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The Little Prince By Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Is Now Available In Chabacano!

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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 Expression 'Ulan De Moro'

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I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but in the Philippines it is a rare occurrence for the sun to be out while it is raining. That's what happened a few minutes ago and It reminded me that in Chabacano we call this phenomenon ulan de moro. Actually, I don't know if many people still use this expression. A quick search in Facebook will hint that it is no longer used very much. Maybe it is because the expression is offensive towards a certain group of people that you won't see anybody using it in public Facebook posts.

I'm not sure why we call this type of rain as ulan de moro but if you grew up in Zamboanga city, you may have an idea or two. I remember in college, a teacher told us that in the Tausug language, the word bisaya meant 'a traitor'. A girl from Sulu quickly corrected her that it actually meant 'a christian'. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that in the past, there may have been some prejudice towards certain groups of people which may have led to them being boxed into a stereotype. This is the same as thinking that all Americans are rich (they are not) or that all Filipinos like boxing (we don't).

Of course, there is also the possibility that its origins may not have come from a stereotype. For example, in the US an indian summer is so-called simply because it was first observed in regions inhabited by Native Americans.

In other Philippine languages, I don't think they have a word for when it rains and the sun is out. In English, this meteorological phenomenon is known as a sun shower and is a a result of rain being blown by wind from miles away (where the sun isn't shining).
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  1. יאן סבייסקי דייוטOctober 18, 2020 at 2:38 PM

    Actually, the term Bisaya among the Tausug-Muslims means "Slave". Anyhow, the Tausug Ethnic is also part of or member of the Visayan Family.


    When it comes to "Moro", this does NOT pertain to a race or ethnicity, because it is NOT a race NOR an Ethnicity.

    "Ulan de Moro" or what we call "Aguacero de Moro" refers to the type of Rain that is NOT consistent and may cheat you anytime.

    Example Aguacero de Moro:

    -- You thought the rain has stop because it's no longer r=that hard. but often time, when we're about to leave the house, it started to get hard again.

    -- A Steady, Soft and Long Pouring of Rain.

    ReplyDelete

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