Skip to main content

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 ...
12 comments

When Tense Markers are Implied in Chabacano


In Chabacano, there are several times when the tense markers are omitted because they are already implied. This is especially true for the future tense marker ay which hardly even occurs in spoken Chabacano. Here are some examples:

Chabacano: Mira kame cine mañana.
English: We will watch a movie tomorrow.

Chabacano: Anda kame na Manila.
English: We will go to Manila.

Chabacano: Luego ya kame come.
English: We will eat later.

Chabacano: Descansa anay kame.
English: We are going to rest for a while.

Chabacano: Man ulan gaha mañana?
English: Do you think it will rain tomorrow?

This doesn't apply though, if the subject is another person or not including the speaker because the sentence then becomes a command.

If these sentences were in the past or present tense, it would sound incorrect to omit the past tense marker ya or the present tense marker ta. There are instances though when the past tense marker gets omitted. Here are some examples:

Chabacano: Habla ya yo!
English: I already said so!

Chabacano: No quiere daw el de suyo nana contigo, habla si Josie.
English: Her mother doesn't like you, said Josie.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
19 comments
Read more

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...
98 comments
Read more

Bringing Chabacano to Life Through Stickers

Chabacano Merchandise Alert! About twenty years since I started this blog, I have now finally come around to creating some merchandise. Last year, I joined Dia del Libro, and all I had in my booth was El Diutay Principe. This year, I asked Instituto Cervantes if I could sell some merchandise aside from the book, and they agreed. So I decided to have some Chabacano stickers designed to be debuted in person at the upcoming Dia del Libro. Note that except where the name of the blog is mentioned (Bien Chabacano), I decided to spell the name of the language with a V. The Chabacano words were spelled using the system I created for El Diutay Principe, in which words deemed to be of Philippine origin are spelled using Filipino and based on how they are pronounced in Chabacano. Words from the Spanish language or any of the languages in Spain are spelled in Spanish, generally without taking into account how they are pronounced in Chabacano. This is a preview of how these stickers will be present...
Post a Comment
Read more