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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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Chabacano there VS Spanish there

In Spanish there are three words for the English 'there'. When referring to something near the person being addressed, one uses 'ahí'. Here is an example: Las plumas que tienes allí son bonitas The pens that you have there are very pretty When referring to something which is distant however, one would use 'allí'. An example is: Allí, hay playas bonitas There are beautiful beaches over there And when 'allí' comes after a verb of motion like ir, 'allá' is used. An example would be: Voy para allá I'm on my way there In Chabacano, we only use 'alli' and 'alla'. Although, these two forms of there are used differently. Chabacano 'alli' is used to refer to something which is near the person being addressed. An example is: Tiene tu alli lapiz? Do you have a pencil there? While Chabacano 'alla' is used to refer to something distant. Here's an example: Tiene ba alla culebra? Are there snakes ...
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When Chabacano 'no' occurs...

In Spanish, the word for the English 'no' is no (without the slurring at the end). In Chabacano though, we tend to use the Tagalog hindi (pronounced hinde or hende *with a glottal sound at the end). Here are some examples: Chabacano: Hinde ta llora si Maria Maria is not crying Chabacano: Hinde frio el agua The water is not cold However, there are some instances in Chabacano wherein Spanish no is used. Here are some examples: Chabacano: No hay pa aqui si Maria (no hay is pronounced by locals as 'nu-ay') English: Maria is not yet here Chabacano: No hay llama conmigo si Maria ayer (note that if this statement is positive, it would become ya llama conmigo si Maria ayer) English: Maria did not call me yesterday Chabacano: No tu llora English: Do not cry Chabacano: No habla malo palabra English: Do not say bad words Chabacano: No mas estudia English: Stop studying or do not study anymore Chabacano: No mas anda alla English: Stop going there or don...
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Origins of the Chabacano Bien

I have always wondered how the Chabacano word bien  came to be. In Chabacano, bien generally means 'very'. An example would be: Chabacano: Bien bonita si Maria English: Maria is very pretty Chabacano: Bien grande el casa English: The house is very big I have long ago concluded that this might be the result of Chabacano being a parroted language (e.g. The word firme in Spanish means firm or steady; in Chabacano this word is spelled and pronounced as pirmi and it means 'always'. I have always thought that the word bien is another such anomaly in Chabacano, until recently... I have just acquired a book called Spanish Demystified by Jenny Petrow and she explains that in Latin America, when speaking colloquially, people tend to use bien instead of muy . I asked a friend of mine in Mexico and he confirmed that people there actually do use it when speaking colloquially. He does say though that he does not use it often. Here are some examples of how a Hispanoam...
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Origins of the Chabacano Words ending in -AO

In the course of learning Spanish, I was able to unravel one of the biggest secrets of Chabacano. Over the past few years, I have always wondered why most past tense verbs in Chabacano like the words burned, changed, arranged, and seated are different from their Spanish counterparts. In Spanish, one would add -ado to verbs ending in -ar like quemar , sentar , and cambiar while in Chabacano, we tend to say quemao , sentao , cambiao , and arreglao (instead of quemado , sentado , cambiado , and arreglado. This has always been a mystery to me until I heard a Spanish podcast explain that in Spain, this is an informal (or lazy) way of pronouncing the -ado words. The person in the podcast even went as far as saying that her father would often get irritated when she pronounces these words in this manner. Quite "Chabacano" (of bad taste) indeed. Probably one of the most prominent theories out there as to why Chabacano is incorrect Spanish is the fact that the natives just parroted...
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7 Ways To Tell If Somebody Is A Native Chabacano Speaker

Most people (even native Chabacano speakers) fail to realize that there is a distinct Chabacano accent. This accent is more pronounced among people who live in the rural areas of Zamboanga city who speak with a drawl. These people are mostly referred to as  de monte  (from the mountains), de arriba  or de alla-alla . The Chabacano accent is a telltale sign of a native speaker of the Chabacano language. You know you're a native Chabacano speaker when you do the following things: 1. You drop the 's' in certain Chabacano words The hallmark of the Chabacano accent is the dropping of the letter 's'. When you hear somebody pronounce words like  escuela ,  pescao ,  fiesta ,  dos , and  tres as  eh-cuela ,  peh-cao ,  fieh-ta ,  doh , and  treh  respectively, that is a native Chabacano speaker! This feature of the Chabacano accent might come from Spanish where they also sometimes drop their 's'. At work, there was a t...
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Origins of the Chabacano Cosa

A few years ago, while studying Spanish, I began to become curious about the origins of certain Chabacano words. While doing my research, I also realized that in the world of Linguistics, Chabacano is the "holy grail". And why not? It is the  only Spanish-based creole in Asia  and one of the  oldest creole languages in the world . In fact, when you search Google for the keywords Chabacano or Chavacano, you will be swamped by more than one million hits. That's how popular Chabacano is worldwide! One of the Chabacano words that I was curious about was cosa . Cosa (what) is a word that we use so many times every day in Chabacano. But have you ever stopped to think how it came about? Some people say that Chabacano vocabulary has some Italian influences . I was skeptical about it at first because as far as I know, there aren't any evidence of Italian influence in Chabacano vocabulary. But did you know that the word cosa  is also 'what' in Italian ? Here is a...
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Origins of the Chabacano Que Ver

In Chabacano, que ver is used to express disbelief or surprise. In Spanish, it means something like 'something to see'. Actually, the meaning in Chabacano does not go far from the Spanish meaning of this expression. Anyway, I wrote this article since in my opinion a lot of Zamboangueños say que ver but don't know that it is also Spanish. I myself used to think (whenever I say que ver ) that it originated from another Philippine language. Now I know that it comes from Spanish. Here is an example from the Word Reference forum on how to use this expression in Spanish: Example: - María me ha dicho que al final mañana irá al cine con Juan. ~ Pero, ¿de verdad te crees que irá? ¡Hay que ver...! and this is the English translation: Maria has told me that finally she'll be going to the movies with Juan But, do you really think he'll go? Wait and see!/We'll find out! In Chabacano, this is how you use it. -Preñada ya tambien si Maria! (Maria is preg...
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Differences Between The Chabacano of Zamboanga and the Chavacano in Cavite city

Just a few hours ago, I encountered a very interesting blog called Habla Chabacano . The said blog is about Cavite city and it's Chavacano. I found this amusing because I speak Chabacano de Zamboanga. As I read the posts in Habla Chabacano (which were partly in Chabacano), I quickly spotted the differences/similarities between the two Chabacanos. First off, the Chavacano of Cavite looks more Spanish sounding than that of Zamboanga. The sentence structure is also closer to Spanish. Here's an example: Chavacano de Cavite: Cosa ta haci Gina? Enlish: What is Gina doing? Chabacano de Zamboanga: Cosa ta hace si Gina? Spanish: ¿Qué está haciendo Gina? As you can observe, the Chavacano de Cavite comes closer to Spanish in terms of grammar. In Chabacano de Zamboanga, you would use the word si (which comes from Tagalog), added to the subject if it's a person. Meanwhile, the Chavacano de Cavite uses only the name of the person (without the si ) for subjects which are...
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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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