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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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Forming Chabacano Adjectives using 'Con'

In this blog post, we are going to learn how to express some of our physical needs in Chabacano and using the word con or 'with'. You may see this word spelled as kun or cun but the recommended spelling from Chabacano/Chavacano Lexicography is 'con'.

There are three physical needs that we can express in Chabacano just by using the word con.

1. Sleep- Con Sueño (Sleepy)

This is how it is used in Chabacano:

- Con sueño ya yo. (I am already sleepy.)

-Anda ya dormi (Go, sleep.)

Con sueño in Chabacano means to be sleepy. Literally, it means 'with sleep'.

2. Hunger- Con Hambre (Hungry)

This is how it is used in Chabacano:

-Con hambre ba tu? (Are you hungry?)

-Si, con hambre ya yo. (Yes, I am hungry.)

I'm not sure if it's standard Spanish but I remember a friend who was studying Spanish at Instituto Cervantes not knowing this phrase. I think most students at Cervantes are familiar with the phrase 'tengo hambre' (I am hungry) but she made a mistake (when she was about to tell someone else that she was hungry in Spanish) by beginning her sentence with the word estoy (I am). Probably because she was thinking in English.

What she did not realize was that there was a way to use the word estoy in this sense. 'Estoy con hambre' is probably not grammatically correct but is still very understandable.

And no, we definitely do not say 'tiene yo hambre' in Chabacano. 

3. Thirst- Con Sequia, Con Sed (Thirsty)

This is how it is used in Chabacano:

-Bien con sequia (con sed?) ya gayod yo.

-Toma agua.

To be honest, 'con sequia' is the only term that I grew up with but certain people also seem to know the term 'con sed'. They claim that 'con sed' is 'thirsty' while 'con sequia' is 'very thirsty' which is actually the same in Spanish. The Chabacano dictionaries in my arsenal confirm this.

The latest Chabacano dictionary also has the phrase 'tiene sed' which means 'to thirst for something'. Based on my interpretation you can use this in this manner: he thirsts for power (tiene 'le sed para na poder).

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