First released in September 2018, El Diutay Principe is a Chavacano translation of the French novella, Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry.
The Little Prince is a story about a pilot who gets lost in the desert 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.
Chavacano is one of only two Spanish-based creole languages in the world and is considered as one of the world’s oldest creole languages. While it has a special place in the field of linguistics, Chavacano speakers themselves fail to recognize the beauty and uniqueness of their language.
“It is lamentable that most Chavacano speakers think lowly of their language. They think that speaking Filipino is cooler. This is what I wanted to change. I wanted to change the perception that Chavacano speakers have of their language as well as introduce Chavacano to the world through El Diutay Principe. I invested heavily in the book because I wanted it to look perfect. I didn’t just want to translate the book into Chavacano, I wanted something that will make Chavacano speakers think, ‘oh, look, someone went through all this trouble to create this good-looking book so Chavacano must be special.’ Because when we look at, for example, TV programs produced locally in Chavacano, most of them look tired and old, like nobody wants to bother to invest in new equipment to produce better quality TV programs. So what does that tell the people who speak Chavacano? That Chavacano is a third-class language? That it does not deserve any attention whatsoever? This is one of the things that the book hopes to change. I wanted a book that will give Chavacano dignity and elevate its prestige,” Herrera said.
Jerome Herrera hopes that the book will aid greatly in Chavacano becoming a standardized written language in the future and that it will be the start of a long list of published Chavacano books.
“The book will contain a glossary for better comprehension and to widen the reader’s Chavacano vocabulary. So it is also a good material for teaching the language,” Herrera said. In 2012, the DepEd implemented the Mother Tongue-Based Curriculum which aims to facilitate learning using a child’s first language.
El Diutay Principe was self-published by the translator and will have a second print run in October 2022. The book is available via https://www.facebook.com/eldiutayprincipe.
