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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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Origins of the Chabacano Amargoso and Cucuracha

I write about amargoso and cucuracha together in one post because these two have something in common with each, they both exist in the Chavacano de Ternate language. Amargoso though is margozo and cucuracha is spelled as kukuracha in Ternateño according to the book of Esteban A. De Ocampo (The Ternateños: their history, languages, customs, and traditions). But there is one more thing that these two have in common. I hate them both.

The Chabacano amargoso is a gourd that is very bitter and is called ampalaya in most areas in the Philippines. I think it got its name from its taste. The Spanish amargo means bitter. Cucuracha meanwhile means cockroach in Chabacano. This most probably comes from the Spanish cucaracha.

Here are some sentences using these two words.

Chabacano: Ta come ba tu amargoso?

English: Do you eat amargoso?

Chabacano: Por que bien mucho cucuracha aqui na tuyo casa?

English: Why are there a lot of cockroaches in your house?

According to Merriam-Webster, the word amargoso is from Philippine Spanish.
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  1. יאן סבייסקי דייוטMay 12, 2014 at 1:37 PM

    ese palabra "amargo" ta oí yo antes con mi difunta tía abuela y abuela con expresión "con amargo man gayot de vos cara." jajajajaja

    ese Amargoso o na Ingles "Bitter Melon" es uno del mana jendeh favorito mio pero na ultimo por causa de amon ya insistí gayot manda acerta canamon come ese gulay por eso ahora ya queda ya como uno de mi mana favorito gulay. ^_^

    jajajaja Cucuracha . . .^_^ mucho se antes aqui na Flat donde kame ya cambia pero ya busca gat yo muchas maneras na que laya eradica canila todo por medio de muchos trampas na casa. ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jerome HerreraMay 17, 2014 at 4:54 AM

    ya gusta gayod yo tuyo comento hehe

    ReplyDelete

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