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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 Venao is Back!

The Philippine venao has been spotted once again. Upon hearing that the once-thought-to-be-extinct Philippine deer has made a comeback, I was reminded of one of the conversations from a letter in 1883 sent to Hugo Schuchardt (a German linguist) by Jacinto Juanmartí, a priest, wherein the venao, or the Philippine deer, was mentioned. According to the distribution map of the Philippine deer, or the Rusa marianna, on Wikipedia, this animal was definitely present in almost the entire Philippine archipelago. Funny enough, the conversation from 1883 starts out like most conversations today do: Cosa el ulam? Here is the original text. -Cosa el de iño ulam -no hay nada ñora, yá andá gane yó na tiangui endenantes, no hay gayot nada que puedé comprá. -Yá jablá comigo sí Nita, taba dao tá llevá pescao el maga moro? -Nosé ñora, cay yó aga pá estaba allá, y no hay man yó mirá ní un pescao -Sí Biboy yá andá vá na sugut mirá venao? -Nóse ñora, tallí man cajá si Nita, preguntá usté si yá andá ó no ha...
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Chabacano Signs at SM City Zamboanga

Back in the early 2000s, rumors of an SM Mall in Zamboanga City were always abound but theyn remained just that, rumors. At that time, there was a collective sense of despair that the city was being left behind economically compared to other cities.  Having been born in the late 80s, I have never experienced the more progressive Zamboanga city that my dad talked about, famous for the Pasonanca tree house as well as beautiful mestiza dalagas.  I was born at a time when there was constant news of bomb threats and the opening of a fastfood chain such as McDonalds and Jollibee felt like rain after a drought. It's very much a different story nowadays where stores only once seen in Manila are already setting up shop in Zamboanga city all the time. Today, we finally have an SM City in Zamboanga and we are going to take a look at Chabacano signs spotted during its soft opening. The first sign simply says Hola which means hello. I dont believe this is a traditional greeting in Chabacan...
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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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How to say I Miss You in Chabacano

In Facebook groups, a lot of people, even Chabacano speakers themselves, seem to be wondering how to say 'I miss you' in Chabacano. Most Chabacano speakers get away with just saying tan miss ya yo contigo . However, the verb miss is still untranslated. The English verb to miss (someone or something) may very well be untranslatable. I googled I miss you in Tagalog  and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw what Google Translate had to say: In very formal Tagalog, one can say nangungulila ako sa iyo although it will probably make you cringe saying it. Most formal Chabacano translations of I miss you  are similar; they will make you cringe saying them. Besides, most people wouldn't understand you anyway, if you use them. In Cebuano, they actually have a translation for I miss you  and that is gimingaw kaayo ko nimo. I'm not sure though if Cebuano speakers actually say this. My friend tells me that it's more common to hear people say namiss na ta ka which if yo...
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