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Showing posts from May, 2020

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 ...
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The Chabacano Agua Olor

Have you ever encountered the word (or compound word) agua olor in Chabacano? I first heard this word from my friend at the office who has a very wide Chabacano vocabulary. I learned from her that this word means cologne. She said that it is a word that is well-known to people who live in the rural areas. A quick search in Facebook will tell you that it is not a very common word. Here is a post from a page which I follow where you can see this word in action! Sadly, this word does not appear in Santos' and Camins' dictionary but I am happy to report that the new English-Chabacano dictionary published by the city hall has it. Yay!
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El Palabra Rastro Na Chabacano

Cuando ya sale el noticia acerca el un asegun miraculo na un barrio na Zamboanga, ya man kalayat el palabra rastro na Facebook. Este palabra hende tanto ta usa maga gente y gracias con este suceso ya guinda el de aton atencion con este palabra. Ya oi ya ba ustedes con el palabra rastro? Si igual tu conmgio, seguro ya oi ya tu antes con este palabra pero ahora, hende mas kita tanto con este ta puede oi. Cuando na Zamboanga pa yo ta queda, ta oi yo este palabra tiene vez si por ejemplo no hay mas ya el un gente puede alcanza con el comida que ya dale. Puede ele habla: 'na, rastro ya lang man del lechon el ya alcanza yo'. Proba kita chequea el de aton maga diccionario de Chabacano si cosa sila ta habla acerca con el palabra rastro. Na diccionario de Chabacano de Camins, tracks on the ground el quiere decir del palabra rastro. El quiere decir ba de este amo kay este el mas comun o mas popular definicion del palabra rastro? Ta mira yo tiene maga gente el ta pensa kay amo la...
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The Effects of Gentrification on the Chabacano Language

Tourists may see it as a novelty but Zamboangueňos are not amused. No pork. We do not sell pork. These are some of the things written on signs found in restaurants and wet markets in Zamboanga city. They are meant to entice a segment of the population who do not eat pork as a religious requirement. During the Zamboanga siege, several Chabacano speaking families in Zamboanga city fled to different parts of the country (mostly to Manila). I once had a neighbor who told me that so many students from Zamboanga city transferred to their school in 2013. This vacuum has paved the way for the linguistic profile of the city to change significantly. Owing to the decisive actions of the mayor of Zamboanga city during the Zamboanga siege in 2013, an economic boom was seen in the years after.The city today is teeming with moneyed migrants who mostly set up new businesses as well as migrant workers who work in these new establishments from nearby provinces. Among these new migrants, there are pr...
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Origins of the Chabacano Gocho

Unless you live in a monastery or are very young, you may have probably heard the word gocho in Chabacano at least once in your life. In my case, I learned this word when I started attending public school for my secondary education. As you can imagine, this is a very vulgar word in Chabacano and is something not mentioned while having dinner with your family. The word gocho in Chabacano means cum . In more formal terms, gocho is semen. For reasons you can imagine, I opted not to provide example sentences using this word. Portuguese or Spanish Interestingly, this word may have its roots in the Portuguese language. Portuguese has a similar word to Chabacano's gocho . Gozo in Portuguese could mean cum . It is however not standard Portuguese. But here's something that will make you think. In Spanish, the word gocho is an informal term for puerco or cochino . One can also connect this word to Spanish since  gozo  means pleasure in Spanish.  Between the tw...
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When to Use Pensaba and Ya Pensa in Chabacano

It may be baffling to some when to use pensaba and when to use ya pensa . I imagine it would be difficult especially for Spanish speakers trying to learn Chabacano. But if you speak Tagalog, here's a tip that will greatly help you understand the difference between these two Chabacano words. The equivalent of pensaba in Tagalog is akala while ya pensa is the same as nagisip . In other words, pensaba is used when assuming that something was a fact and later on (implicitly) finding out otherwise. Meanwhile, ya pensa is used to refer to the literal act of thinking. In some cases, you can use ya pensa instead of pensaba when choosing to empasize the act of thinking. Just like in Tagalog, instead of saying akala ko namatay ka na , you may choose to say inisip ko na namatay ka na . The former might sound more correct, though. Here are some examples using pensaba and ya pensa : Chabacano: Pensaba yo muerto ya tu. English: I thought you died already. Chabaca...
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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...
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A Christmas Greeting in Chabacano

In the Spanish-speaking world, the popular greeting during Christmas time is f eliz navidad . There's even a popular Christmas song with this title. In the Chabacano-speaking world, however, the more common greeting is f elices pascuas as shown below in a Facebook greeting by the present mayor of Zamboanga city in her Facebook page. Owing to the fact however that some Chabacano speakers tend not to pronounce the letter 's', this gets spelled as  Felices Pascua at times, as is the case in the greeting below. Source: Facebook page of the mayor This also happens with f eliz cumpleanos . In Chabacano, people tend to say f eliz cumpleano , without the 's' at the end. Now if you are wondering why we say f elices pascuas  instead of f eliz navidad in Chabacano, here is a possible explanation. In case you haven't noticed, there's a tiny inscription in the photo that reads v aya con dios . This is the mayor's sort-of slogan which literally means ...
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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...
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