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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

CHAMO RRO STRUCTURE
AND THE
TEACHING OF ENGLISH

presented by
Donald M. Topping

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

PhoDo degree in EngliSh

#43.“ .W
Ma,or WOW

Date August 29, 1963

 

LIBRARY

Michigan State
University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT
CHAMORRO STRUCTURE AND THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH
By Donald Medley Topping

The purpose of this study is twofold: l) to provide a
phonological and grammatical description of Chamorro, and
2) to show by a contrastive analysis the major problems of
linguistic interference for the Chamorro speaker learning
English.

A linguistic analysis of Chamorro phonology and grammar
was made during residence on Guam, Marianas Islands, from
January, 1961 to August, 1962. Informants, most of whom
were between 18 and 30 years old, from Guam, Rota, and
Saipan were consulted. The data were obtained from direct
elicitation and from recorded extemporaneous conversations
among native speakers.

The phonological analysis covers the complete sound
system of Chamorro. The grammatical description is selec-
tive, and is_presented in an order of descending likelihood
of grammatical interference.

An item by item contrastive analysis is made between

English and Chamorro phonology to determine the conflict

 

: i I [lii
I If Ill. it‘ll \(l

Donald M. Topping

areas between the two systems. The predicted phonological
problems are: 1) new segmental phonemes / v 9 6 z a i /

and certain consonant clusters; 2) shared segmental phonemes,
with different allophones and distribution / p t k b d g c

3 r / and all vowels except /&/; 3) stress and intonation.
Illustrative examples of Chamorro-English speech, based

upon the investigator's experience, are provided.

Each item which is described in the analysis of Chamorro
grammar is contrasted with its counterpart in English
structure in order to examine the structural, syntactical
and lexical differences. Examples from student themes are
cited as evidence of the types of predictable errors which
seem to stem from the differences between the two languages.

The major areas of grammatical interference between
Chamorro and English are found in the structural differences
of the functors, the verb systems, and the order of imme-
diate constituents.

The writer strongly urges that the English language
curricula in the schools of the Marianas Islands be revised
to utilize the more recent work in linguistic science and
second language teaching. This study may, hopefully, serve

as a basis for such a revision.

CHAMORRO STRUCTURE AND THE

TEACHING OF ENGLISH

B
33w

Donald MF?Topping

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of English

1963

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For their help in the preparation of this study I am
sincerely indebted to my special committee, Professors Hans
Wolff (Chairman), Robert Geist, and William Heist, all of
Michigan State University.

I would also like to express my appreciation to Professors
Floyd Cammack and Albert Schutz of the University of Hawaii
for their valuable criticism of portions of the manuscript.

Deepest appreciation is extended to the many generous
people of the Marianas Islands, and particularly the students
at the College of Guam, who always found time to aid me in
learning their language. Although it would be impossible to
name each individual whose utterances went into this study,

I would like to extend special appreciation to Rosa Roberto
of Guam, Pedro Ogo of Rota, and Jesus Concepcion and Frank
San Nicolas of Saipan.

The research materials were made available to me through

the libraries of the College of Guam and the University of

Hawaii.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACMOWLEDGEMENTS O O O O O O C O O O O O O O O 0

TABLE OF CONTENTS 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES . . . . . . . .

1. Historical Background and Purpose . . . . . .

1.0 Geographical and Historical Setting

1.1 Population and Economy

1.11

History and Government of Guam

1.111 History and Government of the Other

Islands

Languages Spoken and Taught in the

Marianas

1.21 Japanese

1.22 English

1.23 Status of Languages

1.24 The Future of Chamorro

1.25 The Status of Language Instruction

Previous Studies

1.31

1.32

1.33

1.34

Father Sanvitores
Safford
Fritz, P. Callistus, and Kate

Thalheimer

iii

Page
ii
iii

xii

10
ll
13
14
14
16

16

2.

1.35 Von Preissig

1.36 Conant and Costenoble

1.37 Mathiot and Seiden
1.4 Collection of Materials for This Study
1.5 Purpose and Scope of This Study
Phonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.0 Inventory of Chamorro Phonemes
2.1 Vowel System of Chamorro

2.11 Vowel Allophones

2.12 Description

2.13 Statement of Distribution of the

Vowels
2.131 /i/
2.132 /e/
2.133 /a/
2.134 /u/
2.135 /o/
2.136 /a/

2.14 Diphthongs
2.2 Consonants

2.21 Phonetic Description of Chamorro
Consonants

2.211 Allophones of the Consonants

iv

Page
16
17
18
19
20
21
21
21
23

23

24
24
25
25
26
26
27
28

29

29

31

3.

2.6

2.7

2.212 Statement of Distribution of
the Consonants

2.213 Description of the Allophones
2.2131 Initial
2.2132 Medial
2.2133 Final

2.214 Minimal Contrasts for
Suspicious Pairs

2.22 Consonant Clusters

2.221 Distribution of Consonant
Clusters

Canonical Forms of the Morphemes
Syllable Structure

Stress

2.51 Primary Stress in Single Morphemes
2.52 Secondary and Tertiary Stress

2.53 Stress Patterns of Chamorro
Continuous Speech

2.54 Rhythm
Chamorro Contours and Phrases

Pitch

2.8 Juncture

Grammar O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O O 0 O O O

3.0

Introduction

Page

34
36
36
37

39

40

40

41
43
46
47
48

49

51
56
56
57
60
66

66

Page

3.1 Outline of Chamorro Morphology 66
3.11 Contentives: Outline 67
3.12 Functors: Outline 68

3.2 Detailed Description of Chamorro Grammar 70
3.21 Pronouns and Postposed Possessives 71

3.211 Cardinal Pronouns 71
3.2111 ggz_Pronouns: Inactive 71

3.2112 hu_Pronouns: Active 73

3.212 Possessives 74

3.213 Emphatic Pronouns 74

3.22 Articles 75
3.221 Common Article i_ 75

3.222 Common Article 3g. 77

3.223 Proper Article §i_ 77

3.224 Proper Article §§_ 78

3.225 Proper Article iga_ 78

3.23 Contentive Affixes 78
3.24 Tense-Aspect-Mode Markers 79
3.241 Future Tense Markers b§y_and u. 79

3.242 Aspect Marker gigig. 80

3.243 Mode Markers 80

3.25 Verbs 81

vi

3.251

3.252

3.253

3.254

3.255

3.256

3.257

Verb Tense

3.2511 Non-future Tense
3.2512 Future Tense
Verb Aspect

Verbs: Imperative Mode
Verb Affixation

3.2541 Verbalizer -um-l/ma/
zero

3.2542 Non-plural Infinitive
Marker -um-2

3.2543 Non-plural Indefinite
Object Marker -um-3

3.2544 Non—plural Definite
Subject Marker -um-4

3.2545 Plural Verbalizing
Prefix man-1

3.2546 Plural Infinitive
Marker man-2

3.2547 Plural Indefinite
Object Marker man-

3.2548 Topic Marker :ig;}
3.2549 Impersonal Structure
Defective Verbs

Causative Verb g§3_

Reciprocal Structure

vii

Page
82
82
84
85
86

86

87

88

88

89

89

90

90
91
92
93
93

94

3.28

3.30

3.31

Word Formation

3.261 irbases as Substantive and
Attribute

3.262 ifbases as Verbs
3.263 Verbs as Substantives
Modification

3.271 Modifying Particles and
Affixes

3.272 Comparative

Plural Structures

3.281 Irregular Plurals
Prepositions

3.291 Chamorro Prepositions

3.292 Spanish Loan Prepositions
Attributive Particles and Suffixes

3.301 Attributive Particles gu_and
222.

3.302 Bound Attributive Suffixes
Interrogatives

3.311 Interrogative + n§_

3.312 Interrogatives + g§y_

3.313 Interrogatives Without Linking
Particle

3.314 Initial n§_

viii

Page

94

95
95
95

96

97
99
99
100
100
100
102

103

104
104
105
106

106

107

109

Page

3.315 Final n§y_ 109
3.316 ki_ 109
3.32 Chamorro Phrase Structure 109
3.33 Clause Structure 111
3.34 Subordinating and Coordinating
Particles 112
3.341 Subordinating Particles 112
3.342 Coordinating Particles 115
3.35 Deictic Particles 116
3.351 Demonstratives 116
3.3511 Demonstratives i _§_ 117
3.3512 Demonstrative i i_ 117
3.352 Locatives 118
4. Contrastive Analysis, Chamorro-English . . . . . 120
4.0 Introduction 120
4.1 Phonology: Interference 121
4.11 New Segmental Phonemes 125
4.12 Shared Segmental Phonemes 126
4.121 Stops 127
4.122 Affricates 127
4.123 Fricatives 128
4.124 Liquids and Semivowels 129

ix

Page

4.125 Consonant Clusters 130
4.126 Vowels 132
4.127 Diphthongs 134
4.13 Stress and Intonation 134
4.131 Primary Word Stress 135

4.132 Stress-Pitch Relationship in
Continuous Speech 136

4.133 Frequency of Primary Stress

in Longer Utterances 137
4.134 Terminal Juncture 138
4.2 Grammar and Syntax: Interference 140
4.21 Pronouns 140
4.22 Articles 142
4.23 Verbs 142
4.231 Verb Tense and Aspect 143
4.232 Mode 149
4.24 Affixation 152
4.241 Inflectional Affixes 152
4.242 Derivational Affixes 154
4.25 Prepositions 155
4.26 Order of Constituents 156

4.261 Order of Constituents in
Modifying Structures 156

Page

4.262 Order of Constituents in
Clause Structures 157

4.27 Interrogative Constructions 163

4.28 Subordinate and Coordinate Clause

Construction 165

4.29 Locative and Demonstrative Functors 167

5. Summary, Recommendations, and Conclusion . . . . 169
5.0 Summary 169

5.1 Recommendations for Further Linguistic
Studies 172

5.2 Recommendations for English Teaching in

the Marianas 172
5.3 Conclusion 176
Bibliography 0 O O O O O O O O O O 0 O O O O O O O 177

xi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES

Page
Map of the Marianas Islands . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Table I
Phonetic and Phonemic Charts - Vowels . . . . . 22
Table II
Phonetic Chart - Consonants . . . . . . . . . . 32
Table III
Phonemic Chart - consonants o o o o o o o o o o 33
Table IV
Consonant Clusters Within the Microsegment . . 44
Table V
Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Table VI
Areas of Probable Phonemic Interference . . . . 122

xii

145

MAP

OF

THE
MARIANAS
ISLANDS‘

TIN

FARALLON DE PAJAROS

MAUG

1.....- __-.' -_.-.. ---.1 L.- - -fi .

O ASUNCION

. AGRIHAN

-LPAGAN-

o ALAMAGAN

° GUGUAN

O SARIGUAN

. ANATAHAN

147

 

I SAIPAN

. AGUIJ AN

’ RO'I'A

[IAN

 

Agana

 

GUAM

 

I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

1.0 GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SETTING. The Marianas
Islands group includes the fifteen islands, nine inhabited,
extending from Farallon de Pajaros in the north to Guam, the
largest and for long the cultural and commercial center, in
the south. These islands extend from 13 degrees to 21 de—
grees north latitude, and sit almost perpendicularly on a
line of 145 degrees longitude, approximately 1500 miles due
east from Manila. The islands form the southern extreme of
a volcanic mountain range extending southeast from Japan.
The five southern islands -- Guam, Rota, Aguijan, Tinian,
and Saipan -- are composed of terraces of coral limestone
laid down on a volcanic base. The northern islands are a
series of volcanic peaks.

The islands have a long history of contact with the
western world, Magellan having landed on Guam and Rota in
1521, just prior to his untimely death in the Philippines.
They were named "Islas de los Ladrones" (Thieves Islands)
because, according to legend, one of Magellan's life boats
was stolen from his ship by some sporting Chamorros during
this first port call.

1.1 POPULATION AND ECONOMY. Although exact figures

showing the total population of the islands are not avail-
able, it is estimated at approximately 90,000, a third or
more of whom are Statesiders (the common term for Mainland
Americans) who fall into one of three groups: 1) those serv—
ing with a military unit on Guam; 2) those working for the
U.S. Civil Service on Guam or Saipan; 3) civilians working
for the Government of Guam or a local firm. The military
group is by far the largest.

The total indigenous population of the islands stands at
approximately 53,000. The population breakdown by island
is as follows: Guam, 43,741; Saipan, 7,464; Rota, 1,014;
Tinian, 467; Agrihan, 116; Pagan, 93; Alamagan, 89; Sariguan,
32; Anatahan, 25. These figures pertain only to indigenous
residents. Those for the Trust Territory islands are based
on figures released by the Trust Territory Staff Anthropolo—
gist in 1962. Guam's population is based on the 1960 census.

(Note: All of the Marianas Islands but Guam are under

the United Nations Trusteeship, or the Trust Territory

of the Pacific Islands.)

The modern Chamorro people are a heterogeneous racial
group. After the near extermination of the ancient Chamor-

ros through epidemic diseases and mass murders, outbreeding

was most common, especially with Spanish and Filipino groups.

These admixtures were then further modified by later contacts
with other Europeans, Americans, and Japanese. "Many
present-day Chamorros are physically indistinguishable from
Europeans, while others display general Mongoloid featuresfll
(Spoehr 1954, p. 26).

