this because the spelling of certain words was incorrect such as applicasion and construcion (though we can see that they spelled inspeccion correctly). While the word estaba (as was mentioned in one of my previous posts) means from or used to in Chabacano, I don't feel like they used it correctly in the text above (este parcel de lote ay converti estaba na Agricultura para Industrial). I think the word desde would have been more correct (este parcel de lote ay converti DESDE Agricultural para Industrial). What do you think?

Let me tell you though what I liked about this translation. I love how they translated whichever comes later as cosa man mas ulihi na dos. The word ulihi means the last one or in this case, the later one.

The word otoridad is derived from autoridad. It was spelled as pronounced. This is the same for the words pecha (from fecha), and construji (construi).

The Zamboecozone is an industrial park in Zamboanga city which provides tax incentives to its tenants.

Comments

  1. Jerome,este anuncio se entiende peor para un castellano-hablante.Considero,como profesor,negativo escribir como se pronuncia y no como se escribe,y mas desde instituciones publicas,ademas de,como se indicaba en el anterior comentaba en el anuncio publico (existe en chabacano este termino?) el abuso del ingles,he visto en textos chabacanos "pedir" o derivados y,no estoy seguro, "solicitar" o derivados,el uso actual es "apply for"?.Sigo pensando en la necesidad de "normalizar" la lengua para que no se convierta en algo no entendible entre generaciones.Jerome,haces "un trabaho" fantastico.Adelante Zamboanga!.Un abrazo,Joaquin

    ReplyDelete
  2. ¡Hola Jerome!

    (Este parcel de lote hay convertí DESDE Agricultural para Industrial). What do you think?

    >>>¡Si! este el más correcto. pero no olvida con el Acento Agudo na punta del "converti".

    Contribuji > Contribui
    National Road > Calzada Nacional
    Barangay Ayala > Barrio de Ayala

    Duepues > Despues
    este "duepues" hay pronuncia como /dues-pues/ con Diptongo "ue" con sonido /we/

    Pecha > Fecha

    Central Office > Oficina Central del CLUPPA DAR

    Quinse > Quince



    ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gracias Joaquin por tus amables palabras. Si, es verdad. La palabra aplicacion en el anuncio deberia ser peticion o solicitud (no estoy seguro si existe la palabra solicitud en Chabacano). El uso de la palabra aplicacion en este sentido es algo como lo de Spanglish.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gracias a ti,Jerome.Parece que tu castellano va adelante.Arondayot,entiendo que cuando indicas "Central Office">oficina central o "Pecha">FEcha,te refieres al vocablo chabacano a usar o no entiendo bien?.Un abrazo,Joaquin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Parcel de lote sounds redundant to me. Either one but not both, also I say parcela, not parcel.

    Grandor means size in Chabacano de Cavite, for height we say altura.

    Inspección ocular sounds adequate to my ears, however the translation ocular inspection is wrong, it should be visual inspection. An ocular inspection (in English) is something that an ophthalmologist might do.

    Inspección ocular to me sounds something that a forensic expert (esp: perito forense) might do.

    JPS

    ReplyDelete
  6. We also say altura in our Chabacano. This is the more appropriate word.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hola Jerome! Es dificil encontrar informacion o contactar con chabacanohablantes de caviteno,ternarteno,cotobateno o chabacano de Davao.Normalmente busco en internet para apoyar el uso de estos lenguajes,se que en este blog participa gente de Cavite,que alegria!.Informarte que en youtube he encontrado varios videos en chabacano de Ternate,Bahra,que ha publicado Leo Panganiban,es especialmente emocionante el llamado "Himno Ternateno","Yo di Bahra 1" o "Mi Nay",quizas podias publicar el primero y hablar algo de este lenguaje,asi entre todos apoyamos estas inicativas de dignificacion de estos lenguages.Desde aqui gracias a Leo Panganiban por sus videos.Es un chabacano poco comprensible para un castellanohablante,salvo el Himno.que se entiende bastante..Un abrazo.Joaquin

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hola Joaquin.Claro que si.Algun dia, voy a publicar algo sobre ese himno.Gracias por la sugestion.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Filipinos try so hard to be westernized(American) that they lost their roots and have no originality in everything, we can't even speak tagalog correct and have lost music to American songs sang by Filipinos.. No originality at all.. Keep up the good work Jerome because culture is something we can never get back once it's lost!!

    ReplyDelete

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