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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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Zamboanga Hermosa



My friend who used to work in Guatemala (and learned his Spanish there) was quite amused when he saw deliciosa ciudad in the lyrics of the song Zamboanga Hermosa. I also felt that it was weird since we often only use the word delicious for food in English. Upon researching the word deliciosa however, it seems that this word can also mean pleasant, charming, or lovely in Spanish.

 This is the same in the French language wherein the French word for delicious (délicieux) can also apply to people (and yes, in this case, a city). Who can forget the time the French president called Australian Prime Minister Thornbull's wife delicious?

 Another peculiar word in this Spanish song is the word dalaga but a quick search in the DRAE will tell us that this also is a Spanish word! 
dalaga
1. f. Filip. Mujer soltera, doncella y joven.
I'm not sure if it's true but I've read that they used this song as the national hymn during the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga.
Note the Castilian pronunciation of the letter c in ciudad (how very pretentious!). This was the way students were taught to pronounce Spanish words in the Philippines.
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