Whereas their forebears are still known as Chamorros,
modern-day residents of Guam and Saipan avoid this term when
referring to their "race" or cultural group. The terms
Guamanian and Saipanese are nearly always used when referring
to the people or the society. Saipanese still refer to
their language as Chamorro, but the citizen of Guam insists
that he speaks Guamanian. Local identity among these two
groups is much stronger than that among the residents of the
other islands. Rotanese, for example, tend to identify with
both Guamanians and Saipanese; but the identification does
not work in reverse.

Aside from the four southern islands, the economy of the
Marianas is based largely on subsistence agriculture. Un-
like prewar times, there is very little export of products,
except those which are sent from Rota to Guam and from Tinian
to Saipan. On the two largest islands, the economy is sus-
tained by U. S. military bases, as on Guam, and the U. S.

Civil Service, as on Saipan, with many of the local popu-

lation working directly for the U.S. Government.

1.11 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF GUAM. In discussing the
history and government of the islands, one must treat Guam
and the rest of the Marianas separately. Although the Span-
ish galleons began making regular port calls as early as
1565, the first European settlement was not made on Guam
until 1668 when Father Sanvitores, a Spanish Jesuit, in
obedience to an order of Philip IV of Spain, established a
mission there. Father Sanvitores and his group succeeded in
Christianizing the islands, though not without considerable
difficulty. At that time, the population numbered about
100,000, according to the Jesuits' figures. After thirty
years of bloodshed, the population was greatly reduced.
Typhoons of extraordinary destructive force hit in 1671 and
1693, further reducing the number of people, so that by 1710,
according to the first recorded census, only 3,678 Chamorros
survived in the Marianas (Thompson 1945, p. 57). This pop-
ulation was forcibly removed to Guam, where they remained
until the late nineteenth century.

Spain retained possession of Guam until June 21, 1898,
when it was taken by the United States as part of the spoils

of the Spanish-American War.

Guam remained under American control until the success-
ful Japanese invasion on December 10, 1941. Japan then con-
trolled Guam until July 21, 1944, the date of the invasion
by American troops. The island was made an incorporated
territory in 1950 with Congress's passage of the Organic Act
of Guam, which, among other things, accorded full citizen-
ship to all the inhabitants and established an elected
bicameral legislature. Although the governors are still
appointed by the President of the United States, the elected
legislature does provide for a degree of political autonomy.
The present governor is a native Guamanian.

1.111 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF THE OTHER ISLANDS. The
remaining islands of the Marianas chain have taken a far
different historical path. In 1899, in an effort to pay her
war debts and to get rid of her distant Pacific outposts,
Spain sold the remaining Marianas (along with the Marshall
Islands) to Germany. The Germans remained in.possession for
only 15 years, until the outbreak of World War I, when Japan
took military possession. At the conclusion of the war,
Japan became the administering power under the Mandate
System of the League of Nations.

After Japan's withdrawal from the League in 1935, she

continued to administer the islands and to submit annual
reports to the League Council until 1938. From then on they
were treated as a closed military area and were developed for
military purposes. These islands, especially after the cap-
ture of Guam, became a bulwark for Japanese war operations

in the Pacific; they were relinquished only after long and
bloody battles in the summer of 1944.

In 1946 the United States agreed to administer the
Marianas Islands (Guam excluded) as a Trusteeship for the
United Nations. This administration became official on
July 18, 1947, at which time the interim military government
gave way to a civilian administration operating under the
Secretary of the Navy. In 1951, administration of the Trust
Territory was transferred to the Department of the Interior,
where it remains at present, with its headquarters on Saipan.
For strategic reasons the Saipan District was administered
separately by the U.S. Department of Defense until July 1,
1962, when it became the headquarters of the High Commission-
er of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

1.2 LANGUAGES SPOKEN AND TAUGHT IN THE MARIANAS.
Chamorro, a member of that enormous family generally known

as Malayo—Polynesian, is spoken as the first language by

all natives of the Marianas, with the exception of a minority
group of Carolinians on Saipan who speak a single stabilized
version of a dialect of the Eastern Carolines, but who are
also conversant in Chamorro. (Both of these groups refer to
themselves as Saipanese rather than Chamorro or Carolinian.)
Literacy in Chamorro is taught in all but Guam schools.

Chamorro is the language of the Catholic churches
throughout the islands, American priests being virtually
the only non-native speakers to learn the language. The
Catholic Church publishes a weekly newspaper in Chamorro,
and there are daily radio programs in the language. The
orthography used, which was established by the earlier Span-
ish missionaries, does not accurately represent some of the
critical phonemic values.

That the language is in a state of rapid change is sug-
gested by the frequent complaints of the younger speakers
that they cannot understand many expressions used by the old
folks. Also, there is a detectable difference between the
intonation of central Guamanian speech and that of southern
Guam and the rest of the Marianas. This difference may be
traceable to the influence of English.

1.21 JAPANESE. Japanese is spoken by a large portion

of the adult population outside of Guam, and is frequently
used as the lingua franca between Chamorros and islanders
from elsewhere in the Trust Territory. Although many Guam-
anians learned Japanese during the occupation, they show no
indication of having retained any of it. Animosity against
all things Japanese ran quite high among Guamanians during
the occupation.

1.22 ENGLISH. English is rapidly becoming the universal
second language throughout the Marianas. In Guam, over 80
per cent of the people know some English, and literacy is
practically universal among the younger generation. It is
the official language of the island, and there are an English
language newspaper and a radio/television station. English
is the medium of instruction throughout Guam schools, both
public and parochial.

In the remaining Marianas Islands English is known in
varying degrees by approximately 65 per cent of the popu-
lation. It is the language of the administering authority,
and is used, whenever possible, as the medium of instruction
in the schools beyond the third grade.

1.23 STATUS OF LANGUAGES. Since English is the official
language of Guam and of the administering authority in the

other Marianas, it commands considerable prestige. There

is no overt resistance to it from any quarter. Some Guam—
anian parents want their children to learn English as early
as possible, even at the expense of not learning Chamorro

in the home. The expressed desire to learn English is strong,
and one does not have to look far to find practical reasons
for motivation.

True fluency in English, however, seems to carry with it
some sort of stigma. The accusation of "acting like a State-
sider" is commonly made among Chamorro speakers of all ages
when one of a group is heard speaking English too glibly
with correct idioms and intonation. There is obviously a
serious sociological problem involved.

All "serious" communication among Chamorro speakers
takes place in Chamorro, in the homes as well as in the
government offices and schools. Quite often in government
offices where English is required by law, two or more
Chamorro speakers have been observed attempting to discuss
a problem in English, only to give up in frustration and
continue in their own language.

There is, no doubt, a certain price that comes with
fluency in Chamorro; this is one reason why the Chamorro

speakers have held on to it so stubbornly over the centuries

10

in spite of the pressures brought to bear by the presence of
Spanish, and later English. Perhaps it can be explained by
the fact that it's the one thing they have that the State-
siders don't. Saipanese are highly critical of the Angli-
cized Chamorro of Guamanians.

Ironically, both Chamorro and English are prestigious
in their own way. There is the prestige that comes from
knowing the "in" language which can be (and often is) used
in the presence of bewildered Statesiders. Then, since the
language of the traditional ruling class is English (or in
the memory of some, Spanish, German, or Japanese), one gains
social stature by knowing this too. Although parents fre-
quently disparage Chamorro and maintain that they are not
teaching it to their children, the offspring of non-mixed
marriages are invariably fluent in it before the age of five,
with knowledge of only a few rudimentary phrases of English.

1.24 THE FUTURE OF CHAMORRO. The Chamorro language has
proved to be quite durable. It persists, as Laura Thompson
says, "as an integrated functioning link between the ancient
and the modern native culture of the islands" (Thompson 1947,
p. 52). In spite of the decimation of the Chamorros, in

spite of the influences of Spanish, Japanese, and English in

11

the educational and administrative spheres, and in spite of
extreme pressures, including laws, to replace Chamorro with
a more "civilized" tongue, it has remained a distinct and
viable force throughout the centuries, and at the present
shows little indication of doing otherwise.

The recent importation of television to Guam might serve
to change this pattern. However, since the typical tele-
vision entertainment does not demand much linguistic soph-
istication, television may not have any really noticeable
effects.

Although it is extremely unlikely that Chamorro will
ever spread beyond the area of the Marianas, it is also
fairly certain not to die a sudden death. (It is too handy
a source of comfort and security to be discarded for any
finu?lago - 'language from the north',w Certain Americans
on Guam have been striving for 65 years to have Chamorro
replaced by English; and they are no nearer their goal now
than they were in 1898. While it may borrow many English
forms, the language is, and will likely remain for some
time to come, Chamorro.

1.25 THE STATUS OF LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION. As previously

mentioned (1.22), English is the medium of instruction

throughout the school system of Guam. In the other islands,
literacy in Chamorro is taught first. English is theoretical-
ly used for instruction after grade three, but more often
than not the vernacular is used in the upper grades as well,
largely because of the paucity of adequately trained teach-
ers. This policy of teaching literacy in the vernacular is
Currently being threatened by administrative cries for in-
struction in English in all grades throughout the Trust Terr-
itory. Although this movement has not yet reached the fervor
of the "Stamp Out Chamorro" attitude which has prevailed on
Guam, the attitudes in the higher echelons of the Trust Terr—
itory administration, at the time of this writing, favor
abandoning the vernacular, in spite of advice to the contrary
given by competent linguists and educators.

The great majority of the 16,000 school children of the
Marianas enter the first grade of school knowing very little
or no English. In the schools of the smaller islands, the
pupils do not fare so badly, for they are still in their
native language environment. But, in the Guam school system,
which is considered by its administrators to be a typically
American system, absolutely no cognizance is taken of the
fact that English is a second language for most of the pupils.

Teachers are forbidden to use Chamorro for any purposes

13

whatsoever. In school districts which include both State-
sider and Guamanian communities, Chamorro speakers are mixed
with native English speakers throughout the grades irrespec-
tive of language ability.

The typical first grader, regardless of his language
background, begins his language study by reading DICK AND
JANE. The Chamorro speaker who gets off to such a start
may be expected to fall gradually behind his English-speaking
classmates; and he does. Students who are graduated from
the high schools rank anywhere from 2 to 7 years behind the
established standards of high school English usage as mea-
sured by the California Achievement Test. It is a rare
student indeed who, even after twelve years of schooling in
English, can communicate with any acceptable degree of
fluency.

The College of Guam is the next step in education for
most Chamorro speaking students finishing high school who
go on to higher education. Tests have determined that most
of these students seeking admission are unable to meet the
language requirements. Hence, the need for,the extensive
Preparatory English program at the College of Guam is quite
real.

1.3 PREVIOUS STUDIES. The existing literature on

l4

Chamorro is sparse and dated. As recently as 1954, Spoehr
pointed out that "Chamorro has not claimed the attention of
a professional linguist" (Spoehr 1954, p. 36). There seems
to be no logical reason for this omission, particularly in
view of the thorough studies which have been made of some
of the other Micronesian languages, notably Trukese.

1.31 FATHER SANVITORES. The earliest known grammar of
Chamorro was written by Father Sanvitores in 1668. This
work, of considerable interest to the comparative or histor-
ical linguist, doubtless bears the distinction of being the
first grammar of any Micronesian language. Written in Latin,
it follows the pattern of most other grammars of the 17th
century. For example, the author takes such a word as
'taotao' (man) and puts it through the Nominative, Genitive,
Dative and Accusative cases, even though the word remains
as 'taotao' throughout the declension. While Sanvitores'
grammar may have helped the early missionaries to learn the
language, it is little help to the modern descriptive linguist.

1.32 SAFFORD. Aside from a Spanish grammar by Mata y
Araujo in 1865, William E. Safford's THE CHAMORRO LANGUAGE
OF GUAM was the next study of the language after an interim
of well over a hundred years. (Costenoble refers to a

Spanish grammar by del Carmen, also published in Manila in

15

1865, but I have not been able to obtain it.)

Safford was undoubtedly one of the most perceptive Amer-
icans ever to visit the Marianas, for after spending only
one year (1899-1900) on Guam as an aide to the first American
governor, he made significant contributions in several areas,
notably botany and language. Considering that he had no
previous material to go by, Safford's two separate works on
the plants and language of Guam are remarkable indeed.

No linguist, Safford reacted to this new language in
a predictable manner: in addition to making frequent com-
parisons with cognates from other Malayo-Polynesian languages,
he set up a Latin grammar framework and treated of those
things in Chamorro which fit. He included long lists of
"irregular" forms; but they are irregular only because
Safford did not see the morphemic pattern.

Safford's lack of familiarity with phonemic principles
can best be illustrated by quoting directly from his grammar:

The pronunciation of the vowels of the Chamorro

language may be described in general as resembling

that of the Italian or German languages. It is,

however, frequently difficult to decide whether a

certain sound should be represented by 0 or u, or

by e or i. (Safford 1909, p. 5)

In brief, Safford's work is not a very reliable one in

the light of modern linguistic science. But it is a remark-

16

able piece of amateur language study.

1.33 FRITZ, P. CALLISTUS, AND KATS. The grammars by
Fritz (1908) and Kats (1917) are basically restatements of
Safford in German and Dutch. Neither of them contributes
anything new, except for Fritz's accompanying dictionary.
Callistus, who was a Capuchin missionary, offered only a
dictionary with an accompanying "gefasste Grammatik und
Sprachfibungen", a work doubtless designed for the use of
missionaries, and also based upon Latin grammar.

