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 ...
I first came across the word bangag in Manila as it is not a very common word in television (which used to be my primary source of exposure to native Tagalog speakers). It is however, common in casual conversations and I often hear it among friends in the office who work at night. To me, it often felt like this word meant something like 'being unable to think straight'.
Could the Chabacano word bangak come from the Tagalog word bangag?
Since the Chabacano accent makes one unable to pronounce words ending in 'G' correctly, these words often end up being pronounced with a 'K'. So isn't it highly probable that the Chabacano word bangak came from the Tagalog word bangag? Of course, in Chabacano, the meaning of this word is different from its Tagalog counterpart (though it could have evolved from the Tagalog meaning). This word means 'dumb' in Chabacano.
However, Tagaloglang defines this word as being 'high' on drugs/alcohol. Other websites suggest that the meaning of this word means 'to be drunk all the time'. I found a forum though, wherein someone said that it could mean someone whose senses have been dumbed down but it looks like this is a slang and I'm not certain as to whether this slang has been around a long time ago or it is new. Meanwhile Tagalog.com defines this word as stoned; ignorant; stupid (person).
Camins' dictionary surprisingly, does not contain this word. The closest I could find was banggak (this may be a misspelling) which is defined as dumbbell (which can also be an adjective meaning 'dumb' in case you didn't know) and listless (which is somewhat the same as the Tagalog meaning). Santos' Chabacano dictionary does contain the word bangak wherein it is defined as 'dumb/dense'.
Initially, I thought that this word came from Cebuano or Ilonggo but according to my friends, this word does not exist in their language.
Here are some unedited examples of this word being used in Facebook posts:
Bien stupido se kien tan insist usa mga motorcycle riders. Esos ta manda ase ancina mga bangak cay hinde man caha sos ta usa motorsiklo cay tiene sila diila auto poreso no sabe sila cosa el efekto ese diila pakabright. Tonto! Man maridable si na casa ta dormi huntu ara sale apuera munta motor necesita barrier?
Bien grande bangak bos
Ese ya reklama, BIEN BANGAK. BIEN MONGGO, BIEN SIMBERGUENZA. IYO TA ABLA
LOCKDOWN PROJIBIDO YA TAMEN SALE CASA, POR CAUSA LANG CON AQUEL DOS YA ENTRA QUI BACKDOOR, BUENAMENTE YA ERA QUEL QUI NO HAY MAS CASO DE COVID POR CAUSA CON EL MAGA GENTE BANGAK SABE YA KAY TIENE PA VIRUS PRECURA GAYOT ENTRA, AHORA TODO YA TAMEN AFECTAO QUIERE KITA BOLVE MAN JUNTO NA FAMILIA ,NO PUEDE YA TAMEN , BONITO GAYOT TRAGA GENTE
This word has a very negative connotation in Chabacano which is why all the examples above are quite angry.
Kanáton na zamboangueño, el “Bañgak” ta significá y/o sinónimo del “Bobo”.
ReplyDeleteAunque ta oí yo con ese palabra, pero común kanámon na casa y masquén entre amigos míos antes na primaría hasta Terciaría, sino el común gat kanámon es el palabra “Bobo” y el expresión “¿Dónde el Cocote?”, “Usá también cabeza”, “¿Na pies ya el cocote/utôc?”
Gracias Ronan!
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