Chamorro
Fino'Chamorro
Spoken in	Guam  Northern Mariana Islands
Region	Western Pacific Ocean
Ethnicity	Chamorro people
Native speakers	First language: more than 60,000  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP Sunda–Sulawesi MP ? Chamorro
Official status
Official language in	Guam  Northern Mariana Islands
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ch
ISO 639-2	cha
ISO 639-3	cha
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Chamorro (Chamorro: Fino' Chamoru or simply Chamoru) is a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language, spoken on the Mariana Islands (Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan) by about 47,000 people (about 35,000 people on Guam and about 12,000 in the N. Marianas).^[1]

Speakers[link]

"Hafa Adai" sign at Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The numbers of Chamorro speakers have declined in recent years, and the younger generations are less likely to know the language.^{[according to whom?]} The influence of English has caused the language to become endangered. On Guam (called "Guåhan" by Chamorro speakers, from the word guaha, meaning "have", but its English meaning is, "We Have", from the idea that they had everything they needed,^[2][3]) the number of native Chamorro speakers has dwindled in the last decade or so, while in the Northern Mariana Islands, young Chamorros still speak the language fluently. Various representatives from Guam have unsuccessfully lobbied the United States to take action to promote and protect the language.^{[citation needed]}

It is still common among Chamorro households in the Northern Marianas, but fluency has greatly decreased among Guamanian Chamorros during the years of American rule in favor of American English, which is commonplace throughout the inhabited Marianas.

Classification[link]

Unlike most of its neighbors, Chamorro is not a Micronesian or Polynesian language. Rather, like Palauan, it constitutes a possibly independent branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family. Its indigenous origins are thus somewhat obscure. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database^[4] suggested an 85% confidence level that it is closest to the Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.

Chamorro also has much Spanish influence, due to three centuries of Spanish colonial rule. Many Chamorro nouns, adjectives, prepositions, numerals, and verbs are of Spanish origin. Under a historical point of view, it may be considered a mixed language, even if it is now independent and unique.^[5] When Guam was colonised by the United States, Chamorro was at the pre-stage of being transformed into a Spanish-based creole, and the transfer of rule made it so that it never reached that point.^{[citation needed]}

Orthography[link]

The letter ⟨y⟩ is pronounced more like dz (an approximation of the regional Spanish pronunciation of y as [dʒ]); nor are ⟨n⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩ or ⟨a⟩ and ⟨å⟩ always distinguished in print. Thus the Guamanian place name spelled Yona is pronounced [dzoɲa], not *[jona] as might be expected. ⟨Ch⟩ is usually pronounced like ts rather than like Engilsh ch. Chamorro ⟨r⟩ is a flap [ɾ], like Spanish r between vowels, and a retroflex approximant [ɻ ], like English r, at the beginning of words.

Chamorro has geminate consonants which are written double (GG, DD, KK, MM, NGNG, PP, SS, TT), native diphthongs AI and AO, plus OI, OE, IA, IU, IE in loanwords; penultimate stress, except where marked otherwise with an acute accent, as in asút "blue" or dángkulo "big". Unstressed vowels are limited to /ə i u/, though they are often spelled A E O. Syllables may be consonant-vowel-consonant, as in che’lu "sibling", diskatga "unload", mamahlao "shy", or oppop "lie face down", gatus (old word for 100), Hagåtña (Capital of Guam); B, D, and G are not distinguished from P, T, and K in that position^[vague].

Chamorro grammar[link]

Chamorro is an agglutinative language, grammatically allowing root words to be modified by a number of affixes. For example, masanganenñaihon "talked awhile (with/to)", passive marking prefix ma-, root verb sangan, referential suffix i "to" (forced morphophonemically to change to e) with excrescent consonant n, and suffix ñaihon "a short amount of time". Thus Masanganenñaihon gue' "He/she was told (something) for a while".

Chamorro has many Spanish loanwords and other words have Spanish etymological roots (e.g. tenda "shop/store" from Spanish tienda), which may lead some to mistakenly conclude that the language is a Spanish Creole: Chamorro very much uses its loan words in a Micronesian way (e.g.: bumobola "playing ball" from bola "ball, play ball" with verbalizing infix -um- and reduplication of first syllable of root).

Chamorro is predicate-initial, head-marking language. It has a rich agreement system both in the nominal and in the verbal domains. The following table gives the possessor-noun agreement suffixes:^[6]

Chamorro is also known for its wh-agreement in the verb: these agreement morphemes agree with features (roughly, the Grammatical case feature) of the question phrase, and replace the regular subject–verb agreement:^[7]

'Juan washed the car.'

'Who washed the car?'

Chamorro basic phrases[link]

Numbers[link]

Current common Chamorro uses only number words of Spanish origin: unu, dos, tres, etc. Old Chamorro used different number words based on categories: "Basic numbers" (for date, time, etc.), "living things", "inanimate things", and "long objects".

• The number 10 and its multiples up to 90 are: dies(10), benti(20), trenta(30), kuårenta(40), sinkuenta(50), sisenta(60), sitenta(70), ochenta(80), nubenta(90)
• Similar to Spanish terms: diez(10), veinte(20), treinta(30), cuarenta(40), cincuenta(50), sesenta(60), setenta(70), ochenta(80), noventa(90).

Chamorro Studies[link]

Chamorro language is studied at the University of Guam and in several academic institutions of Guam and the Northern Marianas.