1.34 THALHEIMER. In 1908, another German, August Thal-
heimer, published a doctoral dissertation on personal and
possessive pronoun structures in the languages of Micronesia.
A comparative work, it treats Chamorro along with several
other languages of the Pacific, and it is interesting in
what it reveals about the inherent dangers in relying ex-
clusively on written materials. For example, Thalheimer
took Fritz's Spanish spelling j§_for the first person pro-
nominal suffix /zu?/. He then gives it the phonetic spelling
[16], which indicates that he assumed Fritz's j_to be a
German 1, hence represented by i.

Thalheimer was aware of all the pronoun forms in Chamorro,
but he did not understand what governed their use.

1.35 VON PREISSIG. E. R. von Preissig, a United States

17

Navy Chief Pay Clerk who was stationed on Guam, compiled
the only English-Chamorro Dictionary, which was published
in 1917. His work also contains a very short and concise
"grammar", the basis of which is acknowledged to be that of
Safford. Von Preissig employs the standard spelling of the
Church Chamorro, using 2 for [h] and y_for [dz]. His mis—
understanding of the complex system of affixation in Chamorro
often led to incorrect arrangement and classification of
words. Still, it is a most useful lexical tool for English
speakers studying Chamorro.

1.36 CONANT AND COSTENOBLE. The earliest works to
show any apparent influence of modern linguistic science
are those of C. E. Conant (1911) and H. Costenoble (1935).
Conant's known work is limited to a single article, "Con-
sonant Changes and Vowel Harmony in Chamorro", in which he
attempts to do two things: 1) establish a law of consonant
change from Indonesian to Chamorro, patterned after Grimm's
Law; and, 2) point out, for the first time, the morpho-
phonemic change found in stressed syllables following the
high front vowel. This is what he means by the expression
"vowel harmony".

H. Costenoble was the last of the German grammarians

who worked on Chamorro. Having learned to speak Chamorro

18

as a child on Guam (from 1905 to 1913), he is the first of
the grammarians to have a high degree of fluency in the
language. His work, a product of over fifteen years, is

a complete grammar, filling 550 regular-sized pages. The
break with tradition in this work is far from complete, but
there is a move toward letting the elements of Chamorro
grammar emerge even if they don't fit the traditional Latin
framework. His listing of 45 phonemes, 13 of which are
vowels, would suggest that this is not the most economical
of grammatical statements. In spite of this looseness, it
remains the most accurate of the grammars, and by far the
most complete.

1.37 MATHIOT AND SEIDEN. Two recent phonological
studies of Chamorro have been made by ;American linguists
in the United States. The earlier of these was done by
Madeleine Mathiot at Georgetown University in 1955. The
other analysis, by William Seiden, appeared in 1960. Al-
though both of these studies are fairly accurate descriptions
of Chamorro phonology, they were made at American Univer-
sities with the use of single informants whose linguistic
acculturation undoubtedly led to certain erroneous state-
ments.

The major objections to Mathiot's study are generally

19

the same as those which Seiden mentions in his criticism

of her work (Seiden 1960, p. 30). The major points of dis-
agreement between the present study and Seiden's will be
indicated in the text.

Additional works pertaining to the Chamorro language
are included in the bibliography.

1.4 COLLECTION OF MATERIALS FOR THIS STUDY. The mater-
ials on which this study is based were collected on Guam
ibetween January, 1961, and July, 1962. The bulk of the
Inaterial was taken from extemporaneous dialogues and mono-
logues from native speakers of Guam, Saipan, and Rota.
(This material was all recorded directly on tape. Some of
1:he dialogues were recorded surreptitiously without the
jJnformants' awareness. Some of the material, however, was
rnecessarily obtained through direct responses.

Although a wide variety of informants were consulted,
time closest work was done with Pedro Ogo, a Rotanese, 21
ywaars old. He was selected for two reasons: 1) his speech
habits are fairly typical of those of the college age,
iJTtermediate level; 2) being literate in Chamorro, he is
nuare confident in his native language than are most young

(Euamanians, and hence did not vacillate in giving his re-

!iponses. Although Rotanese, Saipanese, and southern Guam-

20

anian speech differs slightly from that of central Guam,
these differences are phonetic and lexical, hence negligible
in either a phonemic or grammatical analysis.

1.5 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THIS STUDY. The purpose of
this study is to provide a description of the Chamorro
language upon which an intelligent and meaningful presentation
of English as a second language can be based. The description
has, by design, been selective rather than exhaustive.

In addition to the phonological description of Chamorro,~
a contrastive analysis has been made in order to pin-point
the predictable areas of conflict between the sound systems
of Chamorro and English. The Smith-Trager description of
English phonology was selected for this contrastive analy-
sis.

The arrangement of the grammar material is "organic"

:in that I have attempted to permit the topics discussed to
cievelop from preceding ones rather than to follow purely
aarbitrary arrangements. While the major elements of Chamorro
sgrammar are described, attention is focused on the primary
areas of grammatical and conceptual conflicts between
Chamorro and the target language.

Morphophonemic phenomena are treated with the gram-

matical material which they affect.

II. PHONOLOGY

2.0 INVENTORY OF CHAMORRO PHONEMES.
27 Segmentals, consisting of:
6 Vowels .
2 Diphthongs
l9 Consonants
9 Suprasegmentals, including:‘
3 Stress
3 Pitch
3 Juncture
2.1 VOWEL SYSTEM OF CHAMORRO. The criteria used in
this study for vowel classification are:
1. height of tongue
2. position of tongue
3. rounding of lips
4. relative muscular tension accompanying production
of each.

Chamorro has a 6-vowe1 system. The vowels are:

FRONT BACK
High i u
Mid e 0
Low a a

21

22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE I
VOWELS
FRONT- BACK-
FRONT CENTRAL CENTRAL CENTRAL BACK
U R U R U R U R R
HIGH 1 u
LOWER HIGH I U
MID e a O
LOWER MID E 3
LOW a
a
VOWELS PHONEMIC CHART
FRONT BACK
HIGH 1 u
MID e 0
LOW a a

 

 

 

 

 

 

23

2.11 VOWEL ALLOPHONES. The allophones for each of the

 

vowel phonemes are the following:

/i/ i I

/e/ e E

/&/ a

/u/ u U

/o/ o a

/a/ a a a

All vowel phonemes have the slightly longer form [-] under

conditions described in 2.13 below.

[i]
[I]
[e]
[E]
[82]
[e]
[u]
[U l
[0]
[a]
[a]
[a]

2.12 DESCRIPTION.

 

high front, tense, unrounded, long
lower high front, lax, unrounded, short
mid front, tense, unrounded, long

lower mid front, lax, unrounded, short
low front, tense, unrounded, long

mid central, unrounded, lax

high back, tense, rounded, long

lower high back, lax, rounded, short
mid back, slightly raised and fronted, tense, rounded
lower mid back, lax, rounded

low back, lax, unrounded, long

lower back, lax, unrounded

24

2.13 STATEMENT OF DISTRIBUTION OF THE VOWELS. There
are no vowel clusters in Chamorro. Glides consisting of
V + /w/ and V + /y/ occur. (See 2.14.) All vowel phonemes
have a slightly longer form in stressed open syllables (See
2.42.)

Length is non-phonemic.

(Note: Mathiot describes length as being phonemic, and
cites the following contrasting examples:

/mangigiminhamzu/ 'you (plural) are drinking'

 

/mangi:giminhamzu/ 'you (plural) drink as a habit'

 

Since my investigation does not find length phonemic,

and since Chamorro does not distinguish between durative

and habitual aspect, I believe Mathiot to be in error.)

2.131 /i/ This phoneme has no distributional limita—

tions. The allophones are distributed as follows:

[i-] In initial open syllables under primary stress.
[i-pi?] 'to cut open' [i°lu] 'head'

[i] As peak in open unstressed syllables, and in
stressed syllables when followed by /°/ or

geminating consonants other than nasals.

(Note: Unstressed means all levels of stress other than
primary.)

 

[idat] 'age'
[i7I7] 'young Skipjack'

[ittIn] 'to pick'

25

[I] As peak in closed unstressed syllables, and in
closed stressed syllables when followed by a nasal,
and in some loan words.

(Note: A closed syllable occurs when a non-final vowel

is followed by /2/ or a CC, the second member of which

is neither a semivowel nor a liquid; or when a final

vowel is followed by a single consonant. See 2.4.)
[Itmés] 'superlative marker'

[sinsIn] 'flesh'
[dfsdi] 'from'

2.132 /e/ This phoneme has distributional limitations.
flit never occurs in utterance final position. The allophones
Eire distributed as follows:

[e-] In initial open syllables of primary stress.

[me-gay] 'many' [hwé-gu] 'recreation'

[e] In closed, stressed syllables when followed by /?/
or by a geminating consonant other than nasals.
[é2ga9ga2] 'concentrate on'

[ékkunu] 'to listen'

[E] In all other closed syllables, stressed and unstressed.

[wanti] 'perhaps'
[prInsEssEssa] 'princess'
2.133 /&/ This phoneme has distributional limitations.

JZt: never occurs in utterance final position. The allophones

are distributed as follows:

26

[e-] In initial open syllables with primary stress.
[béoba] 'open' [bé-bmli] 'eyelash'

[a] Everywhere else.

[kéttu] 'cat' [pap&?] 'down' [gwihmn] 'fish'

2.134 /u/ This phoneme has no distributional limita-

1::Lons. The allophones are distributed as follows:

[no] In initial open syllables with primary stress.
[bfi-la’] 'many/full'

[cuoliha21 'help yourself to one thing'

[u] In open unstressed syllables; also in closed stressed
syllables when followed by voiceless or geminating
consonants except fi7/.

[hugu-paw] 'type of fish' [asut] 'blue'
[gfimma91 'house'

[U] Elsewhere.

[gépUt] 'to pull' [hUngi] 'to believe'
[asUnsyon] 'proper name' [mUnnaP] 'don't'
[U] is also found in word final position in free varia-
tion with [u].
[tottu ~.t6ttU] 'a Guamanian village'
[susu—V suSU] 'breast'
2.135 /o/ This phoneme has no distributional limita-

t-:'Lons. The allophones are distributed as follows:

27

[0-] Occurs in initial open syllables with primary stress.
[6.p11 'respond'
[ho-bin] 'young'
[3] Occurs before fiv/
[tronkin] 'tree' [ga2con] 'partner'
[0] Occurs elsewhere.
[co?cu?] 'to work' [dos] 'two' [konni?] 'to catch'
/o/ in word final position and in closed unstressed
syllables may be heard as [U] or even [u]. When this occurs,
/HJ/’ can be said to replace /o/.
[hasowwfihasU] 'to think'
[gomobyétna~\.gUmUbyétna] 'was governed'
In: these environments, /u/ and /o/ are under-differentiated.
Tfiie: contrast between them is apparent only under stress.
Observe the following minimal pairs:
/dodu/ 'a type of fish' /dfidu/ 'a container for liquids'
/solu?/ 'alone' /sulu2/ 'fishing by torch'
2.136 /a/ This phoneme has no distributional limitations.
The allophones are distributed as follows:
[a-] Occurs in open syllables with primary stress.
[ba-ba] 'bad' [ca-J 'tea'
[a] In the speech of some speakers, [a] is lowered and

retracted to [a] (lower, baCk, unrounded) before

28

velars and glottals, and in certain loan words.
[cégi] 'to try' [ca-] 'tea'

[a] Occurs elsewhere in stressed syllables.

[é2tan] 'to look at' [attilUn] 'black'

[9] May occur in unstressed syllables in place of both
/a/ and /a/. When this occurs, /a/ may be said to
replace /a/.

[béba ~, babe] 'bad' [pape2 «3 papa?] 'down'

[gwihan av gwihen] 'fish' [dédalak «a dédelak] 'tail'

MINIMAL CONTRASTS FOR SUSPICIOUS PAIRS (VOWELS)

/i-e/ /diha/ 'day' /déha/ 'squat'

/e-a/ /kétu/ 'stay' /kétu/ 'cat'

/u-o/ /d6du/ 'type of /dodu/ 'type of fish'
container'

/o-a/ /bola/ 'ball' /béla/ 'bullet'

/a-a/ /béba/ 'open' /béba/ 'bad'

2.14 DIPHTHONGS. Two vowel-semivowel combinations in
- Chamorro form diphthongs with rising offglides.

/ay/ /taytay/ 'to read'

/aw/ /téwtaw/ 'people'
vWhen the semivowels occur in this combination they are as

follows:

29

/y/ non-syllabic [i]
/w/ non-syllabic [9]
(Note: In fast speech /a/ + /h/ + /u/ = /aw/. Example:

/umeskwélahu/ in fast speech becomes [umeskwélaw] 'I
went to sChoolJ)

The semivowels /w/ and /y/ are used to represent these off—
glides. To do otherwise would produce the only W sequence
j_r1 the language.

The diphthongs may occur medially or finally, but never

j_riitially. They are always syllable final.

