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Showing posts from August, 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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2 Facebook Groups You Should Join For Great Discussions About Chabacano

It's a Saturday and with the pandemic still raging on I have decided to create a list of Facebook groups which contain great discussions about the Chabacano language. If you are looking to do some fieldwork without actually going to the field, these Facebook groups might be a good place to start. When browsing through these groups, one must take caution to not take everything at face value. Some posts are sarcastic and involves some cultural background to understand while others may not be very authentic as the person who wrote it may have felt peer pressure to write things in a certain manner and not in the way they usually would. 1. Zamboanga De Antes Privacy: Private No. of members: more than 32,000 Visit Zamboanga De Antes Facebook Group 2. Amistad Zamboangueno Privacy: Private No. of members: more than 6,000 Visit Amistad Zamboangueno Facebook Group If you know if any other great Facebook groups for discussions on the Chabacano language, feel free to add it in the ...
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Botella Versus Bote (Chabacano Versus Tagalog)

Whenever I go to the store to purchase a bottle of vinegar in Manila, I would often forget that the word for bottle in Tagalog is bote  and not botella like in Chabacano. Since the first two syllables of these two words are the same, Tagalog speakers don't have any problem understanding what botella is. Yes, since I haven't been working since 2017 and have been mostly staying inside the house, I have started to forget some basic Tagalog words. Even my Manile ň o accent is almost gone. The other day, I was asking a friend how much it would cost to dig up a well and I used the word fozo by mistake (which I forgot was Chabacano). He was like: are you referring to a poso negro (which means septic tank in Tagalog)? According to the entry about the word bote in Tagaloglang.com, the word bote comes from the Spanish bote which means “container” or “boat”. They also claim that the mainstream Spanish word for bottle which is botella is also used in Tagalog. As far a...
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10 Tagalog Words Now Used in Chabacano

I remember watching a  documentary by Howie Severino  about the Chabacano in Cavite where a kid was asked to speak Chabacano. The kid says:  taga donde vos  then his dad tells him it should be  de donde vos . I find it amusing and a bit ironic actually that the Chabacano in Zamboanga is starting to sound closer and closer to its cousin in Cavite which uses Tagalog particles. When I told my friend that there are now more people speaking Tagalog than Chabacano in downtown Zamboanga, she said to me  sana Chabacano lang pa rin . Since we were talking in Chabacano, I was like did she just say that in Chabacano or Tagalog? Over time, perhaps due to social media, economics, and television, Tagalog has crept into the Chabacano language and replaced Chabacano particles, words that we use everyday. Here is a list of Tagalog particles (or words) which have recently entered the Chabacano language. The Chabacano word is enclosed in parenthesis while below the word p...
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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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