UniLang

[flag]ch[/flag] Chamorro

Chamorro, as you may or may have not known, is one of the official languages of both Chamorro and the Northern Mariana Islands. It's an Austronesian language, specifically a Melanesian one, that currently has a pretty strong Spanish influence to it. I've done quite an extensive amount of research on the language, and have found enough material to practically create a course (if anyone's interested). It's literally a piecing together of the different sources though because each source I've found is very limited. Anyways, here are some basic phrases in Chamorro:

Hello: Håfa Adai
How are you?: Kao mamaolek ha' hao? / Håfa tatamanu hao?
Good Morning: Oga'an Maolek / Buenas dihas
Good Afternoon: Talo'ånen Maolek / Buenas tåtdes
Good Evening: Puengin Maolek
Good Night: Pupuengin Maolek / Buenas noches
Goodbye: Ådios
Please: Put fabot
Thank You: Si yu'os ma'åse'
Your Welcome: Buen probecho
I'm Sorry.: Despensa yu'.
What is your name?: Håyi na'ån-mu?
My name is _______.: Na'ån-hu si _______.

Italics: I don't know if they are correct.

Cool! How do you pronounce the "å"? What are some of the sources you're using?

Well, sources wise, I've done quite a bit of research as I've already said. Right now, I'm using what I can find on the internet. Later though, I'll probably get a couple of books and read up. But anyways, I'll list a few of my most used sources:

http://dictionary.chamoru.info/
http://www.chamorro.com/fino/fino.html
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/aust ... .php?id=18
http://uog2.uog.edu/lessonz/ (doesn't include diacretics)
http://www.offisland.com/cham.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_language

As for the pronunciation of å, it's pronounced /ɑ/ (like the a in spa in American English). The regular a is pronounced /æ/ (like the a in cat in American English). I'll make another post about the pronunciation of letters (and the glottal stop ). One thing people should know about this language is that the spelling is not entirely definite in some cases (like some sources use á instead of å), but I'll post the way I see is most frequently used. EDIT: My pronunciations here aren't exact. Look at the link in my next post for better pronunciation explanations.

The Chamorro Alphabet (I Atfabeton Chamorro)

The Chamorro Alphabet is not very defined, as each source I've read seems to be providing a different set of pronounciations. I think this source does the best at defining each of the letters though: http://finochamoru.blogspot.com/2009/04/leksion-chamoru-pronunsiasion.html. I'll add on to that source though. According to one source, the letter "å" is not usually included in normal Chamorro writing. I'll look more into this, but with that being said, one usually learns when to use which.

I'll probably add a table of all of the letters with their pronounciations later, yet for now, just look at that link. Here are a few more phrases, yet this time, I added some funny ones I have found.

It's a long time since I've seen you: Åpmam tiempo ti hu li'e hao
It's a long time since we've seen each other: Åpmam tiempo ti umali'e' hit
Let's eat!: Ta fañocho!
I don't understand: Ti hu komprende
Excuse me/Sorry: Dispensa yo'
How much is this?: Kuånto båli-ña este?
Happy Birthday: Felis Kumpliåños / Biba Kumpliåños
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year: Felis Nåbidåt/Påsgua yan Magof na Åñu Nuebu
One language is never enough.: Ni ngai'an nahong un linguåhe
Help!: Ayuda!
Stop!: Båsta! Påra! Na'påra!
Don't give me a dirty look!: Cha'-mu umatalaki yo'!

This is cool, wow. You really did your research! I'm trying to learn too many languages now, so I can't throw Chamorro into the mix, but I'd like to at least follow along passively if you keep up with any lessons. Thanks for all the information!

No problem Struthiomimus! I always feel like I'm learning too many languages.

Anyways, yeah, sure, I'll keep making some lessons.

Leksion Uno: Estrukturan Chamoru (Lesson One: Chamorro Structure)

Håfa Adai! Ok, so for this lesson, I'm just going to talk about the structural basics. From what I have gotten from the research I've done, I've found that, as I have said before, there is quite a bit of Spanish and Austronesian influence to the structure of this language. Here are a few basics:

In English, we would say:

• The water is cold.
• The sky is blue.
• The language is difficult.
• Riptide is smart.

In Chamorro, the structure looks like this:

• Cold is water.
• Blue is sky.
• Difficult is language.
• Smart is Riptide.

Now let's see what it looks like in Chamorro. You will notice that the connecting particle, like is in English, is "i" in Chamorro (except for when proper names are involved, in which "si" is used). Most Austronesian Languages do not have a designated word for "to be". So just keep that in mind as the lessons go on. Here's what those four sentences are in Chamorro:

• Fugu i hånom.
• Asut i langet.
• Mappot i idioma.
• Intelihente si Riptide.

Ok, so that's the end of this lesson, but there will be more lessons to come. The next one will be about numbers and number of things. For those who are actually paying attention to this, would you want me to make exercises for future lessons? Anyways, ådios!

So, how would you say "The blue water is cold"?

I want to say it's fugu i hånom asut, yet I'm not entirely sure at the moment.

There are quite a few readers for Chamorro in the ERIC system. Just search for Chamorro and they should pop up.

Figured I'd let anyone that was interested know. Don't really know the quality of the readers, but they seem like someone with a basic knowledge of the language should be able to read them . . .

There's a pretty good Chamorro dictionary online here:
http://dictionary.chamoru.info/

Is there anyone who is still learning Chamorro here? This thread is very old.

Irusia wrote:Is there anyone who is still learning Chamorro here? This thread is very old.

I started to a few months ago, though I didn't know about this thread. But I never kept it going. Are you learning it?

dEhiN wrote:

Irusia wrote:Is there anyone who is still learning Chamorro here? This thread is very old.

I started to a few months ago, though I didn't know about this thread. But I never kept it going. Are you learning it?

I haven't started yet, but I'd like to learn the basics this summer. What resources do you use for learning it?

I've thought about learning it before myself. I have a copy of Spoken Chamorro by Topping and Ogo. It's a great text, I just wish there was audio to go with it.

I started using this site: https://www.learningchamorro.com/

It looks like, for the lessons anyway, they heavily use Topping and Ogo. I wonder if they might have some audio that is usable for the text there.

I just found out about that site a day or two ago when, out of curiosity, I did a websearch.

księżycowy wrote:It looks like, for the lessons anyway, they heavily use Topping and Ogo. I wonder if they might have some audio that is usable for the text there.

They have audio for the vocabulary sentences at least; recordings of a native speaker. And they probably use that book because, from what I recall, the site was created by a prof at some university. I'm thinking now it's probably the same prof or one of the same profs who perhaps wrote that book.

Yeah, they changed things just enough....

But no reason I couldn't use the website and book.