/énay/ 'when' /ézaw/ 'borrow-lend'
/gwéyza/ 'to like' /céwcaw/ 'rough sea'
/téytay/ 'to read' /taygwénaw/ '1ike that'

Minimal contrasts for diphthongs:

/téta/ 'father' /téytay/ 'to read' /tawtaw/ 'people'

2.2 THE CONSONANTS.

2.21 PHONETIC DESCRIPTION OF CHAMORRO CONSONANT PHONEMES
ESUDOPS

/p/ bilabial, voiceless, fortis

/t/ alveolar, voiceless, fortis

/k/ velar, voiceless, fortis

/2/ glottal, voiceless, unaspirated, fortis,

/b/ bilabial, voiced, unaspirated, lenis '

/d/ alveolar, voiced, unaspirated, lenis

30

/g/ velar, voiced, unaspirated, lenis
AFFRICATES

/c/ alveo-palatal (or apico-alveolar), voiceless,
aspirated, fortis

/z/ alveo-palatal (or apico-alveolar), voiced,
unaspirated, lenis

F RI CATIVES
/f/ labio-dental, voiceless, fortis
/s/ apico-alveolar, voiceless, fortis
/h/ glottal, voiceless, fortis

EASALS‘
/m/ bilabial, voiced, unaspirated, lenis
/n/ apico-alveolar, voiced, unaspirated, lenis
/n/ velar, voiced, unaspirated, lenis

LI QUIDS
/1/ apico-alveolar, lateral, voiced, unaspirated, lenis
/r/ post-alveolar, voiced, unaspirated, lenis

S EMIVOWELS

 

/w/ bilabial

/y/ alveo-palatal, voiced, unaspirated

31

2.211 ALLOPHONES OF THE CONSONANTS

/p/
/t/
/k/
/?/
/b/
/d/
/g/
/C/
/2/ dz
/f/
/S/
/h/
/m/
/n/
/h/
/1/
/r/
/W/
/y/

o :# rr 6
Q:

LQOJO‘

1 (unreleased)

"

s
3 (alveo-palatal)

LJ-< 0<

I—h
2

(voiceless)

m<

r (flapped)

w (voiced)

5 a 3‘ m

K 2 I1 rd 3
as [10

 

Both affricates are in free variation between apico-
alveolar and apico-alveo-palatal articulation. Hence, we
might find a single speaker using [ts] or [5], which I have
represented by /c/. Likewise,9the same speaker might use
[dz] (represented by /z/) or [j]. This variation is not pre-
dictable. My most constant informant, a Rotanese, consis-
tently used [ts] and [dz]. This transcription was avoided
since there are no other CC's except those involving liquids
and semivowels.

32

TABLE II

 

 

 

 

CONSONANTS PHONETIC CHART
POINTS OF ARTICULATION
BI- LABIO- ALVE- ALVEO- VELAR GLOT-
LABIAL DENTAL OLAR PALETAL TAL

STOPS

Voiceless P R1 t 51 k E1 7

Voiced b d 9
AFRICATES

Voiceless ts E

Voiced dz 3
FRICATIVES

Voiceless f s g h
NASALS m n n
LIQUIDS

Lateral 1

Retroflex r

Flapped r
SEMIVOWELS w y

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘1

 

33

TABLE III

 

 

 

 

CONSONANTS PHONEMIC CHART
POINTS OF ARTICULATION
BI- LABIO- ALVE- ALVEO— VELAR GLOT-
LABIAL DENTAL OLAR BALATAL TAL
STOPS
Voiceless p t k ?
Voiced b d 9
AFRICATES
Voiceless c
Voiced z
FRICATIVES f s h
NASALS m n n
LIQUIDS 1 r
SEMIVOWELS w y

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

34

2.212 STATEMENT OF DISTRIBUTION OF THE CONSONANTS (Native

and Loan Morphemes are included.)

INITIAL FINAL
Pre-vocalic Pre-cons.
STOPS
/p/ /paréhu/ /pwéni/ /nigap/
/b/ /béba/ /bwénti/
/t/ /téza2/ /tyépmam/ /pétput/
/d/ /dégaw/ /dwényas/
/k/ /kalan/ /kwintus/ /cédik/
/g/ /géput/ /gwégwan/
/?/ /héga2/
AFFRICATES
/c/ /co?cu?/
/z/ /zéhu/
FRICATIVES
/f/ /falégu/ /frfita/ /g67naf/
/s/ /sumaga/ /syétbi/ /963/
/h/ /hézi/ /hwégu/
NASALS
/m/ /méy1a/ /hénom/
/n/ /népu/ /nyémyu°/ /malofan/
/h/' /néyan/ /nyé1u°/ /tédun/

ILECNJIDS

/1/

/r/
SEMIVOWELS

/W/

/y/

STOPS
/p/
/b/
/t/
/d/
/k/
/9/
/°/
AFFRICATES
/c/
/z/
FRI CATIVES
/f/
./s/
./h/

35

/lésas/
/réy/ /rwidu/
MEDIAL
Intervocalic Pre—cons.
/napu/ /tyépmam/
/béba/ /diskfibri/
/matay/ /sétgi/
/édu?/ /gwatdya/
/é2paka°/ /h6ksi/
/cagi/ /asagwa/
/1i?iv/ /d6?ku?/
/aca/
/azu/
/héfa/ /go?néfnya/
/ésu/ /bésta/
/éhi'>/ __

/tawtaw/

/tay/

Post-cons.

/mémpus/
/kopb1a/
/estaba/
/f6ndu/
/dankulo/

/angin/

/cawcaw/

/tészam/

/tatfoy/
/hoksi/

/hanomhu/

36

BU¥SI¥LS

/m/ /méma?/ /hémzu/ L /épmam/
/n/ /hanaw/ /antigo/ /balésnya/
/n/ /mfina/ /maninhin/ /manni?/

L I QUIDS
/1/ /bola/ /kalam1i/
/r/ /oru/ /purmé1u/ /otru/

S EMIVOWELS
/w/ These occur only in diphthongs and as second
/y/ members in syllable-initial consonant clusters.

2.213 DESCRIPTION OF THE ALLOPHONES.

2.2131 INITIAL. The following may occur without limitation
ir1 utterance initial position:

/p t k b d g c 2 f s h m n n l/

The following may occur in utterance initial with limitations:

/r/ Occurs initially only in loan words.

/réy/ 'king' /rwidu/ 'sound'

It also occurs in the speech of a few young speakers who have

adOpted Spanish and Merican pronunciation of certain place

nanuas:

Chm. /lfita/ became Sp. and American /r6ta/

37

Chm. /1ité?zan/ became Sp. and American /ritidiyan/2

th is retroflex in initial position.

The stops /p t k/ are aspirated heavily in stressed syl-
ILealoles, slightly in unstressed syllables; they are relatively
fortis.

/b d g/ are voiced and lenis.

/c/ is voiceless, fortis. The two allophones [E] and

[ts] are in free variation.

/z/ is voiced, lenis. The two allophones [j] and [dz]

are in free variation.

/f/ is voiceless and fortis in utterance initial.

/s/ has the allophone [S] when followed by /y/ in a

stressed syllable. [Syinti] 'to feel' [Syfik] 'to stab'

/m n n/ are voiced lenis nasals, articulated rather weakly

in initial position

2.2132 MEDIAL. All of the consonants may occur in utter-

ance medial position. Intervocalically in a syllable following

/’/’, the stops /t d k/ and nasals /m.n n/ are geminated. This

 

 

2Of the items checked, only 16 per cent of the words con-

taiJuing /r/ are of native origin. All others are loan words
frcnn Spanish. In some Spanish loan words, the Sp. /r/ shifted
to 1/1/, while others remained /r/: Sp. /frito/= Chm. /aflito/
‘33 .fry'; Sp. /fruta/ = Chm. /fruta/ 'fruit'. Some, conversely,
shifted from Sp. /1/ to Chm. /r/: Sp. /f1anéla/= Chm. /franéla/
f1~631I1ne1'.The shift from Spanish /r/ to Chamorro /l/, or the
conVerse, is not predictable.

38

gemination is realized as a delayed release of the stops and
a lengthening of the nasals rather than complete articulation

of both consonants.

[tt] [éEtilun] 'black'
[dd] [cédhik] 'quickly'
[kk] [téflki] 'excrement'
[mm] [témmo] 'knee'

[nn] [plannu] 'plan'

[nn] [ténniS] 'to crY'

The affricates /c z/ geminate in the same fashion to [t']

and [d7].
[tt] [éEtsa] 'to hammer'
[dd] [édfizu] 'that one' \

(Note: This gemination is slightly more pronounced in

the speech of Rotanese and Saipanese than in that of

Guamanians.)

/c z 1/ do not occur as first member of a CC.

/?/ does not occur as second member of a CC.

All other consonants may precede or follow a different
consonant.

/r/ intervocalically following /’/ is flapped.

[para] 'future tense marker'

In a single morpheme the velars /k g/ are never preceded by

the alveolar nasal /n/. /m/ does occur in this position.

39

/dankulo/ 'big' /méngi/ 'where' /amko?/ 'old'
But, /n/ may occur before the velar nasal.

/manni?/ 'enjoyable'

2.2133 FINAL, The following consonants occur in final
position post vocalic with no distributional limitations:

/ 7 f s m n n /

The following consonants never occur in word final
position:

/ c 2 h 1 r b d g /3

/r/, retroflex, has been recorded in syllable final
position, but not word final.4

/purmélu/ 'the remainder'

/p t k/ in final position are generally unreleased.
Informants who speak English frequently, such as university
students, have released allophones in free variation.

Semivowels. The semivowels / w y / occur finally only

 

3Seiden lists /b d g/ all occurring finally, as voiced,
unreleased stops. This is obviously ih error. The lack of
final voiced stops in Chamorro creates critical problems in
learning English pronunciation. I can only guess that
Seiden fell into this error through using a highly accul—
turated informant.

4Final /1/ and /r/ in Spanish loan words regularly
shifted to unreleased [t]. Examples: Spanish azul became
Chm. /asfit/; Sp. luqar became Chm. /1ugét/; Sp. vapor be-
came Chm. /bap6t/.

as second

under thi

/w/

40

members of a diphthong. They are both voiced

3 condition.

as second member of a CC is voiceless, aspirated

when preceded by voiceless consonant.

/y/

2.214
/p-b/
/t-d/
/k-g/
/°-¢/
/1-r/
/n-n/
/m-n/

2.22

/hwégu/ - /kwéro/

is always voiced.

 

'bullet'
'type of fish'
'spoiled egg'

'blood'

MINIMAL CONTRASTS FOR SUSPICIOUS PAIRS.
/péla/ 'shovel' /béla/
/t6du/ 'all' /dodu/
/kwéro/ '1eather' /gwéro/
/haga2/ 'daughter' /héga/
/lata/ 'a dan' /rata/

/manni°/ 'enjoyable' /méngi7/
/ménu/ 'where' /nénu?/

CONSONANT CLUSTERS--CONSONANTS AND

Chart number IV shows the possible sequences

in a clus

ter in both native and loan words.

tional limitations are:

'surface'

'to write'
'short people'
SEMIVOWELS.

of consonants

The distribu-

1. The number of consonants in a cluster within the

microsegment may not exceed three.

When CCC occurs,

the third consonant must be either a liquid (/ l r /)

or a semivowel (/ w y /).

2. Syllable final consonants are / p t k f s m n n

41

r y w /. When syllable final voiceless stops /p t k/
are followed by voiced stops /b d g/ forming a CC,
there is voicing of the first consonant of the CC.
/dopbla/ -- [dopbla]
/gwatdya/--[gwatdya]
/dokdok/ -- [dokdok]
3. There are no syllable final CC's.
4. All consonants except /2/ may occur as syllable
initial.
5. Syllable initial consonants which can form CC's with
liquids and/or semivowels are / p t k b d g f s h m
n n r /
2.221 DISTRIBUTION OF CONSONANT CLUSTERS. The distri—
bution of CC's within the syllable is as follows:
Initial Syllable:

a. When C2 is /1/, the possible Cls are:

/pkbgf/
/plénu klasi blfisa gloriya floris/
Initial consonant clusters with /1/ as the second member
occur only in Spanish loan words.
b. When C2 is /r/, the possible Cls are:
/ p t k b g f /

42

I

/primét trabiha;1 kristo brfiha grédu franéla/
c. When C2 is /w/, the possible Cls are:
/pkbdgfshr/
/pwéni kwintus bwénti dwényas gwi? fwétsa/

/swédu hwégu rwidu/

d. When C2 is /y/, the possible Cls are:

/ t d s n n /
/tyémpo dyés syinti nyanyu? nyélu?/
e. In words of native origin, only the following con-
sonant clusters have been found in initial position:
/tr pw gw hw ny TVY/
/trabiha pwéni gwi9 hwégu nyényu? nyélu?/
Medial and Final Syllable: Distribution of CC's

a. When C2 is /l/, the possible Cls are:

/b g f/
/d6pbla manarégla aflito/

b. When C is /r/, the possible C s are:

2 1
/ptb/
/kumprindi estranhéro kobra/

 

4This consonant cluster does not fit the pattern of
native words. I have not, however, been able to determine
any foreign source. Spanish todévia looks suspicious, in
that it has a similar meaning ('still, yet'), and carries
the same stress pattern. But, the sound changes involved
are not predictable ones.

43

c. When C2 is /w/, the possible Cls are:

/ p k b g m n /
/ dispwés hékwa bébwi taygwénaw kumwintus
fannwintus /

d. When C2 is /y/, the possible Cls are:

/ b s m n /
/ gubyétnu okasyon sumyétbi nyanyu? /

e. In words of native origin, only the following CC's

have been found in medial syllables:

/ pw kw bw gw mw ny nw /
/ pupwéni hékwa bébWi taygwénaw kumwintus
nyényu9 fannwintus /

2.3 CANONICAL FORMS OF THE MORPHEMES. The typical
morpheme structure of Chamorro may range from one to four
syllables, with the majority containing either two or three
syllables. Morphemes containing infixes may run as high as
five syllables, but this is the maximum recorded during this
investigation.

