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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 Tifon



Today, I realized that I had been spelling the word tifon in Spanish wrong all my life.

I found out that it is spelled with an O and not a U from someone in Spain who asked me if I was doing okay after the recent typhoon.

I had always spelled this word as tifun because that’s how I heard it pronounced on TV Patrol Chavacano.

In Chabacano, we often use the Tagalog and Visayan word bagyo for “typhoon.” However, the pronunciation in Chabacano has no stress on the last syllable, similar to how Baguio (the place) is pronounced.

In fact, the only reason I know the word tifun/tifon is because of TV Patrol Chavacano.

Now I’m asking myself: is this word borrowed directly from Spanish, or is it truly used in Chabacano for everyday conversations?

It’s no secret that TV Patrol Chavacano borrows a lot of Spanish words.

Whenever there’s a change in pronunciation between Spanish and Chabacano, it’s often a telltale sign that the word is used in daily conversations.

Examples include bula (from volar, “to fly”) and pruba (from probar, “to try”).

Later, I also realized that maybe they pronounced tifon as tifun because of its similarity to the English word typhoon (tai-fun).

It’s also important to note that Zamboanga City is outside the path of most typhoons. This is probably why the word we normally use for "typhoon" (bagyo) is borrowed from another Philippine language.

Online, there are conflicting reports about the origin of the term bagyo. Some say it comes from a storm that hit Baguio in 1911. This reminds me of how the term Ondoy entered everyday usage after the devastating typhoon of 2009. (Note: naming typhoons in the Philippines officially began only in the 1960s.)

What about you? Do you think the word tifon in Chabacano is simply a Spanish borrowing, or was it really part of everyday speech?

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