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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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10 Common Hispanicized English Words in Chabacano

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The following is a list of borrowed words from English which we have taken and converted into hispanicized ones in the Chabacano language along with an example of people using these words in social media. I decided not to edit the spelling used in the examples to show how people tend to spell in Chabacano. The spelling used for the hispanicized English words is Spanish. 1. Accepta English: Accept Spanish: Aceptar "Deberasan gayot se, si nukiere kita aksepta el realidad hinde gayot kita keda alegre." 2. Sacrificia English: Sacrifice Spanish: Sacrificar "Makalastima con el maga estudiante, maga trabahador na govierno y na privado ta sakrifisya mucho para lang pwede bolve." 3. Correcta  English: Correct Spanish: Corregir "Kita nukere kita accepta aton mali pero bien pwerte kita korekta de otro mali." 4. Protecta English: Protect Spanish: Proteger "Gracias con el persona ken ya salva con el baby y gracias
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Bear Brand Chabacano TV Commercial

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Recording a tv commercial in Chabacano is like capturing a pokemon. It requires patience and great timing. Unfortunately, I was able to begin recording halfway through the commercial already. Bear Brand is a popular powdered milk drink brand by Nestle Philippines. Chabacano is a Spanish creole spoken in Zamboanga city, Philippines. It is one of only two Spanish creoles in the world. "El importante, fuerte el de ila resistencia. Pati ta man tipid man yo, pero debe tiene gayod sila Bear Brand todo'l dia. Ta enferma man el de ila maga amigo y amiga, de mio maga anak fuerte siempre el resistencia. Todo sila ya engranda na Bear Brand, igual tambien conmigo. Hende yo cambia con el Bear Brand! Simple man el de amon vida, pero hende enfermoso de mio maga anak. Diyes is it ya gayod." Subtitles were written using the orthography recommended by the local government of Zamboanga city.
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Describing Negative Past Events in Chabacano

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You might have heard that to form the past tense in Chabacano, you just need to add the past tense marker ya to the infinitive. But alas, Chabacano is not that simple a language. In this article, we shall look at how to form negative statements about the past in Chabacano. They did not go to school. Let's try to translate the simple and very unassuming English sentence above in Chabacano. If you are a Spanish speaker trying to learn Chabacano, you probably would have thought that the Chabacano translation of the English sentence above is no sila ya anda na escuela but here is the right way to say it: no hay sila anda na escuela . As you can see, there is no need for the past tense marker ya to form negative statements about the past in Chabacano.  But what about negative statements in the future and past tenses? Here is the same sentence above but in future and present tense. Future tense: Hende sila ay anda na escuela. Present tense: Hende sila ta anda na escu
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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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