The dominant canonical forms for Chamorro morphemes are

as follows:

CONSONANT CLUSTERS WITHIN THE MICROSEGMENT

44

TABLE IV

 

 

 

 

 

c1 c2

p t k b d g 2 f s h m n 1 r w y
p # # # (E) i. if E.
t # # # # # # # # # # # if if
k # #*# # # # # .41 PST
10 i E. #1 #‘
d if f
g E i
2 # # # # # # # # ® # # # #
C
2
f # @ it fit #‘
s #3@‘#* ##3## # #‘®® # 3 if
h ‘ t
m # # # # # # # # it if
n # # ® # ® # # # # # # i it
n # # # # # # 4i #
1
r fi_ _f
w # # # # # #
y # # # # # # # # # # # #‘

 

fi_occurs within the syllable.

‘ occurs only in loan words.

C)occurs when crossing morpheme boundary.

 

CV

CVCV

CVCVCVCVC

CVCVCVC

CVCCVC

CVCCVCV

CCVCV

CCVCVC

CCVC

CCVCCV

V

VCV

VCVC

VCVCV

VCVCVC

VCVCCV

VCCVCCVC

VCCVC

VCCVCVC

VCCCVCVC

45

I

ca
béba
behali

fanunegan

. dédelak

I

cat
batmas
batsala
gwétu
gwénaw
gwi’
blénku
ézu
édu9
adinu
ababan
arégla
agwagwat
angin
é°paka°

I
a°placa°

'tea'

'bad'
'eyelash'
'dry season'
'tail'

'not very'
'moustache'
'to drag'
'there'
'there/farther'
'him'

'to throw'
'the'
'that'
'1ook at'
'apart'
'butterfly'
'readied'
'stubborn'
'if'
'white'

'dirty'

46

2.4 SYLLABLE STRUCTURE. The syllable structure of
Chamorro is of the peak type. That is, "there are as many
syllables as there are syllable peaks" (Hockett 1958, p.
99). The syllabic peak is always a vowel. All Chamorro
vowels are syllabic. The minimum unit in a syllable is one
phoneme.

Chamorro has a range of syllabic patterns as follows:

(: marks syllable division)
(S-V means semivowel)

 

V 'éydu7

CV agflé;pa9

CVC a:li:tus

VC iggmas

CCV d6p:bla

CCVC blén:ku (Relatively rare in all

 

but a few loan words)

CVS-V a:li:gaw
CS-VV hwe:gu

CS-VVC gwet:gwé:ru

The syllables within the morpheme may be isolated by the
following principles. Syllable division occurs:
a. After vowels and semivowels when followed by a single
consonant except /°/.

/é:hi7/ 'no' /i:pi?/ 'to cut' /i:fil/ 'type of tree'

47

These constitute open syllables except when followed by a
geminating consonant. (See 2.4—d below.)
b. After /°/.
/né?:i/ 'to give' /i?:12/ 'baby Skipjack'
c. After the first member of a medial CC, except when
the second member of the CC is /r w y/, or /1/
preceded by /b g f/.
/it:més/ 'superlative' /b1an:ku/ 'to throw'
/gwet:gwé:ru/ 'throat' /dop:bla/ 'to bend'
/hom:1u?/ 'get well'
but /a:pra/ 'geographical location' /a:fli:to/ 'to fry'

/ta:gwan/ 'geographical location' /1a:nya/ 'an
interjection'

/ma:blén:ku/ 'to be thrown' /ma:na2:ré:g1a/ 'she
readied'

d. When /V/ is followed by a geminating consonant
/t d k m n17/, there is muddy transition between
syllables with the unreleased geminating consonant
overlapping into the stressed syllable. The
geminating consonant under these conditions may be
described as an interlude (Hockett 1955, p. 52),
belonging to both preceding and following syllables.

2.5 STRESS. Chamorro has three distinguishable degrees

of stress: /’/ 'primary'; /‘/ 'secondary'; /V/ 'unstressed'

48

Primary stress is the most fortis, unstressed the least.
Minimal contrasts for /’/ are:

/mansénahfi/ 'I am an apple' /mansanahfi/ 'my apple'

/asagwa/ 'to marry' /asagwa/ 'wife'

2.51 PRIMARY STRESS IN SINGLE MORPHEMES. Monosyllabic
free morphemes carry primary stress.

/dos/ 'two' /gwi?/ 'him'

The occurrence of /’/ is highly regular and predictable
in disyllabic morphemes of native origin, in which /’/
always fallscnmthe initial syllable.

/ésu/ 'smoke' /hénaw/ 'go away'

In disyllabic loan words, however, /'/ may fall on either
syllable, depending on the stress pattern of the original
word.

/kwétru/ 'fourth' from Sp. quétro

/bap6t/ 'steam' from Sp. vapor

 

/asfit/ 'blue' from Sp. azél_
The regular pattern of disyllabic morphemes of native origin
is not predictable in continuous speech, where the morpheme
stress pattern is affected by that of the contour.

/primét/ becomes /primét gradfi/ 'first grade'

/ézu/ becomes /law 526 na klap/ 'but this club'

In trisyllabic and multisyllabic morphemes, /'/ is neither

49

regular nor predictable. There is, however, sufficient
consistency in certain patterns from which generalizations
can be made.

a. Of 165 trisyllabic and multisyllabic morphemes
checked, 76 per cent carried /’/ on the penultimate
syllable. This, then, would seem to be the dominant
pattern.

b. Trisyllabic and multisyllabic loan words usually
retain the original stress pattern, /’/ being some-
what more prominant in Chamorro than in Spanish.
/okasyon/ 'occasion' /est6mago/ 'stomach'

c. In combined forms of two disyllabic morphemes there
is only one /’/ which falls on the penultimate
syllable.

/hé15m/ 'inside' + /tan5/ 'land' = /ha15mtan5/ 'in
the woods'

/nwébi/ 'nine' + /syintfis/ 'hundred' = /nwebIsyintfis/
'nine hundred'

2.52 /‘/ and /V/ are not always as clearly distinguish-
able as /’/. /V/ usually occurs finally in disyllabic-
morphemes and in multisyllabic morphemes which do not carry
/‘/ in that position.

/patg5n/ 'child' /hfingan/ 'yes'

but /ahi?/ 'strong no' /hfingan/ 'strong yes'

50

/‘/ replaces /V/ in final syllable of disyllabic morphemes
emphatically spoken.
Examples of /V/ occurring finally in trisyllabic
morphemes are:
/abéban/ 'butterfly' /ataga?/ 'sunburned'
/abali?/ 'adultery' /maLégE?/ 'to want'
but /korason/ 'heart'
/V/ may occur as a variant of /‘/ in initial non-primary
stressed syllables of trisyllabic morphemes.
/malég6?/ or /malé95?/ 'to want'
/éb5117/ or /ébali?/ 'adultery'
/‘/ may occur as the non-primary stressed syllable in di—
syllabic words, as seen in /hungan vs hfingan/. It usually
occurs in the initial syllable of all morphemes which do
not carry primary stress in that position.
/ésfit/ 'blue' /bapot/ 'steam' /malégé?/ 'to want'
In polysyllabic utterances there may be as many
secondary-tertiary occurrences as there are syllables as
long as there is at least one syllable carrying primary
stress.
/finhahasfihita/ 'we were thinking'
/hafatatamanfihaw/ 'how are you?/

While secondary and tertiary stress are not predictable,

51

/’/ is ordinarily followed by /v/.

2.53 STRESS PATTERNS OF CHAMORRO: CONTINUOUS SPEECH.
Since the frequency and regularity of prominent stress form
part of the intonation and rhythmic pattern of Chamorro
speech, it is necessary to examine the stress pattern of
Chamorro in continuous speech. This discussion will be
limited to simply "stressed" and "unstressed" syllables,
"unstressed" being understood to encompass both /’/ and /V/.

The term continuous speech is intended to mean normal
conversational and narrative Chamorro of the type recorded
while making this study. No unusual or special speech
phenomena have been considered.

The stress patterns are those found within the phraSe,
which is any utterance falling between any two points of
terminal juncture, or between silence and terminal juncture.

As was already mentioned in 2.51, the stress pattern of
the isolated morpheme undergoes a change when two free
morphs are combined to form a multisyllabic word. In these
cases, the stress pattern of the morpheme gives way to the
pattern of the larger unit.

In the same manner, the stress pattern of the morpheme
will often be changed to fit that of the phrase when the

morpheme functions as a modifying or subordinate element.

52
Example: /gwizaha? todu i ce?cu? cumo?gwi?/
'she herself did all the work'
In isolation, /i cé’cu7/ 'the work' would carry /’/ as
marked. In the phrase, however, this syllable loses its
prominence and carries only secondary stress at best.

/énay ésta manlamadun esti siha na famagu?un/
'when they - the girls - got taller'

/ésti/ would carry primary stress initially if spoken in
isolation or in another position within the phrase, as in
/ésti istoriyan un téwtaw/ 'this is the story of a man'.

This phenomenon would suggest that Chamorro has a
syllable-timed stress in which the number of syllables
spoken determines the frequency of primary stress. The
total evidence, however, does not support this at all, as
the following examples will show. I

No. of No. of
Syllables /’/

/kfi?/ 'finished' 1 1
/saksak/ 'Saksak' (fish) 2 l
/sa? nu ti/ 'because' + particle

+ negative 3 l
/lalaluha°/ 'he gets angry' 4 1
/durantin i klés/ 'during class' 5 2
/mana2calik siha na/ 'several funny things' 7 l

/1aw méwlik na tawtaw sa?/
'but the man was good because' 7 2

53

No. of

Syllables
/kélan ha supoponi na/
'1ike he was assuming' 8
/law esti i tawtaw lo?kwi2/
'but this man also' 8
/hafa hasésanan mampus nu/
'what he is saying is very . . .' 9
/ginin ma?estroku gi séyins/
'formerly my science teacher' 9
/kaw iléknya kaw hatatitizi? i/
'he asked him whether he followed' 10
'syimpri nu kumahfilu? gi lanit/
'will be climbing to the sky' 10
/Si daktar kUpar ginin ma?estroku gi/
'my former teacher, Dr. Cooper' 12
/kumikwintus si pali° zen esti i tawtaw/
'the priest and this man were talking' 13
/gof zéhu na para ma7estroku sa° mampus nu/
'I liked very much for a teacher because...‘ 14
/ésitan ze ti hana?matutUhu?hit gi klés/
'he jokes and did not make us sleepy in class' 14
/hatatizi tédu i tinago° i gima’ zu7us/
'He followed all the teachings of God's house' 15
/iléknya si péli° hafaysin esti i téwtaw
un kwistyon/
'The priest asked the man a question' 17
/sinya’bwinti mamparéhuha? nu tinino?ta
zen gwiza/ 'perhaps we are the same as
him in our learning' 17
/fina? si péli2 hafafaysin esti i tawtaw
siha kwistyon/ 'the priest spoke asking
this man some questions' 18

No. of
/3’

2

54

As can be seen in the above examples, there is not
sufficient regularity of occurrence of /’/ to allow for
accurate predictability on the basis of the number of
syllables. Longer contours of more than ten syllables
usually contain a higher number of stressed syllables than
do shorter contours; but, again, this is not sufficiently
regular to warrant any rigid rules.

On the basis of the above examples and the textlet in
2.8 below, which may be assumed to be representative of the
language, primary stress within the phrase falls on the
contentives and certain functors of the utterance, and never
on the particles or affixed syllables. Since all Chamorro
contentives except loans are words of more than one syllable,
stress will normally fall in the patterns predicted for the
morpheme in 2.51. Apart from this tendency, though, there
is no basis for predicting absolutely the occurrence of /'/
within the phrase.

It will also be noticed that the length of phrase varies
greatly-~from one to eighteen syllables. (Twenty-two syl-
lables was the longest recorded.) The majority of the
phrases contained less than ten syllables, two to three of
them stressed. The average length of the phrase is 10.1 syl—

lables. The average number of /’/ within the phrase is 2.95.

55

(Note: Mathiot states that the "contours are very short
in Chamorro," three to four syllables being the usual
length. What she means, it seems, is that the stretches

of sound between primary stresses, which cause changes

in pitch, are short. The stretch of an utterance be-

tween pause junctures can be quite long, accompanied by
as many as 4 or 5 changes in pitch.)

The frequency of /’/ in continuous speech is likewise
not determined by the number of intervening non—stressed
syllables occurring between /'/. The number of unstressed
syllables falling between primary stresses ranges from 0 in
very short utterances, one unit of which is a monosyllabic
loan word, to 6 in long utterances. The average span of
unstressed syllables occurring between primary stresses is
2.26.

Examples: /dos léhi/ ("-) 'two men'

/kwantus anyus héw/ (’- '-') 'How old are you'

/nwebi syintus kwarintay unu/ (--’--’---) '941'

/finini?na untutuhun nu humalum umeskwéla/

I I

(__’ -__ _-_ -_-’—) 'first you started to go to school'

/manhanawham para sinahanya manyagaham/
(- ------ -- --) 'we went to Sinajana, we lived'

The interspersing of loan words, both assimilated and
non-assimilated, allows for limited predictability. For
example, successive primary stresses do not ordinarily occur
except when one or both syllables are contained by loan words.

/gi barigada yfif klép/ 'at the Barrigada Youth Club'

/humanawhu gwétu gi hay skfil/ 'I went to high school'

56

Phrases never end in primary stress except when a loan
word carrying ultimate stress occurs phrase final.

/hané2ha1um un binti sinku i zu?béks/
'He put a quarter into the juke box.‘

/manyasaga? gwini giza gwém/
'They stayed here in Guam.‘

(Note: According to all the earlier grammars and ac-
counts of Guam, the name of the island is /gwahan/.
/gwam/, then, could be considered as a loan. It is
used almost exclusively by the younger generation.)

