Chamorro language

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Chamorro Chamoru
Spoken in:	Guam, Northern Mariana Islands
Region:	Western Pacific Ocean
Total speakers:	First language: more than 60,000
Language family:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP Sunda-Sulawesi Chamorro
Official status
Official language in:	Guam, Northern Mariana Islands
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`ch`
ISO 639-2:	`cha`
ISO 639-3:	`cha`
Chamorro language spread in the United States
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Chamorro (Chamoru) is the native language of the Chamorro or Chamoru of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. It is also used in the mainland United States by immigrants and some of their descendants.

It is an agglutinative language, grammatically allowing root words to be modified by an unlimited number of affixes. For example, manmasanganenñaihon "(plural) talked awhile (with/to)" from pluralizing prefix man-, past tensifying prefix ma-, root verb sangan, suffix i "to" (forced morphophonemically to change to e) with excrescent consonant n, and suffix ñaihon "a short amount of time". Thus "In manmasanganenñaihon gui' ": "We (exclusive) talked to him/her for a bit".

Chamorro has many Spanish loanwords and others have Spanish etymological roots (e.g. tenda "shop/store" from Spanish tienda), which may lead some to mistakenly conclude that the language is a Spanish Creole: Chamorro very much uses its loan words in a Micronesian way (eg: bumobola "playing ball" from bola "ball, play ball" with verbalizing infix -um- and reduplication of first syllable of root).

The numbers of Chamorro speakers have declined in recent years, and the younger generations are less likely to know the language. The influence of English has caused the language to become endangered. Various representatives from Guam have unsuccessfully lobbied the United States to take action to promote and protect the language.^{[citation needed]} In Guam (called "Guåhan" by Chamorro speakers, from the word guaha, meaning "have"), the number of native Chamorro speakers have dwindled in numbers in the last decade or so while in the Northern Mariana Islands, young Chamorros still speak the language fluently.

There are approximately 50,000 to 75,000 speakers of Chamorro throughout the Marianas archipelago. It is still common among Chamorro households in the Northern Marianas, but fluency has greatly decreased among Guamanian Chamorros during the years of American rule in favor of (a largely pidginized) American English, which is commonplace throughout the inhabited Marianas.

1 Alphabet
2 Chamorro basic phrases
3 Numbers
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Alphabet

' (glottal stop), A, Å, B, Ch, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, Ñ, Ng, O, P, R, S, T, U, Y

Note that the letter Y is pronounced more like 'dz' (an approximation of the regional Spanish pronunciation of "Y"/"Ll" as "(d)ʒ", the exact sound of which did not exist among the Chamoru); nor are N and Ñ always distinguished. Thus the Guamanian place name spelled Yona is pronounced 'dzo-nia', not 'yo-na' as might be expected. Note also that Ch is usually pronounced like 'ts' rather than 'tsh' and that A and Å are not always distinguished in written Chamorro (often being written simply as 'A'). “R” in Chamorro is pronounced like [ɾ] like Spanish and Chamorro also has a trill [r] which is spelled “RR”.

[edit] Chamorro basic phrases

Håfa Adai	Hello.
åti adeng-mu	Greetings
Ho	You
Kao mamaolek ha' hao?	How are you? [lit.: Are you doing well?][informal]
Håfa tatatmånu hao?	How are you?[formal]
Håyi na'ån-mu?	What is your name?
Nå'an-hu si Chris	I am Chris.
Ñålang yu'	I'm hungry.
Må'o yu'	I'm thirsty.

Adios [Spanish introduced]	Good bye.
Pot Fabot [Spanish introduced]	please
Fanatåtte[Indigenous]	And so you will follow
Buenos dihas [Spanish introduced]	Good morning.
Buenas tatdes [Spanish introduced]	Good afternoon.
Buenas noches [Spanish introduced]	Good night.

Asta agupa'	See you tomorrow
Si Tzu'us ma'åse'	Thank you (literal translation derives from Spanish - the mercy of Jesus (or God)
Buen probecho' [Spanish introduced]	Not at all; you're welcome

These Spanish introduced pharases are innacurate. Chamorros don't actually have any phrases for goodbye or whatever. They use substitutes.

[edit] Numbers

Current common Chamorro uses only number words of Spanish origin: unu, dos, tres, etc. Old Chamorro used different number words based on categories: "Basic numbers" (for date, time, etc), "living things", "inanimate things", and "long objects".

English	Modern Chamoru	Old Chamoru: Basic Numbers	Old Chamoru: Living Things	Old Chamoru: Inanimate Things	Old Chamoru: Long Objects
one	unu/una (time)	hacha	maisa	hachiyai	takhachun
two	dos	hugua	hugua	hugiyai	takhuguan
three	tres	tulu	tato	to'giyai	taktulun
four	kuåttro'	fatfat	fatfat	fatfatai	takfatun
five	singko'	lima	lalima	limiyai	takliman
six	sais	gunum	guagunum	gonmiyai	ta'gunum
seven	sietti	fiti	fafiti	fitgiyai	takfitun
eight	ocho'	gualu	guagualu	guatgiyai	ta'gualun
nine	nuebi	sigua	sasigua	sigiyai	taksiguan
ten	dies	manot	maonot	manutai	takmaonton
hundred	sien	gatus	gatus	gatus	gatus/manapo

The number 10 and its multiples up to 90 are: dies(10), benti(20), trenta(30), kuårenta(40), singkuenta(50), sisenta(60), sitenta(70), ochenta(80), nubenta(90)

[edit] References

Aguon, K. B. (1995). Chamorro: a complete course of study. Agana, Guam: K.B. Aguon.
Topping, Donald M. (1973). Chamorro reference grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Topping, Donald M., Pedro M. Ogo, and Bernadita C. Dungca (1975). Chamorro-English dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Topping, Donald M. (1980). Spoken Chamorro: with grammatical notes and glossary, rev. ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.