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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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  1. Andrew AlmazanJune 7, 2020 at 4:36 PM

    Would there be any way for someone who lives in the US to get a copy of this book (with payment ofc)?

    It sucks that this dictionary isn't being sold online for others who are interested but don't live in Zamboanga City nor the Philippines in general to also learn more about and preserve the language.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownJune 8, 2020 at 7:15 PM

      That dictionary published by City Hall is not good, it is not for sale, and it weighs 4 kilos...! ...and it is only English to Chabacano. And most of its English words are not common at all, while lacking normal English words. Better use online dictionaries.

      Delete
    2. Andrew AlmazanJune 13, 2020 at 10:27 AM

      If it's that heavy then it should contain much more information than online dictionaries typically have. Oh well, if it's not for sale what can you do about it?

      Delete
  2. Daniél Josué Vidal y FernándezJune 8, 2020 at 6:29 PM

    I wanna get a copy of that dictionary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownJune 8, 2020 at 7:14 PM

      That dictionary published by City Hall is not good, it is not for sale, and it weighs 4 kilos...! ...and it is only English to Chabacano. And most of its English words are not common at all, while lacking normal English words. Better use online dictionaries.

      Delete
    2. Andrew AlmazanJune 12, 2020 at 1:50 AM

      Have any recommendations for good online Chavacano/Chabacano dictionaries?

      Delete

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