/podunha2 papa? gi nubintay says/
'(I) fell down to 96'

/hali2i7 i korason/
'He looked at the heart.‘

2.54 RHYTHM. Althouth Chamorro appears to have a
stress-timed rhythm, as does English, it would be dangerous
to draw such a conclusion without submitting the evidence
to machine timing devices. This test has not been possible
at this writing.

2.6 CHAMORRO CONTOURS AND PHRASES.

(Note: Mathiot (1955) presents a very complex and de-
tailed description of Chamorro contours and phrases in
which she attributes various degrees of loudness and
pitch to a single phonemic level. For example, there
are four pitch levels, each of which contains 3 sub-
levels which are determined by one of three different
degrees of loudness of the contour. This kind of dis-
tinction calls for a phonetic accuracy that is beyond the
range of most human ears; and even if the description of
the given material were precise, it is unlikely that an-
other speaker's language would follow the same patterns.
The analysis by Mathiot is so detailed as to become un-
wieldy, and hence impractical for the present purpose.)

57

In order to define the limits of Chamorro phrases, it will
be necessary to consider the features of pitch and juncture.

2.7 PITCH, Since pitch is not phonemic on the morpheme
level, it will be analyzed as part of the contour, phrase,
or sentence.

There are 4 distinguishable levels of pitch in Chamorro.
They are: Very High (3); High (2); Lower (1); and Very
Low (-1).

The highest level, 3, is reserved for especially em-
phatic and emotional utterances which normally would carry
level 2 (normal high), and for questions without use of a
question word, such as /kaw hafa hazi/.

The following examples taken from a friendly argument
will show how pitch level 3 occurs in the language. The
first example shows the emphatic form where pitch level 2
could have occurred. Pitch levels are marked only where
changes occur. The numbers indicating pitch level are placed
immediately before the syllable in which the change occurs.

/1éngin oztru 1bwinzti lze para un rozha? lgwaztu
If maybe you will roll it there

./

 

1para un na kizlilukl
you (too) will roll

/lo das3l ./

”Prop it up.‘ (Tone of impatience)

 

58

The next example shows pitch level 3 indicating

interrogative.

12 . I2 . ’ . . ’
/1me gay lna b1?a h1 1law azzu l1 tima kaw hu21u2ha2
Many times (I shot fish) but not over

./

 

, '2
1gi tres 1i bras]
three pounds

 

 

/lsak33akl ,/

'Saksak?‘ (Type of fish)
/lsakzsak| ./

'Saksak'

/lkininé?3mul]./
'Your catch?‘

./

/1kininé°2hu|
'My catch'

 

In the first of the examples, the rise in pitch to level 3
might be ascribed to paralinguistic effect; but the second
example shows the phonemic value of level 3.

Pitch level -1 is heard only in utterance final position.
It denotes finality, such as the end of a paragraph or of a
story. It has not been recorded in any conversational
Chamorro, but only in monologues. The more self-conscious
the monologist, the more frequently pitch level -1 occurs.
Hence, it appears allophonic with 1, which also occurs at
these final points. That it results from strained speech is
suggested by the fact that the same informant, during his first

recording session (responses to pictures) consistently ended

59

his slow and brief responses to each picture on a very low

falling tone. Example:

/li kéztu gi lhi21u° 1tronzkin lhazu-l#/
'The cat is up in a tree.’

,2 I -
/li palu ma 1gumugupu 1#/
'The bird is flying.'

After the informant had worked for several months, picture
response eliciting was again employed. In this situation,
final falling tone occurred much less frequently and never
reached the very low pitdh level (-1). Consider the follow—
ing examples:

1 , 2 ’ ,2 \ ,
/ i um pat gon 1gwini nu] haha haca 1esti i ha22u|
'A child here is lifting the wood.‘

./

 

l. I 2 1 I ,2 l ’2 .
/ 1 pat gonl mamamahan nu mansa na za ha?apa pas1
'The child is buying an apple and he is paying

0/

 

. . , 2
1esti 1 palaw an]
this woman.’

Pitch level -1, though quite distinct phonetically from
level 1, can best be described as an allophone of level 1.
Its occurrence in Chamorro speech is not absolutely
predictable.

In normal speech, the pitch usually stays within levels 1
and 2. In isolated morphemes, primary stress is accompanied
by pitch level 2; secondary and tertiary stress carry the

lower pitch level 1.

60

2 I
/ gwaylza/ 'to like'
2 Il .
/ hm ball/ 'eyelash'
l 2 I .
/ oka syon/ 'occaSIOn'
This is the primary contour of morphemes. However, in
continuous Speech primary stress is normally accompanied
by pitch level 1. The pitch level rises to 2 or 3 in the
syllable following stress and remains there until the next
juncture or the next primary stress. Examples:

12,, 12 12
/les t1 Islto ryan un ltaw tawII/
'this story of a man'

/lkumikwin2tus si 1pazli? 1hafaféyzsin lészti i 1tawztaw/
'talked the relative asking this man'

I 2 1 g ’ 2 I
/lilek nya 31 pa 117ll/
'said he, the relative'

Exceptions to this are found in loan words, such as /héy skfil
yfif klép okasyon/ where the stress pattern deviates from
the normal Chamorro pattern.

The relation of pitch to juncture is described below.

2.8 JUNCTURE. The characteristic features of juncture
in Chamorro are: 1) time duration, and 2) accompanying pitch
level.

There are four juncture types in Chamorro.

/ + / - Internal open juncture. This is marked by a

slight pause with no accompanying change in pitch, and is

61

ordinarily used to set off word boundaries. This may be
described as a "sharper transition" (Hockett 1958, p. 55)
than that of ordinary syllable transition.

Contrastive examples for /+/ are

/humanaw/ 'to go' /hu + manman/ 'I think'

/i + néna/ 'the mother' /in + a?tan/ 'we think'

/i + na’na2lo/ 'the restitution' /in + na?né?lo/ 'we
returned'

/pwés + sumésaga + 31 + nanahu/ 'then my mother was
staying'

/pwés + umasagwa + si + nanéhu/ 'then my mother got
married'

The pitch level is not related to /+/, but is governed by
the stress pattern of the utterance.

/]|/ - Pause, phrase final, relatively brief, rising
pitch level. This is the most frequently used terminal
juncture in Chamorro. It is found as a marker of "phrase"
as well as "sentence" completion. That is to say that the
speaker might continue the utterance by adding clauses to
the main topic of the utterance; or he may start a new
sentence (topic); or, the conversation may change persons at
this juncture. This rising pitch juncture always occurs
utterance final in questions. In monologue speech, the

pause between phrases is noticeably shorter than that between

62

sentences. It does not convey the tone of finality that is
found in paragraph final juncture (#). Note the occurrences
of /|]/ in the following monologue. Pitch levels are marked
only at points of terminal juncture. Sentence final juncture

./.

 

will be marked by /|

1. /ésti gwiza un isltézryall istéryan dos kumumlpayzrill
This is a story a story of a father and godfather

./

 

I . . 1 . . . 2 I
2. est1 1 uma°ad1b1 1 dosl
crediting one another.

I 1 , , I , l I 2 .
3. hagas na tyimpo est1 1 unltawtaw 1 kumum pay r1||
Some time ago this one man (father or godfather)

4. ha didibi ésti i un ltéwztawl#
owed the other man.

I

5. za~hégas ha espipiha para u lkopzblall law taza nay
And for long he was looking (for him) to dun him, but not

6. uma’lazsuda2 [I pwes un bi’ahi gi un mé’lak na
meeting him. Then one time on a bright

7. talu’laznillgi 1dami‘nzgollumasuda? i dos lgi 2béhll
afternoon Sunday the two met at a bar. '

8. za ésti na tawtaw i 1mandizdibillhagas esta gaygi 91
And this man who had owed the other for a long time

9. sen 1hazlum1#
was there inside.

10. dispwés disdi sigi gulmizminllmatu esti 1 un tawtaw

Then after starting to drink came this other man

’2 I ’ o ’ u o ’
ll. nay lmadi dibillzaehumalum 110°2kWI°llze est1 1 tawtaw
the creditor and went inside also with this man

12. nay 1mandizdibillgéygi ésta nu 1 para u 1dénzdanll
the debtor already to play music

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

kumahfilu? za‘hané2halum un binti sinku i
he got up and put

zm para

and looked for

tyépmam humalum i ginin atuno?nya zaliléknya

63

2zfi’béksll

a quarter in the juke box

 

 

ufanespiha 2sillékzsyan
the selection.

1 I2 .
pa rill

Not long after he was inside,the former friend said;"Pari"

iléknya

said the other

iléknya
He said

zdul

for you

iléknya
He said

iléknya
He said

2 I
za lta syutl
'shoot'".

and

I 2
man

I 2 , I I , I I
i 1o trulllleknya par1 hafa tatalmaznuhawll
said he "Pari, how are you?"

lmawméwzlikhafilliléknya hafa nu mamaputhaw
"Good'l He said "Why is it so difficult

 

danl .
to play music?"

 

nénga? sa2 u espipiha? hafa 1zaez'hul .
"Wait because I'm looking for what I like."

fansililihikha? par1 gwénaw nu I gi dandan za
"Make your selection, Pari, of the music and...

 

iléknya kétu sa? hagasha? hu espipiha gwini lmalago72hu||

He said,

"Wait because for a long time I'm looking for

what I want."

iléknya hafa malagé2mu pari ze»talazudazi2haw|

He said

iléknya

He said,

 

"What do you want, Pari, and we will help you."

ézu na déndan i kaw lunha‘hézsuhitall.
"That music 'Do You Remember Me?'"

, I I . I 1 f .
lleknya nangayt par1 2e ta a2tan gW1n1#

He said

"Wait, Pari, and we will look here."

I
I ’ . . I g I I O I I
anay 1a9apmam ze 31g1 a?atan Ileknya muna magah1t par1

When later

’ . . l I 2 .
sa? taza est1 na dandan 1 kaw unhaha suhital
because there is no music

started looking he said "No truly, Pari,

 

'Do You Remember Me?‘

64

 

. I I , I . f . . f ’ 2 .
28. ileknya azuha? 1 gaygi gW1n1 l kaw Sinya un 1sun nunhitl
He said "Only here is 'Can You Forgive Me?'"

/#/ Lower pitch, falling, long pause, paragraph final.
This type of utterance final juncture in Chamorro occurs
with much less frequency than /Il/. It usually denotes the
end of a paragraph or the completion of speech, except when
a question occurs as the final sentence pattern. (Cf. lines
9 and 25 of the textlet.) It has also been recorded in
phrase final position when the phrase ends in a loan word
which puts primary stress on the final syllable, or when the
speaker is particularly self-conscious. It is accompanied
by pitch level 1 or, as described in 2.7, pitch level —1.

In addition to the three terminal junctures already
described, there is a hesitation pause which is character—
istic of Chamorro speech, though not phonemic (in the text
represented by [I]). It is marked by sustained pitch and a
briefer pause than /l|/. It occurs usually after particles
such as /nu ma gi i/. It is used to break up long
utterances and as a "think" break.

This hesitation juncture was used to mark phrase
boundaries in section 2.53. Its occurrence may be seen in
lines 3, 15, 20, and 27 in the monologue above. The fre-

quency of this juncture will vary from one speaker to the

65

next, and depends to a large extent on the speaking situa-
tion. The more strained the situation, the more frequent
the pauses. Rotanese speech is marked by a relatively high
number of these pauses; this is no doubt responsible for

the popular saying that Rotanese speech is more "rhythmical."

III. GRAMMAR

3.0 INTRODUCTION. The description of Chamorro grammar
herein presented is intended to be selective. It will start
with an outline and brief discussion of word types, and then
proceed to describe in fuller detail those areas of Chamorro
morphology and syntax which cause greatest interference for
the Chamorro speaker learning English. The order of the
detailed description will be determined insofar as possible
by the descending order of significant interference.
Morphophonemic data are described as they occur in the text.
In this portion of the text, morpheme boundaries are marked
by space or by -.

3.1 OUTLINE OF CHAMORRO MORPHOLOGY. The following
outline serves two purposes: 1) to present in brief an
overview of the morphological structure of Chamorro; 2) to
serve as a reference chart for the fuller discussion which
follows. The listed items are representative of the total
language, not a complete listing of all the existing forms.
Where w2£g_appears below, it is not to be interpreted as a
strictly grammatical term. It is used here to denote any
segment bounded by spaces.

Chamorro distinguishes two parts of speech: contentives

 

66

67

and functors. Contentives permit full affixation and may
be considered “content words'. (See Hockett 1958, p. 264.)

Functors permit no inflectional affixation and do not have

 

the clearcut lexical content of the contentives. The functor
class includes the pronouns, articles, prepositions, inter-
rogatives, affixes, and other particles which express gram-
matical relationships between the contentives.

3.11 CONTENTIVES: OUTLINE. Contentives are divisible
into two groups. 1) Certain bases may occur after the
article i; these are here called i-bases. (§§§g_is used in
the text to mean 'root' or unaffixed form of the word.).
These ifbases do not occur with preposed subject pronouns.

i salapi 'the money'

i ga?lago 'the dog'

 

i palawan 'the woman'

 

2) Certain other bases do not occur after the article 3;
they do occur with preposed subject pronouns to form subject-

verb patterns. These bases are called verbs.

