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Showing posts from August, 2019

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

3 Ways to say Goodbye in Chabacano

When asked to translate the word goodbye , most Chabacano speakers will probably answer adios  but just like the word paalam  in Tagalog, almost nobody uses it in daily conversations. Today, we're going to learn how to say goodbye or take leave of someone in Chabacano in a very natural way. When taking leave of someone, we are informing somebody that we are about to leave. There are a few ways to do this in Chabacano. 1. Anda ya yo (I'm leaving). NB After watching a  video  wherein they used this to say goodbye to an audience, I realized that this option only works in conversations. It sounds a bit weird to use it in a video. I think the third option might make more sense when saying goodbye to an audience through a video. In formal settings, it makes sense to use the Spanish adios . 2. Man una ya yo (I'll go ahead *literal Chabacano translation of the Tagalog mauuna na ako ). 3. Man mirahan ya lang kita otra vez (See you). How do you respond t

How to Say Ingat in Chabacano

In this video, you are going to learn how to say the word ingat  in Chabacano.   Alamin natin kung paano ba sinasabi ang salitang ingat sa Chabacano! As stated in the video, ingat in Chabacano is cuidao . However, you can also say the more complete form which is tiene cuidao.

A Laundry Detergent Commercial in Chabacano

I thought they no longer made radio commercials in Chabacano so I was surprised when I heard this Chabacano detergent commercial over the radio the last time I was in Zamboanga city.

An In Flight Chabacano Announcement

A few years ago, I was very surprised when I heard an announcement during a flight in Chabacano. The timing was great as I brought with me a friend from Manila who had never been to Zamboanga. However, it was the only time that I heard it. The next flights I took to Zamboanga city did not contain any surprise Chabacano in-flight announcement. In my recent flight home, I decided to ask them to play it and I even recorded it for posterity. Enjoy!

Cuchara Malavao ba Tu?

Ya puede ya ba tu oi con el expresion chuchara malavao? Cosa ba quiere decir del cuchara malavao? Cosa ba ta hace el un gente si ta llama con ele cuchara malavao? Deverasan lang, dol nunca yo ya puede oi con este expresion del na Zamboanga pa yo ta queda. Aqui ya lang na Manila, del ta trabaja ya yo, amo yo ya puede oi con este expresion estaba na de mio maga uban na trabajo. Mas mayor conmigo el de mio maga uban na oficina por eso ta mira yo maga cuarenta años pa'arriba lang el mayoria del maga gente quien ta usa con este expresion. Si no conoce ustedes con el expresion cuchara malavao, seguro mas sabe ustedes con el kuchara malabaw o cuchara malabao. Este amo el manera mas comun que ta escribi el maga gente con este expresion na Facebook. Para puede ustedes mira y entende que modo ta usa el maga gente con este expresion, tiene kita aqui maga ejemplo estaba na Facebook: “Nungka alsa mano el ombre si hinde una ase sinti duele el mujer. Mira kamo buenamente mga

Translating The Little Prince: Looking Out For Legitimate New Chabacano Words

One the things that I had to grapple with when translating The Little Prince was Chabacano spelling. While there was a general rule for spelling, it was very hard to interpret. At that time, the city government had not yet published their Chabacano dictionary which was essentially an interpretation of the Chabacano orthography rule that they came out with.  One of the things that were vague was when to consider something a totally different word and not simply a different way to pronounce a certain Chabacano word. Let's take a few words as an example. Alcansa  Encansa Tambien Tamen Ustedes Ostedes Iyo Yo Etu Tu Pregunta Prigunta The general rule that I followed for the translation was when only one letter was missing, added, or changed (from E to I and from O to U or vice versa), I considered it as simply a different way to pronounce the same word. For example, prigunta and ostedes are definitely a different way of pronouncing pregunta and us

The Chabacano Expression Hace Preciso

One of the expressions that I really like in Chabacano is hace preciso . It means to make an effort to do something . Here are some sentences I found in Facebook (which I have edited to conform with the current orthography prescribed by the local government of Zamboanga city) using the expression hace preciso . Bueno pa si Mayor Beng. Ta hace preciso con el problema de blackout. Espera pa gayod kamo tumba 'se? Hace preciso para compone con ese kay cuanto veces ya 'se ya hace reclamo pero no hay accion. No puede kita para con el progreso y bonito siempre tiene progreso el ciudad para el bien de todo. El de mio lang, no debe kita olvida el de aton Chabacano. Hace siempre preciso de conversa siempre este con orgullo. Ancho el de amon sementera aqui. Favor ya hace preciso buga maya. Por que no hay mas ya tambien kame agua aqui na zone 8? More than 24 hours ya no hay. Favor era hace preciso pone agua kay ta paga man kame on time! There are other expressions wh

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

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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

The Chabacano Expression 'Todo Bagon'

That’s a load of Crap! B*ullsh*t! These are expressions in the English language that are used to mean nonsense, foolishness or hogwash (which is another expression). In the Chabacano de Zamboanga, we say lasang or lasangan . Lasang or lasangan came out during the early 2000s (I think) and was in use for about a decade. Previously though, the favored word was tonterias, pendejadas or locuras . All these words are actually falling into disuse. Today, the favored word is todo bagon.   Todo means 'all' and bagon means shrimp paste (from  bagoong ). So literally, it means all shrimp paste. When you say that a person is todo bagon , it means that that person is not making any sense. One may also say todo vos bagon or you are all shrimp paste. A word of caution though, this sounds very offensive. I heard that this expression is very popular among the people who live in the rural areas or on the outskirts of Zamboanga city. It is quickly gaining popularity though in main