Chamorro language

Chamorro
Chamorro
Native to	Mariana Islands
Ethnicity	Chamorro
Native speakers	58,000 (2005–2015)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Chamorro; ;
Official status
Official language in	Guam ; Northern Mariana Islands
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ch
ISO 639-2	cha
ISO 639-3	cha
Glottolog	cham1312
ELP	Chamorro
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Chamorro (English: /tʃəˈmɒroʊ/;^[2] Chamorro: Finuʼ Chamorro (CNMI), Finoʼ CHamoru (Guam)^[3]) 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

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

[e19-1] 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.

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