 

 

hu li?i° 'I see'
hu gwéyza 'I love'
hu paca 'I touch'

The article iJ which always occurs preposed, determines

that a word is being used substantively. In order to follow

68

i.and to be used substantively, verbs require the infix
-in-2 (see 3.123) or reduplication of the tonic syllable.
(See 3.263.)

i l-in-i?i? 'the sight'

 

i gw-in-éyza 'the thing that is loved'

 

i p-in-aca 'the touch'

 

i sasaki 'the thief'

 

(See 3.26 for a more detailed description of word formation.)
Verbs, with or without affixes, occur with preposed
subject pronouns to function as predicates. ifbases occur

with postposed subject pronouns to function as predicates.

 

 

salapi-gwi9 'it is money'
ga?1ago-haw 'you are a dog'
palawan-zu? 'I am a woman'

 

Both irbases and inflected verbs function attributively
when followed by the attributive particle pa, (See 3.27 for
other conditions.)

i palawan na ménok 'the female chidken'

 

i salapi na lépblo 'the money book'

 

ipa-paca na tawtaw 'the touching man'

 

3.12 FUNCTORS: OUTLINE. Since Chamorro has such a
large number of functors, they are simply listed by name in
'this outline. Examples of each are given in the fuller

Ciescription below.

3.121

3.122

3.123

3.124

3.125

3.126

69

PRONOUNS AND POSTPOSED POSSESSIVES

a. Cardinal Pronouns, gngtype (Inactive)
b. Cardinal Pronouns, hurtype (Active)

c. Emphatic Pronouns

d. Postposed Possessives

ARTICLES

a. Common, i_and 22.

b. Proper, gij gEJ and ig§_

CONTENTIVE AFFIXES

1 .
a. -um- /ma-/ zero Verbalizer

 

b. :gm;3_Non-plural Infinitive Marker

c. :gm:3_Non-plural Indefinite Object Marker
d. :gm;:_Non-plural Definite Subject Marker
e. mag;i_Plural Verbalizing Prefix

f. man:3_Plural Infinitive Marker

g. man:3_Plural Indefinite Object Marker

h. :in;i_Topic Marker

i. 212:3.Nominalizing Infix

j. Nominalizing Reduplicative

DEFECTIVE VERBS: GWAHA - GAYGI

CAUSATIVE VERB

TENSE-MODE MARKERS: FUTURE, OBLIGATORY, PAST

70

3.127 PREPOSITIONS
a. Chamorro Prepositions
b. Spanish Loans
3.128 ATTRIBUTIVE PARTICLES AND SUFFIXES
a. Preposed
b. Postposed
3.129 CONNECTING PARTICLES
a. Coordinating
b. Subordinating
3.130 INTERROGATIVES
3.131 DEICTIC PARTICLES
a. Demonstratives

b. Locatives

3.2 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CHAMORRO GRAMMAR. Since
the order of this description of Chamorro grammar has been
determined insofar as possible by the descending order of
significant interference, those areas of Chamorro which cause
the greatest difficulty for the Chamorro speaker learning
English are presented first. It has been necessary at times
to change this plan in order to present grammatical data
which are used in explaining subsequent constructions. This
description is made with a view towards facilitating a con-

trastive analysis with English structures.

71

3.21 PRONOUNS AND POSTPOSED POSSESSIVES. Although
Chamorro pronouns do not constitute a primary point of
interference, they are necessary for the description of
verb structures, and are thus presented first.

A word which specifically marks person and number is a
pronoun. The category of person specifies first, second,
or third person; number distinguishes singular from plural.

Chamorro has three major classes of pronouns: cardinal,
possessive, and emphatic. The cardinal pronouns include
two subclasses, g33_(lnactive) and hg_(Active).

Third person singular subject cardinal pronouns are
usually omitted when the subject has been introduced in a
preceding utterance. A §g£9_allomorph of the third person
subject pronouns occurs with the future tense marker 2,

The first person plural forms distinguish between 'exclu-
sive' and ‘inclusive.’ The former excludes and the latter
includes the addressee or addressees.

3.211 CARDINAL PRONOUNS. There are two subclasses of
cardinal pronouns, gngtype and hgftype.

3.2111 zu? PRONOUNS: INACTIVE. There are seven pro-
nouns of this type (first person singular form is £33) which
are bound, atonic, postposed. When they combine with

.Lébases, they form subjects of subject-predicate patterns

 

III. All). Illll ‘l .51 III! llllllillll. I‘ll [Ill ‘1 II)- 'I Illl'lrulc

Sin-
gular

Plural

Sin-
gular

Plural

Sin-
gular

Plural

Sin-
gular

Plural

72

TABLE V
PRONOUNS

zu? Pronouns

First Person Second Person

Third Person

 

 

Exclusive Inclusive
-zu? --- -haw -gwi?
-ham -hit -hamzu -siha

 

 

hu Pronouns

First Person Second Person

Third Person

 

 

 

 

Exclusive Inclusive

hu -- un ha ~ g

in ta in ma ~ g
Possessives

First Person Second Person

Exclusive Inclusive

Third Person

 

 

-hu «a-ku —- -mu

-mami~.-nmami -ta -mizu3o-nmizu?

-nya

-niha~o-nniha

 

 

Emphatic Pronouns

First Person Second Person

Third Person

 

 

Exclusive Inclusive
gwahu -- hagu gwiza
hami hita hamzu siha

 

 

73

Which are here called intransitive utterances; hence, they
may be considered 'inactive pronouns.‘
tawtaw-zu? 'I am a man'

a9pla?ca2-haw 'you are dirty'

 

malago?—gwi° 'he wants'

 

In future tense zu? pronouns are replaced by hg_pronouns.
When zu? pronouns combine with verb bases, they are

objects of verb-ofject patterns.

 

ciku—gwi? 'kiss him'
péca-zu? 'touch me'
a?tan-siha 'look at them'

 

3.2112 hu PRONOUNS: ACTIVE. There are seven pronouns
of this type. They combine with verb bases to form a
subject-verb pattern which is here called transitive, and
are thus distinguished from guzépronouns as 'active pro-
nouns.‘ They are atonic, preposed.

First person exclusive and second person plural are
homonyms.

hu ciku 'I kiss'

ha né?i 'he gives'

ta u u 'we (incl.) fly'

in tinu 'we (excl.) know'/'you all know'

ma haso 'they think'

74

u (future marker) haso 'he will think'

u (future marker)§an-haso 'they will think'

3.212 POSSESSIVES. There are seven postposed, bound
possessives which combine with both ifbases and verbs. They
are suffixes in that primary stress always occurs penulti-
mately in the combined forms. First person singular form
:hg_is in free variation with :kg_except when preceded by
bases ending in nasals, /7/, and /s/; only :hu occurs under
these conditions.

malago9-hu 'my wish'

 

’ I I
tawtaw-nya her man

 

azpla?ca?-mu 'your dirt'

 

' . f f I , 1
Forms -mami, amizu7, and -niha occur as -nmam1, -nmizu°,

and -nniha after bases ending in vowels.

 

 

 

I I
tata tata-nmam; 'our father'
I f
saga saga-nmizu? 'your place'
cé?lu ce’lu-nniha 'their brother'

 

The possessives are used even when the possessor is
named.

i tata-nya si pédro 'Pedro's father'

 

i malego7-niha i tawtaw 'the wish of the people'

 

3.213 EMPHATIC PRONOUNS. The emphatic pronouns are

free forms. When used for purposes of emphasis, they are

75

usually placed utterance initial, and receive primary con-
tour stress. These pronouns occur as follows:
a. As emphatic subject or object forms.

gwahu malégo? h-um-énaw 'I_am the one who wants to go'

 

gwahu ilék-hu 'flg, I say!‘

 

I

gwiza hu li’i? 'I see him'

 

b. Singly as a total utterance, as in answer to a 'who'
type question.
hazi énaw 'Who's there?’
gwahu 'me:'

C. After giga_in the idiomatic phrase meaning 'at some-
body's house'.

I ’ I
giza hami 'at our house'

 

giza hagu 'at your house'

 

giza gwahu 'at my house'

 

3.22 ARTICLES. There are two classes of articles in
Chamorro, common and proper. The common articles are i_and
_J1. The proper articles are si, §§_and iza,

3.221 COMMON ARTICLE i. This article is very close in
meaning to English 'the,' and may be considered a nominaliz-
ing particle. It is in obligatory co—occurrence with i:

bases, nominalized verbs, and numbers when they function as

subjects, unless replaced by proper articles g1, iza or

76

numerals. (See 3.223 and 3.225.) It designates specifcity
and may be used with singular and plural subjects.

itawtaw matu 'the man came'

i t-in-ino? ma-baba 'the knowledge became bad'

i dos métu 'the two came'

i_tawtaw man-matu 'the men came'

trés tawtaw man—matu 'three men came'

i_is not obligatory with words when they function as
objects. It may occur with ifbases, nominalized verbs and
numbers when they function as objects only if specificity is
critical to the utterance.

hu li?i° tawtaw 'I see men (the men/man/the man)‘

hu li9i? i tawtaw 'I see the man (the one we were talking
about)

Back vowels of the initial stressed syllables immediately
following i_are fronted, and /e/ is raised to /i/, except in
unassimilated loan words. Modifiers may separate i.from the
nominal.

mfigu3_> i mizu° 'the sneer'

gé’cu? > i cé?cu? 'the work'

c_ala_n_> i glan 'the way'

£51113) 1 ci°lu 'the brother'

ocu > i ocu 'the eight'

77

holi ném > i holi ném 'the holy name'

i dikiki na lahi 'the little man'

3.222 COMMON ARTICLE un. Eg_'a/an' is limited in
occurrence. It occurs with all regular contentives, but
only with the actor in a subject-predicate pattern. It
indicates indefiniteness of subject or specifies 'oneness.‘
It is used only with singular forms.

unléhi h-um-anaw 'a/one man went'

s-um-asaga un nana 'a/one mother lived there'

 

It is commonly used to begin narratives.

un diya h-um-anaw—zu? giza talafofo 'One day I went
to Talafofo...‘

 

It is not used in other positions unless 'oneness' is
emphasized.

I f
malago?—zu2 nizok 'I want a coconut.'

 

malago?—zu? un nizok 'I want one coconut (not two)‘

 

3.223 PROPER ARTICLE si. Proper article §i_is used
with names of persons or pet animals and with titles when
they refer to specific persons. Particle §i_is never omitted,
except when replaced by g§_(Cf. below).

, I I
s1 pedro h-um-anaw 'Pedro went'

 

I
I ' . .
malago?-zu° s1 marlya 'I want Marla'

 

Contrast the following pairs:

78

i tata—nmami 'our father (heavenly)'
si tata-nmami 'our father (of the family)‘

 

i nana 'the mother'
si nana 'Mother'

3.224 PROPER ARTICLE fig, Proper article as is used
when a proper name, functioning as subject, occurs finally
in a clause with verbs containing the topic marking infix

. 1
-ln- .

 

I f I I
l—ln-l?l7 as pedro 'Pedro sees'

pain-aca si hosé as pédro 'It was JOsé that Pedro touched'

 

The article a§_also occurs with proper nouns in structures
Which are syntactically similar to English appositives.

i ci?lu4hu as pédro 'my brother, Pedro'

3.225 PROPER ARTICLE iza. This article is currently
used by a minority of Chamorro speakers, chiefly on Saipan
and the other smaller islands. It is used only with names
of geographical locations. Younger Chamorro speakers of
Guam rarely use this form, but use common article i_or fl.

igghaqatnya -- i hagatnva 'Agana‘

dankulg iza honolulu -- dankulo i honolulu
'Honolulu is big'

gikiki iza umétak -- ikiki umatak 'Umatac is small'
3.23 CONTENTIVE AFFIXES. The contentive affixes

listed in 3.123 will be described in full as they occur

 

.....I.Il.ll 11 ii (I'll

 

 

79

in the discussions of verbs and word formation in 3.25 and
3.26 below.
3.24 TENSE-ASPECT-MODE MARKERS. There are six func-

tors which mark tense and mode. Two of these, bay and u

I

mark future tense. gigig.marks past completed action.
The remaining three, pagaJ syimpri and débidi, mark quali-
ties of mode.

3.241 FUTURE TENSE MARKERS bay AND u. bay_occurs
with the first person singular and plural exclusive pro-
nouns only.

bay hu utut 'I will cut'

bay hu saga 'I will stay'

bay in fan-utut 'we (excl. plural) will cut'

bay in fan—yéga 'we (excl. plural) will stay'

(Note: For an explanation of the morphophonemic
change in the last example, see 3.2545.)

u_is regularly used with third person singular and
plural, first person plural inclusive, and with the em-
phatic pronouns. The third person pronoun a allomorph
occurs after 3, (See 3.21.) g_precedes the first person
plural inclusive pronoun ta, but follows the emphatic pro-
nouns.

u utut 'he/she will cut'

80

u saga 'he/she will stay'

u fan-utut 'they all will cut'

u ta saga 'we (incl.) will stay'

gwahu u féhan 'I am the one who will buy'

3.242 ASPECT MARKER ginin. ginin marks remote past
time plus cessation of activity. It is best translated as
'used to' or by the past perfect aspect. It always pre-
cedes the statement pattern. If past time has been clear;

I

ly established in the narrative, ginin is usually omitted.

