Chamorro (chamoru)

Chamorro is an Austronesian language spoken by about 50,000 people mainly in Guam, and also in the Northern Mariana Islands and the USA. Chamorro contains a huge number of words of Spanish origin and this has lead some to mistakenly believe that it is a Spanish-based Creole.

Chamorro first started to appear in writing in 1668 when a missionary by the name of Father San Vitores devised a spelling system for the language using the Latin alphabet. Since then various spelling systems have been used.

Chamorro alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

The letters Å å and Ñ ñ are rarely used in written Chamorro.

Sample text in Chamorro

Todo taotao siha man mafanago libertao yan pareho gi dignidad yan derecho siha, man manae siha hinaso yan consiencia yan debe de ufatinas contra uno yan otro gi un espiritun chumelo.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Links

Dictionary and Grammar of the Chamorro Language
http://chamorrobible.org/chamorro-dictionary1.htm

Online Chamorro lessons
http://offisland.com/cham.html
http://ns.gov.gu/language.html
http://pikaguam.com/categories.php?op=newindex&catid;=9

Chamorro.com - website of the worldwide Chamorro community
http://www.chamorro.com

Related languages

Balinese, Batak, Bugis, Buhid, Cebuano, Cham, Chamorro, Fijian, Hanuno'o, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Javanese, Makasar, Malagasy, Malay, Mandar, Maori, Rarotongan, Redjang, Samoan, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tahitian, Tongan, Tuvaluan

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet