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
The difference between these two words in the Chabacano language have become murky to say the least. In fact, in Chabacano some people now use them interchangeably.
I think my generation is guilty of starting this trend. Of course, it all started out as us kids confusing the two words but I think some of us grew up without realizing the difference between the two. You can probably tell when a person should be using gane but is instead using gale by the manner in which they pronounce these words. When they pronounce the word gale and the stress is on the first syllable, they definitely should be using gane. Personally, I learned the difference between these two words while growing up and listening to my elders speak. Gale in Hiligaynon, is pronounced with the stress on the last syllable while the words gane is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.
In its originating language, gale is usually equivalent to the Tagalog pala while gane is normally equivalent to the Tagalog nga. These are particles used to give emphasis: the first one on something that happened which you previously thought did not and the other one on something that happened in the past.
Here are some examples:
Chabacano: Ya paga ya gale yo con ele ayer.
English: I already paid him yesterday (though I previously thought I didn't).
Using the same sentence, we can use the word gane and like magic, it'll change the meaning of the sentence altogether.
Chabacano: Ya paga ya gane yo con ele ayer.
English: Why are you saying that I have not yet paid him? I already paid him yesterday (and I insist that I already did).
When somebody tells you ya llama gale yo contigo anoche (what're you talking about? I did call yesterday!) and they pronounce gale with the stress on the first syllable, they definitely meant ya llama gane yo contigo anoche. Of course, if they pronounce gale with the stress on the last syllable, they obviously meant: 'Oh by the way, I called you yesterday' or 'I called you yesterday (though I previously thought I didn't). This all depends on the context.
In Santos' Chabacano dictionary (2010), he defines gale as an adverb meaning so while gane as an adverb meaning even. He spells these words with an H at the end to show that the letter E is pronounced with a glottal stop.
Here is an interesting newspaper article about gane and gayod. I'm not sure when this article was written but in it the writer talks about gale being a variation of gane so older people may have been already been confusing gale for gane even before my generation did. It's not clear however, whether the writer was referring to this phenomenon as he also mentioned that gale is the equivalent of the Tagalog pala.
Great discussion! So the stress is now the indicator of meaning and not the consonant. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes! Thank you. I appreciate the comment!
DeleteWhat about "gaha"? I might be wrong, but it always sounded like Tagalog's "kaya" to me, e.g., "bakit kaya ganon?"
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Jose. Yes, you are right. The Tagalog kaya almost always is equivalent to gaha in Chabacano (except when it's the other kind of kaya showing effect).
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