Chamorro language

Chamorro
Native toMariana Islands
EthnicityChamorro
Native speakers
58,000 (2005–2015)
Official status
Official language in
 Guam
 Northern Mariana Islands
Language codes
ISO 639-1ch
ISO 639-2cha
ISO 639-3cha
Glottologcham1312
ELPChamorro
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Chamorro (English: /tʃəˈmɒroʊ/; Chamorro: Finuʼ Chamorro (CNMI), Finoʼ CHamoru (Guam)) is a language spoken in Guam and the Mariana Islands by the Chamorro people. It has a lot of loanwords from the Spanish language. It is spoken by about 58,000 people.

The Chamorro language has its own Wikipedia. The first edit was made there in 2004.

History

In 1922, the US government banned the Chamorro language. Now, most Chamorro in Guam speak English. However, some people are teaching Chamorro classes so that others can learn the language.

Letters

Chamorro uses the ABCs like English and Spanish. The Spanish brought them this alphabet.

Vowels

Chamorro has 6 vowels.

Letter Pronunciation
Å like a in car
A like a in cat
I like ee in meet or i in pit
E like e in met or ee in meet
U like oo in tool or u in put
O like ow in low or u in put


Consonants

Chamorro has 19 consonants.

Letter Pronunciation
' as in the space between "uh" and "oh" in uh-oh
B
Ch
D
F
G
H
J
K
L
M
N
Ñ as in the ni in onion
NG as in the ng in sing
P
R
S
T
Y as in the z in zoo or j in June

References

  1. ↑ Chamorro at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
  2. ↑ "Chamorro". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020.
  3. ↑ "Chamorro Orthography Rules". Guampedia. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.