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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 tambien con angel delaguardia cay ya protecta le coneste 24 oras."

5. Expecta

English: Expect

Spanish: Esperar

"Pwede tu aqui expecta, hindi sila kuntigo deha hindi igual detu ex yan kurap lang tu ya perde ya".

6. Responsibilidad

English: Responsibility

Spanish: Responsabilidad

"Porque ansina ta keda di oste kustumbre! Ay ulbida ya oste gat si kun kien oste ta ultraha! Bien duele para kumigo kay el hente serka na mi corazon ta pisa-pisa kanamun. Si, deberas, tinuod, oo, chene kame responsibilidad pero ta mira oste amo kel kosa oste ya ase!?"

7. Vecinidad

English: Vicinity

Spanish: Vecindad

"Ta continua quita apela con el publico esta firmi vigilante y reporta na autoridad maga suspechoso actividad o personalidad inclujido ya maga bagaje y abandonao vehiculo na de ustedes vicinidad."

8. Factoria

English: Factory

Spanish: Fabrica

"Cosa el nombre del primer factoria de candela y cosa calle locao este aki na Zamboanga?"

9. Demonstra

English: Demonstrate

Spanish: Demostrar

"ALKALDE DEL CIUDAD MAYOR BENG CLIMACO YA DEMONSTRA BASTOS ACTUACION CONTRA CON EL CONGRESISTA DEL DISTRITO UNU CELSO LOBREGAT DURANTE EL UN OCCASSION QUE YA ATENDE ESTOS NA MINDANAO CENTRAL SANITARIUM DEL PASAO SEMANA."

10. Serioso

English: Serious

Spanish: Serio

"Bien serioso io man subu conel bulat y conel un platon de kanun."

This phenomenon happens in cultures wherein the people are influenced by both Spanish and English. The same is happening among Spanish speakers in the USA wherein the term rufo means roof and among reporters who appear in the nightly newscast in national TV who use terms like korapsyon and establisyemento. 

Three of the words in this list also appear in languages that may have influenced Chabacano: serioso (Italian), acceptar (Catalan), and demonstrar (Portuguese).

 While you may be tempted to say that these words are from these romance languages which Spanish definitely had a close relationship with, I believe it is a very far- fetched idea.

It is pure chance that these words also happen to exist in other romance languages. A quick perusal of Camins' Chabacano dictionary will tell you that these words did not use to exist which makes English the likelier culprit.

But when did people start using these hispanicized terms borrowed from English? We can probably point to the American colonization in the first half of the 20th century as the likely reason for this phenomenon. The widespread influence of English as well as the waning fluency of Filipinos in Spanish were potent ingredients for people to start borrowing words from the English language and hispanicizing them to conform with all the borrowed words from the Spanish language.

 Is it wrong to use these words when speaking Chabacano? I don't believe so. I myself use them all the time. I even feel like these words should be included in Chabacano dictionaries.

Check out the table below to see a comparison on which words appear and which do not among three Chabacano dictionaries.


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