| Also Known As: Tjamoro,Chamorro
Description:
Chamorro is a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language, spoken on the Mariana islands (especially Guam and Saipan) by about 47,000 people (about 35,000 people on Guam and about 12,000 in the N. Marianas).
The numbers of Chamorro speakers have declined in recent years, and the younger generations are less likely to know the language. The influence of English has caused the language to become endangered. On Guam (called "Guåhan" by Chamorro speakers, probably from either the word guaha, meaning "have", or the word guihan, meaning "fish", or perhaps a portmanteau of both), the number of native Chamorro speakers have dwindled in numbers 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.
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 (a largely pidginized) American English, which is commonplace throughout the inhabited Marianas.
Unlike most of its neighbors,..... full article at Wikipedia |
