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
Sample text in Chamorro
Manmåfañågu todu i taotao siha manlibettao yan
mamårehu gi diknidåt yan direcho siha, manmånå’i
siha nu hinasso yan konsiensia ya debi di u fanafa’maolek.
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)
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
Online Chamorro dictionary
http://www.chamoru.info/dictionary
Chamorro.com – website of the worldwide Chamorro community
http://www.chamorro.com
Chamorro Language & Culture
http://chamorrolanguage.blogspot.com/
Blog about the Chamorro language
http://finochamoru.blogspot.com