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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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Origins of the Chabacano Word "Karahay"

Is "karahay" a Spanish word? Today, we are going to investigate whether the Chabacano word "karahay" came from Spanish. "Karahay" is a word we use for "wok", "pan", or "skillet" in Chabacano. No distinctions are made in Chabacano between these things, they are all called "karahay". I was doing research for an article when I accidentally found out that the word "karahay" also existed in the Caviteño Chabacano. I was very surprised by this discovery because all this time, I thought that it came from Cebuano! What is a Cebuano word doing in the Chabacano language in Cavite? When I was still working, I remember a Cebuano-speaking colleague from Davao recognized the word "karahay" when I spoke in Chabacano with my Chabacano-speaking colleagues and this confirmed my suspicion that it was a Cebuano word. My friend from Cebu though, wasn't familiar with this word so it's probably more popular in ...
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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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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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Chabacano's Resurgence in 2025

A pretentious Chabacano (?) sign at the airport Perhaps it was because of the pandemic that saw a lot of people from the big cities go back to their hometowns but last year, I was very surprised to hear Chabacano making a comeback in Zamboanga city's downtown.  March 2024 was the first time I was able to return to Zamboanga city because of a medical requirement forced upon the population that I refused to take, and during my trip, it was very noticeable that even in places like hotels and malls, there were a lot more people speaking Chabacano. I thought that maybe I was just imagining it so I waited until going back to Zamboanga city in 2025 before making any conclusions. Folks, the revival is real! A lot of the employees you encounter in the malls seem to understand Chabacano now but will result to code-switching and borrowing from other languages when speaking it. Just a typical sign (in Chabacano) found all over the Philippines At a restaurant, I spoke in Chabacano and was surpr...
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