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Showing posts from December, 2014

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

How To Say 'Suddenly' In Chabacano

Another word that many young Chabacano speakers today don't know the Chabacano equivalent to is the Tagalog word bigla . You have probably heard people say bigla lang ya cae ulan (it rained all of a sudden) or bigla lang ele ya brinca (she jumped all of a sudden). This post will tackle how the Tagalog word bigla can be said in Chabacano. The Chabacano equivalent is de repente , Two words not one. I know some people who would write this as a single word. Here are some Chabacano sentences using the phrase de repente . Chabacano: De repente lang ya queda malo el coche English: The car suddenly broke down Chabacano: De repente lang ya queda no hay agua English: Water suddenly stopped coming out of the faucet. Chabacano: De repente lang man ya duele mi brazo. English: My arm suddenly hurt. I hope that this post inspires people to stop saying the Tagalog word bigla now that they know that there is a more beautiful way of saying it.

A Christmas Greeting in Chabacano

In the Spanish-speaking world, the popular greeting during Christmas time is f eliz navidad . There's even a popular Christmas song with this title. In the Chabacano-speaking world, however, the more common greeting is f elices pascuas as shown below in a Facebook greeting by the present mayor of Zamboanga city in her Facebook page. Owing to the fact however that some Chabacano speakers tend not to pronounce the letter 's', this gets spelled as  Felices Pascua at times, as is the case in the greeting below. Source: Facebook page of the mayor This also happens with f eliz cumpleanos . In Chabacano, people tend to say f eliz cumpleano , without the 's' at the end. Now if you are wondering why we say f elices pascuas  instead of f eliz navidad in Chabacano, here is a possible explanation. In case you haven't noticed, there's a tiny inscription in the photo that reads v aya con dios . This is the mayor's sort-of slogan which literally means &

How To Say 'Next Time' in Chabacano

I think that many Chabacano speakers would agree with me if I say that one of the many instances they would borrow words from English instead of using the Chabacano equivalent  is when they say 'next time'. I believe that this is specially true for young Chabacano speakers. Next time ya lang kita come afuera . Next time ya lang kita manmirahan . Sounds familiar? 😜 So how do you say the phrase 'next time' in Chabacano? Otra vez . Two words, not one. Literally, it means another time or instance in Spanish. Here are some Chabacano sentences using this phrase. Chabacano: Otra vez, no mas ya tu hace con ese. English: Next time, don't do that again. Chabacano: Otra vez ya lang yo contigo llama, cuando no hay tu cosa ta hace. English: I'll just call you next time when you're not doing anything. Chabacano: Otra vez ya lang yo contigo visita alli na Manila kay no hay yo sen ahora. English: I'll visit you another time in Manila because I don't hav

LOOK: This Was How Chabacano Sounded During The 1800s!

The following Chabacano dialogues were found in a letter sent to Hugo Schuchardt (a German linguist) in 1883 by  Jacinto Juanmartí , a priest. The letter contained a transcript of five Chabacano dialogues that took place somewhere near Pollok (Polloc), in Cotabato. Here are the first two dialogues. First Dialogue -Buenos dias ñora Tona. -Buenos dias señora Petrona. -Buenos dias. -Que tál yá camó aquí. -Bueno ñora, mas que camé ta pasa un poco de miseria por causa del tiempo, yá tené gayot yó que vené aquí con vós, para hace lang comigo favor de emprestá un caban de palay hasta cortá lang el de amon palay cerca yá mán, y gendé ná ay tardá, de modo que camé al acabá cortá, gendé canamon ay quedá nada de lo que ay puedé recogé; cay cosa mán vós, el puerco todas las noches tá hacé gayot mucho perjuicio; y camé bien rendido yá de tanto visiá, además de ese el que tá pídí pá camé prestá con el maga chino? ¡Ay señor! si nó quitá tené paciencia, no puede más gayot mi cuerpo aguantá

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Porque by Maldita Lyrics (Original Chabacano and Translated Spanish version)

Here are the original lyrics of the song Porque by Maldita as well as a rough Spanish translation below. 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 Nunc

How To Say 'I Love You' And 'I Hate You' In Chabacano

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

How to say I Miss You in Chabacano

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