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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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The Chabacano Expression 'Tampa Caro'


This Chabacano expression is actually made up of four words: ta, man, pa, caro (tampa being a contraction of three words: ta, man, pa). Very interesting right?

This is an expression which means to feel self important or to play hard to get. If you ask me, I think it originally meant to play hard to get and then later on evolved to include the other meaning.

Tampa in Chabacano means to pretend or to feign while caro is from the Spanish term caro meaning expensive.

This expression was probably coined by my generation. As far as I can remember, I have not heard anybody from my grandparents' generation use this term. There are some from my parents' generation who would but probably only because they were influenced by my generation (their kids).

Here is a sentence using this Chabacano expression:

No mas ya man tampa caro. Ele ya gane ta atraca contigo.

This sentence can mean several things depending on the context. It could mean don't play hard to get when someone tells you that they like you. It could also mean that someone is apologizing to you and you should just accept the apology.

Based on my investigation on social media networks, this expression is very much in use today. Do Gen Zers still use it? I don't know. It will be interesting to find out if this expression is only in use by millenials. Interestingly, this expression does not have any equivalent in Tagalog (and maybe even in Cebuano?). 

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