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 ...
When I first heard my best friend use
this word, I was very curious what it meant. I got the impression
that it meant something like to let someone get away with something
or to allow someone to do something that is not generally allowed.
The reason why this word piqued my curiosity is because the word
atorgar, as far as I know does not exist in Spanish. On the
off chance that 'a' might be simply a prefix that is not found in the
Spanish original, I also tried to do some research if the word torgar
existed in Spanish but it does not. The closest Spanish word I could
think of is the word otorgar whose meaning does not have any
similarity to the meaning of the Chabacano word atorga (or
does it?)
My bestfriend uses this word whenever he talks about his niece who he claims is a spoiled brat. He would lay the blame on the parent who lets her get away with things. Here is a comment written in Chabacano on a Facebook post using this word.
Both Camins' and Santos' Chabacano dictionary do not have the word atorga. However, both Chabacano dictionaries contain the word otorga. Camins' definition of otorga (to consent and to accept responsibility) will make you think that it is completely unrelated to the word atorga however Santos' definition of the same word (to tolerate, to bear, to consent, to allow, and to volunteer to willingly do a task or take over a responsibility) will make you think otherwise.
So is atorga simply a variation of otorga? Santos' definition does suggest so. But how did the Spanish word otorgar acquire this meaning in Chabacano? Well, upon closer look, the meaning of the Spanish word otorgar (to give) is similar to the Chabacano definition so this may very well be where the Chabacano definition (to give in) came from.
Here is something interesting. Atorgar does appear in the DRAE and it looks like it is an archaic form of otorgar. Atorgar is also present in Catalan and Valencian.
This article was also published in the International Year of Indigenous Languages Philippines website.
Simply because the Development of the Chavacano Language was based on the OLD Castilian Language. In fact, at that time, the term "Spanish Language" does NOT exist yet.
ReplyDeleteFurther, there is also NO surprise that there are actually many words in Chavacano are already considered as ARCHAIC Spanish.
Muchas gracias!
DeleteI just wanted to let you know that "atorgar" doesn't exist *anymore*. According to the DRAE, "atorgar" is just an antiquated version of "otorgar":
ReplyDelete1. tr. desus. otorgar. U. c. dialect.
Furthermore, according to the NTLLE, "atorgar" was considered antiquated even in the early 1700s lol.
ATORGAR. v. a. Lo mismo que Otorgar. Vease. Es voz antiquada de Aragón.
Imo it's really cool that various Old Spanish words survive through Chavacano (as well as some Spanish dialects). I just really enjoy the variation of the Spanish found in Chavacano lol.
Anyways, hope this helped!
- Andrew Almazan
====
Sources:
https://dle.rae.es/atorgar
https://webfrl.rae.es/DA.html
Muchas gracias!
DeleteOops, "NTLLE" in my original comment should've been "Diccionario de autoridades", which was published around the 1700s onwards. That's what (https://webfrl.rae.es/DA.html) was supposed to link to.
Delete"NTLLE" (https://buscon.rae.es/ntlle/SrvltGUILoginNtlle) is a collection of Spanish dictionaries whose publication dates range from 1495 to 1992. It's very helpful in trying to find any potential origins for Chavacano words.
Just needed to clarify, my bad again lol
- Andrew Almazan
So what does it really mean? I'm confused. 😅
ReplyDelete