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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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The Chabacano Expression 'Pone Por Pecho'

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 lang enbuenamente para ay saca tu buen grado. (Don't pay attention to your mom. Just study hard to get good grades)

This Chabacano expression might not be known to young Chabacano speakers and those who speak it as a second language.

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  1. AnonymousOctober 24, 2014 at 2:50 PM

    "In Tagalog, we know this expression as 'dibdibin (something)'."

    Sound like the Spanish expression, tomar algo a pecho.

    JPS

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousOctober 31, 2014 at 4:19 AM

      Buenas tardes JPS: Son muy interesantes tus comentarios y creo recordar que eres de Cavite y hablas tu lengua cavitena y ademas castellano o quizas espanol filipino.Por que no utilizas el chabacano de Cavite en tus intervenciones? tu lengua se muere y merece un fuerte apoyo y este blog intenta dignificar y promover la lengua chabacana,creo que a todos nos gustaria ver escrita tu bellisima lengua cavitena.Un fuerte abrazo desde el Sur de Espana.Joaquin

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