Researches in several countries are also studying different aspects of Chamorro. In 2009, the Chamorro Linguistics International Network (CHIN) [1] was established in Bremen, Germany. CHiN was founded on occasion of the Chamorro Day (27 September 2009) which was part of the programme of the Festival of Languages [2]. The foundation ceremony was attended by people from Germany, Guam, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States of America. ^[11]

See also[link]

Chamorro language spread in the United States

	Micronesia portal
	Language portal

• Proposed name change for Guam

Notes[link]

General references[link]

• Aguon, K. B. (1995). Chamorro: a complete course of study. Agana, Guam: K.B. Aguon.
• Chung, Sandra. 1998. The design of agreement: Evidence from Chamorro. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
• Rodríguez-Ponga, Rafael (2003). El elemento español en la lengua chamorra. Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad Complutense (Complutense University of Madrid). http://eprints.ucm.es/3664/
• Topping, Donald M. (1973). Chamorro reference grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
• Topping, Donald M., Pedro M. Ogo, and Bernadita C. Dungca (1975). Chamorro-English dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
• Topping, Donald M. (1980). Spoken Chamorro: with grammatical notes and glossary, rev. ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
• Hunt, Mike (2008). "Speaking Chamoru Moru Moru". San Roque, Saipan.

External links[link]

Chamorro language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Chamorro language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Chamorro-English Online Dictionary
• http://ns.gov.gu/language.html
• http://www.offisland.com/thelanguage.html
• http://www.chamorro.com/fino/fino.html
• Chamorro-English dictionary, partially available at Google Books.
• A Chamorro Reference Grammar, partially available at Google Books.
• http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Chamorro-english/
• Chamorro Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
• http://www.sous-le-soleil-de-guam.com
• http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/chin/ Chamorro Linguistics International Network (CHIN).

Eddie Calvo
7th Governor of Guam
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2011
Lieutenant	Ray Tenorio
Preceded by	Felix Perez Camacho
Personal details
Born	Eddie Baza Calvo (1961-08-29) August 29, 1961 (age 50) Tamuning, Guam
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Christine Calvo
Alma mater	Notre Dame de Namur University

Eddie Baza Calvo (born August 29, 1961) is a politician and Governor of the United States territory of Guam since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, Calvo was a five-term Senator within the Legislature of Guam. He became the Governor of Guam, having defeated Democrat Carl Gutierrez in the 2010 gubernatorial election.^[1] Calvo chose Senator Ray Tenorio as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor of Guam.^[2]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Calvo was born on August 29, 1961, in Tamuning, Guam and is the son of Governor Paul McDonald Calvo, who served as the Governor of Guam from 1979 until 1983, and former Guamanian First Lady Rosa Herrero Baza.^[3] His paternal grandparents were former Congressman Eduardo Torres Calvo and Veronica Mariano McDonald Calvo, who resided in Maite, Guam.^[3] His maternal grandparents were Antonio Camacho Baza, a former United States Marshall, and Delores Cruz Herrero, who resided in Sinajana, Guam.^[3]

Calvo initially attended Father Duenas Memorial School in Guam before moving to California, where he graduated from Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California, in 1979. Calvo received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California.^[2]

He is married to Christine Lujan Sonido. The couple have six children^[2]: Eddie, Vinson, Rosae, PJ, Melva and Celine.

Career[link]

Calvo worked in the private sector before entering politics in the late 1990s. He formerly worked as the general manager of the Pacific Construction Company and the Vice President and General Manager of the Pepsi Bottling Company of Guam.^[2]

Calvo, a Republican, was first elected as a Senator in the Guam Legislature in 1998,^[2] taking office in 1999. He has since been elected to five terms in office (with a two-year break after his defeat in the lieutenant gubernatorial primary in 2002). Calvo has served as both the Vice Speaker and Acting Speaker of the Legislature during his tenure in office.^[2]

In 2002, Calvo ran for Lieutenant Governor of Guam as the running mate of Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tony Unpingco, the former Speaker of the Legislature.^[2] However, the Unpingco-Calvo ticket was defeated in the Republican primary election by gubernatorial candidate Felix Camacho,^[2] who went on to be elected Governor in the 2002 general election.

Governor of Guam[link]

On April 30, 2010, Calvo announced that he would leave the Legislature at the end of his present term.^[3] In the same speech, Calvo simultaneously told supporters at Chamorro Village that he intended to seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Guam in 2010.^[3] He chose Senator Ray Tenorio as his running mate.^[3]

Calvo-Tenorio went on to defeat Lieutenant Governor Michael Cruz in the Republican primary election on September 4, 2010 and ran against former Democratic Governor Carl Gutierrez and his running mate, Senator Frank Aguon.^[2] The Calvo-Tenorio ticket won the 2010 gubernatorial election by a slim margin, and although the final count was enough to win the election, it was still within 2% of the Guiterrez Aguon ticket. Immediately after the election, a recount was ordered by the Guam Election Commission.^[1]

In March 2012, he endorsed Mitt Romney for president. ^[4]

References[link]

v t e Governors of Guam Commissioner (1898–1899) Glass Martínez Sisto Roberto Sisto Taussig Pérez Coe Naval (1899–1941) Leary Safford Schroeder Swift Schroeder Sewell Schofield Stone Dyer McNamee Potts McNamee Dorn Freyer Salisbury Coontz Hinds Maxwell Cronan Simpson Smith Gilmer Hodgman Gilmer Wettengel Spore Althouse Miller Althouse Price Brown Shapley Bradley Root G. Alexander McCandlish J. Alexander McMillin Military (1944–1949) Geiger Larsen Pownall Civilian (1949–1969) Skinner Elvidge Corbett Lowe Boss Flores Daniel Guerrero C. Camacho Elected (Since 1969) C. Camacho Bordallo P. Calvo Bordallo Ada Gutierrez F. Camacho E. Calvo