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Showing posts from October, 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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A Recipe in Chabacano

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Kid Chef is a channel in YouTube which features recipes from Rafi, the kid chef. All his recipes use natural ingredients and are dubbed or subtitled in different languages. I was contacted by Chef Rafi recently to translate a Filipino recipe into Chabacano. I gladly obliged and even agreed (reluctantly) to do a voice-over in Chabacano. Please excuse my monotone voice and not-so-good acting.
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The Chabacano Expression 'Pone Por Pecho'

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In Tagalog, we know this expression as dibdibin (something) and one will often hear it in Tagalog TV programs ( e.g.  huwag mong dibdibin ang sinabi niya sa iyo ). In English, I don't believe there is an equivalent equivalent but this idiomatic expression would roughly translate to taking something very seriously (normally something bad that someone said or did to you). As you may now have guessed, this is an expression that occurs a lot in Filipino culture. What can I say, Filipinos are very sensitive creatures. For those of you out there who are not familiar with Filipino culture, here are some Chabacano dialogues which will help you understand the Chabacano expression pone por pecho . Mother to son: Porque bajo el de vos mga grado na escuela? Con quien ba vos ya saca? No hay bobo na de aton familia. (Why are your grades in school low? Who do you take after? Nobody in our family is stupid.) Father to son: No tu pone por pecho aquel cosa ya habla tu nana. Dejalo, estudia la
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How to Say 'Laugh' in Chabacano

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In Spanish, the word for laugh is reir . Chabacano also uses this word, but with some alterations. The word is  ri (or re ). I am not sure if there is anyone who says rei , which is what someone who studies Chabacano and knows Spanish would guess the word for 'laugh' would be in Chabacano. Some people would say ri que ri , which actually means to laugh a lot or to literally laugh and laugh. Throughout time, people started treating this phrase as one word and eventually came to mean simply, to laugh. Some people pronounce this as rikiri . Others say ta ri (or ta re ) and will even treat this as a single word thinking that the word for laughter in Chabacano is ta ri or ta re . In reality, ta is a present tense marker and therefore this should be treated as two words, ta + ri , or ta + re . According to a friend, the construction verb + que + verb (meaning to do something again and again or to do something a lot) also occurs in Spanish but not as much as in Chabacano. One wil
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The Chabacano Expression 'No Hay Que Ver Con'

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In Spanish, the expression no tiene nada que ver con means it 'doesn't have anything to do with (something)'. Did you know that there is a creolized version of this expression in Chabacano? In Chabacano, we say no hay que ver con . Here are some sentences using this expression. Chabacano: No hay que ver ese cosa tu ta habla na cosa ya pasa conmigo. English: What you are saying doesn't have anything to do with what happened to me. Chabacano: No hay que ver el mio trabajo na cen. English: My job does not have anything to do with money. This expression is actually used conversationally. Formally, one would probably say no hay conexion con  or no hay relacion con . This expression can also mean 'to not care'. Here are some example sentences. Chabacano: No hay yo que ver. English: I don't care. Chabacano: No hay le que ver contigo. English: He doesn't care about you.
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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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