The Chabacano dialect of the Philippines

I've met many people from the Philippines over the years that have a Spanish accent and I've always wondered why. The answer is simple; one of the languages spoken, along with Tagalog, is Chabacano or Creole Spanish.

The word "Chabacano" is derived from the Spanish word meaning vulgar or rude, so native speakers often refer to it as “Chavacano” or according to the location where it is spoken-Zamboangueño, Caviteño, Ternateño and the like.

This language is the only Spanish based Creole language spoken in the Philippines and has six dialects. Like all languages, these dialects were formed out of necessity. Today, the speakers of Chabacano speakers are a small minority usually found in Ternate, Cavite and Cavite City.

Chabacano is a type of Creole (a language that is formed when two or more languages mix together). It contains a large amount of Spanish vocabulary but does not follow Spanish gender rules and is also influenced by the local Filipino languages. The Chabacano grammar is based largely on Tagalog and Cebuano.

On June 23, 1635, Zamboanga became a permanent foothold of the Spanish government known as San José Fort. Language and cultural differences made it impossible for intertribal communication. To add to this, work instructions were issued in Spanish.

Since the majority of the natives did not speak Spanish, a lingua franca (a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different) developed and became a full-fledged language still in use today, mainly in Zamboanga City.

Differences and similarities between Spanish and Chabacano can be seen below (thanks to Wikipedia):

Donde tu hay anda?

Spanish: ¿Adónde vas?

(‘Where are you going?’)

Ya mirá yo con José.

Spanish: Yo vi a José.

(‘I saw José.’)

Ele ya empezá buscá que buscá con el sal.

Spanish: El/Ella empezó a buscar la sal en todas partes.

(‘He/She began to search everywhere for the salt.’)

Ele ya andá na escuela.

Spanish: El/Ella se fue a la escuela.

(‘He/She went to school.’)

Dragon Boat Festival 端午节

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday celebrated in China and the one with the longest history. After Chinese New Year, it is considered to be the second biggest holiday in China. This year, the festival falls on Saturday, June 23.
 

Known as Duānwǔ Jié in Chinese, Jié means festival. The festival was long known as a cultural holiday in China. In 2008, the Dragon Boat Festival was recognized as a public holiday in the People's Republic of China. 

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Each team rows their boats and hopes to reach the finish line first while a drum beats. An actual dragon boat is traditionally made of teakwood and is similar to a 22 seat canoe.
 

According to custom, the poet Qu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. He supposedly tied a large rock to himself and committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo River at the age of 61. The boat races are meant to symbolize the rescue of Qu Yuan. Bamboo leaves filled with rice (known as zongzi) are thrown into the water in the hopes that the fish will eat the rice and not Qu Yuan. 

A type of realgar wine (known as xionghuangjiu) is also enjoyed. Realgar contains arsenic sulfide which was believed to be an antidote for poisons, thus driving away evil spirits, insects and other poisonous animals. 

During this celebration, several rituals are performed for protection from evil and sickness for the reminder of the year. Hanging herbs on the front door, drinking certain elixirs and hanging pictures of Zhong Kui (who is supposedly evil’s archenemy and a mythical figure). 

And if one manages to balance a raw on its end and it is exactly 12:00PM, this will also ensure that the following year will be lucky.


 

Persian or Farsi?

I recently received a request for the localization of a project into “Persian”. Typically, I receive requests for “Farsi”. It seems there is quite a debate on which term is the correct term to use for the official language of Iran (and also spoken in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and other neighboring countries).

Originally know as Persia to the Western world, the country of Iran was always known as Iran in Persian (only Western culture referred to it as Persia). However, in 1935, it has been said that the suggestion to change the name from Persia to Iran was proposed by the Persian ambassador to Germany. Being that he was a Nazi sympathizer and believed that Persia would be well served being an ally to Germany, he become convinced that the country should be known by its Persian name “Iran” in Western languages. The name Iran is word that has a common etymological origin of the old word Aryan (derived from the Sanskrit "Arya" meaning "Noble").

To add to the confusion, Farsi (which is the Persian word for the Persian language) was now being used in Western languages instead of  Persian. "Farsi" (an Arabic adaptation of the word "Parsi"), is the indigenous name of the Persian language. Just as the Greek refer to their native language as “Ellinika” and the German “Deutsch”, “Farsi” or “Parsi” is how the language is referred to by native speakers.

However, after the 1979 revolution, many Persians moved to the West and began referring to their language as “Farsi” and it has been used in Western countries ever since (for the most part).

Since we never refer to Japanese as “Nihongo” in English or Spanish as “Espagnol” in English, technically, we should be referring (in English) to the official language of Iran as PERSIAN.

Personally, I've always thought it made much more sense to refer to countries and language names using the proper native pronunciation and not the English equivalent. On second thought, imagine a world where China was referred to as Zhōngguó!