I

ginin hu utut 'I used to/had cut'

I

ginin sumaqa-zu? 'I used to/had stay(ed)'

I I

ginin in itut 'we (excl.) used to cut'

ginin sumaqa-ham 'we (excl.) used to stay'

3.243 MODE MARKERS. Three functors, which are Span-
ish loans, mark qualities of mode. They are para,
syimpri, and débidi. All three of these markers are in
obligatory co-occurrence with future tense verb and pro-
noun forms.

p飧_and syimpri both indicate futurity, but with
<iiffering degrees of probability. They precede b§y_and

5; described above. pé;a,indicates weak probability.

para bay hu géqa 'I will probably stay'

para u fan—hanaw 'They will probably go'

81

para bay in fan-maléqo 'we (excl.) all will probably
run'

syimpri indicates strong probability.

syimpri bay hu saga 'I will definitely stay'

syimpri u fan-hanaw 'they will definitely go'

syimpri bay in fan-malagg_'we (excl.) all will defi-

I nitely run'

debidi marks the 'obligatory' mode which includes
English 'must', 'have to', 'should', and 'ought to'.
Future pronoun and verb forms always follow debidi. bay,
may be used or omitted.

débidibay hu utut 'I should/must cut'

debidi hu saga 'I ought to/have to stay'

débidi bay in fan-utut 'we (excl.) must cut'

débidi bay in fan-vaga 'we (excl.) ought to stay'

3.25 EERES, The Chamorro verb structure lies at the
heart of the grammatical system. Through its system of
inflectional morphemes, the grammatical relations between
the verb and its immediate constituents are marked. Since
all words of the major class may function syntactically
as verbs, the term yg£b_here refers to a syntactic class
only.

The most prominent characteristics of the Chamorro verb

are aspect, definiteness of subject and object, and sub-

82

ject or object as the emphasized topic. Secondary charac-
teristics are tense and imperative mode. The secondary
characteristics are described first.

3.251 VERB TENSE. In addition to the tense markers

 

described in 3.24, Chamorro verb structures show, often
imprecisely, certain features of time. The tenses that
are distinguished by verb structure are non-futu£§_and
future.

3.2511 NON-FUTURE TENSE. Although reduplication within
the verb is primarily a marker of aspect, it implies a dis-
tinction between present and past time. (These terms do
not mark the same time boundaries as those found in Eng-
lish; hence, we get non-future tense.)

non—reduplicated verbibase 'Implied Past Time'

reduplicated verb base 'Implied Present Time'

In reduplicated forms, the tonic syllable of the base is
reduplicated. When the tonic syllable ends in a consonant
or a semivowel, the final phoneme is not included in the
reduplicated syllable. See the following contrastive
examples:

(Note: Alternate translations are given, with the im-

plied meaning given first. The subsequent trans-

lations may occur under the conditions described in
the following paragraphs.)

83

s-um-aga-zu? giza hagatnya 'I lived/live in Agana'

 

s-um-asaqa-zuf giza haqatnya 'I am living/have been
living/live in Agana'

ma-co?cu°-zu? duru 'I worked/work hard'

I i o o
ma-coco?cu?-gu? duru 'I am working/have been working/
work hard'

d-um-énkulo-qwi? 'he became/becomes big'
d—um-adankulo-qwi2 'he is becoming/has become/'becomes

big'

hu li’i? gwi2 'I saw/see him'

I

hu lili2i? qwi9 'I am seeing/have been seeing/'see him'

hu qwayza haw 'I loved/love you'

hu gwagwavza haw 'I am loving/have been loving/love
you'

Unless preceded by a future marker, a non-reduplicated
form implies completed past action. However, it may also
occur unmarked in the same utterance with a reduplicated
verb, both of which relate present activities. The redup-
licated form usually implies present action unless preced-
ed by gigig_or a future marker, or unless past time has
been clearly established in the narrative. Both redupli-
cated and non-reduplicated forms are used in statements
that are always true, or in statements that refer to ac-

tion in the immediate present or recent past.

84

If a time word follows the verb, then the reduplicated
form is restricted in the following manner.

man-babali-gu9 'I am/was sweeping'

man-babali-zu7 nigap qi anay matu-haw

'I was sweeping yesterday when you came' or

'I am sweeping yesterday when you came'
But not

*man-babali-zu? nigap

In informal speech, Chamorro speakers are generally
inconsistent in their use of reduplicated and non-redupli-
cated forms in regard to tense. However, direct transla-
tions elicited from informants suggest the rule postulated
here.

3.2512 FUTURE TENSE. Future tense is marked within
the verb structure by the following internal changes.

a. A gerg allomorph replaces the verbalizing allo-

morph :2m;}.

s-um-éqa 'to stay'

1

bay hu Saga '1 will stay' (-um- is replaced by fl)

u saga 'he will stay'

b. fan- allomorph replaces man-1 'plural verbalizing

infix' and man-3 'indefinite object marker'. When

both morphemes occur in the same structure, only the

first one is replaced by the future allomorph;

 

85

I

u fan-man-li9i7 palawan 'they will see a girl'
u fan-utut 'they will cut'

u ta fan-yaqa giza haqatnva 'we all (incl.) will stay
at Agana'

(Note: A limited number of Chamorro verb bases have
two allomorphs, one with initial /m-/, the other with
initial /f-/. The /f-/ allomorph occurs in future
tense constructions. This alternation is restricted
to a small group of bases and hence is quite different
from the alternation described in b. above. A few
examples of these verbs are listed below.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

malaqo-zu9 'I ran' -- bay hu falaqo 'I will run'

mata’cun-zu2 'I sit' -- bay hu fata?cun 'I will sit'

matu-zu? 'I come' -- bay hu fatu 'I will come'

maco?cu9-zu? 'I work' -- bay hu faco’cu’ 'I will work'

malofan-zu? 'I pass by' -- bay hu falofan 'I will pass
by'

3.252 VERB ASPECT. The durative aspect is an im-
portant feature of Chamorro verbs. It is marked by redup-
lication of the tonic syllable of the verb, and it suggests
that the activity is of a continuing nature, and that the
time of completion is indefinite. Unless preceded by a
tense marker, it suggests present activity. Although it
is best translated by English y;iggJ it should not be con-
sidered a parallel structure.

métqot-haw 'you are strong'

m-um-étqot-haw 'you become strong'

86

m-um-emétqot-haw 'you are becoming strong'

hu

hu

hu

hu

I
li7i7 'I see'

I
lili?i° 'I am seeing'

a°tan 'I look at'

a2a?tan 'I am looking at'

anay estataba-zu? gi dyes gradu
'When was being I in the tenth grade...‘

3.253 VERBS: IMPERATIVE MODE. The imperative mode is

marked by the same allomorphic changes that occur in fu-4

ture constructions, and the omisSion Of all subject pro-

nouns .

a.

fan- replaces man-.
man-utut-zu? 'I cut'
fan-utut 'Cutl'

/f—/ replaces /m—/ in certain non-predictable

verbs. (Note the last two examples.)

malago-zu? 'I run' falago 'Runl'

 

mac67cu?-zu? 'I work' faco°cu° 'Workl'
maléfa—zu? 'I forget' maléfa 'Forget!‘
mutaV-qwi? 'he vomits' muta? 'Vomit!‘

 

3.254 VERB AFFIXATION. In this section on verb affix-

 

 

87

ation, only those contentive affixes listed in 3.123 which
pertain to verbs are described. It will be necessary to
refer to simple clause structures in presenting the de-
scription of certain affixes. These clauses are purposely
kept as simple as possible at this stage of the discussion.

There are six irregular verbs which do not permit
affixation. Four of these have bound bases and occur with
postposed possessives.

fl '1 like'

ga°oéku 'I prefer'

ilék-hu 'I said'

cé?-mu 'don't'

muna? occurs with zu2 pronouns or as a free form.

 

 

muna? 'I don't want to/any'

 

hékwa? 'I don't know' always stands alone.

Infixes always precede the first vowel of the base.

If there is a preposed bound attributive prefix, the in—
fixes precede the first vowel of the prefix.

3.2541 VERBALIZER -um-1/ma-/ze;g, When the verbalizer
:um:} is affixed to certain ifwords, the result may be
described as an 'action' word, in the same manner as words
in English which are called intransitive verbs. There are

three allomorphs of this verbalizer: -um-1, may, and zero.

88

The exact distribution of -um—1 and mg: is not predictable.

Zero allomorph occurs in future tense.

 

 

 

 

tawtaw 'man' t-um-awtaw-zu2 'I became a man'

méwlek 'good' m-um-awlek—qwi9 'he became good'

i saga 'the place' s-um-aqa—zu? 'I stayed'

amko? 'old' laP-am'ko2 'a little older' l-um-a9-émko?

 

'getting a little older'

béba_'bad' ma-béba-zu? 'I became bad'
héga3_'blood' ma-haga2-zu? '1 am bleeding'

3.2542 NON-PLURAL INFINITIVE MARKER —g§—2. Infix
:um:? is used to form non-plural infinitives from irbases
and y§£b§_when they occur in structures such as 'I want

to ', 'I saw him ', and 'I thought he

Non-plural refers to singular and dual.

I

 

 

 

 

dikiki 'small' maléqo?-gu? d-um-ikiki 'I want to be
’ small'
han§w_'to go' hu_li§i?-qwi3 h—umré-hanaw 'I saw him
90'
m’tay 'to die' h_ h'go na m-um-atay-qwi3_'1 thought
he died'

3.2543 NON—PLURAL INDEFINITE OBJECT MARKER -um-3. The
infix :um:? is used when the verb structure is intransi-
tive, i.e.. there is no direct object, or when the object
is indefinite. This infix only occurs with certain verbs

which are not predictable. (man-3 is used with some verbs

 

 

89

in non-plural constructions which do not permit -um—3, and
is described below.)

hagun 'to breathe'

 

hu hagun i ayri 'I breathe the air'

 

h-um-agun-zu9 'I breathe'

 

tokca 'to spear'
hu tokca ésti na qwihan 'I speared that fish'

t-um-okca-zu? qwihan 'I speared a fish'

 

3.2544 NON-PLURAL DEFINITE SUEJECT MARKER -qg:1,
Infix 33m;fl is used to mark a definite subject of the verb
as distinguished from other possible subjects. Verbs with
this infix are always preceded by a proper noun or an em—
phatic pronoun.

si pédro ha tokca i qwihan 'Pedro speared the fish'

3; pedro t-um-okca i qwihag_ 'Pedro, alone among possible
others, speared the fish'

qwéhgpt-um-okca i gwihgg:'l alone among possible others
speared the fish'

3.2545 PLURAL VERBALIZING PREFIX man-1. The prefix
332:} occurs in place of :gm2} or may with ifbases when the
subject is plural.

man-awtaw—siha 'they became men'

(Note: See below for loss of /t/ in tawtaw.)

9O

man-mawlek-siha 'they became good'

man—yaga-siha 'they stayed'

Affixation of the prefix man:_causes the following
morphophonemic changes to occur in the initial phonemes of
the bases.

’ a

/c/ becomes /y/ c’gi -— manyagi

 

 

 

/s/ becomes /y/ sanéni -- manyanani
/t/ becomes fl tunu -— manunu
/k/ becomes /h/' kéno? -- mannano?

 

/f/ becomes a with regressive assimilation of /-n/ to
/-m/ fahan -- mamahan
/m/ may cause regressive assimilation of /-n/ to /m/.

muggz_-- mamugu°

3.2546 PLURAL INFINITIVE MARKEngn-z. Prefix 332:?
marks plural infinitives in the same manner that :3m:? marks
non—plural infinitives. (See 3.2542.) Plurality may be
determined by the subject or the object or the infinitive

construction.

malégo?-siha man—dankulo 'they want to be big'

 

I

hu li’i9 siha man-hanaw 'I saw them go'
hu héso man-mavtay-siha 'I thought they died'
3.2547 PLURAL INDEFINITE OBJECT MARKER man-3. When

the direct object in a transitive verb structure is in-

 

91

definite, then the indefinite object marker man-3 is pre-

fixed to the verb. g33_pronouns are in obligatory co-
occurrence with this prefix. mag:§ ordinarily occurs with
plural indefinite objects, but it may occur with certain
verbs in singular constructions. (See 3.2543.)

hu li°i° i palawan 'I see the girl'

 

man-li’i?-zu? palawan 'I see a girl/girls'

 

hu béli? i gima? 'I swept the house'

 

man-béli?-zu° guma? 'I sweep houses'

 

ma mugu? i kahit 'they squeezed the orange'

man-mugu?-siha kahit 'they squeezed an orange/oranges'

 

3.2548 TOPIC MARKER -in-1. Infix -in-1 When affixed

to verb bases in a transitive structure, marks the sub-
stantive immediately following the verb as the emphasized
topic of the utterance. This infixed construction is de-
scribed by Safford as 'passive voice' (Safford 1909, p. 76)
and by Costendble as 'bestimmte verbale Passiv' (Costenoble
1940, pp. 312-314). Chamorro speakers often attempt to
translate this form into English passive voice. However,

since the infix ~in-1 is used to distinguish the topic of

the utterance, i.e., the unit of the utterance that is em-

phasized, topic marke£_seems a more accurate term.

92

When proper nouns function as subjects of this type of
verb structure, they pattern with the proper article §§5
common nouns pattern with the particle QE_+ common article i,
:ig:i produces the same morphophonemic changes in the first
vowel of the base as does the definite article i, (See
3.221.) A shift in the order of the constituents of the
utterance from Subject-Verb-Object to Verb-Object-Subject
accompanies the occurrence of :ig;£.

Contrast the following pairs of utterances. Words
written in upper case signify the topic of the statements.
The first example in each set shows what is here called a
'neutral,’ or unemphasized statement.

I O ’ O ’ 0
§1 mariya ha tunu Sl hwan 'Maria knows Juan'

t-in-inu si hwan as mariya 'Maria knows JUAN' (not Pedro)

 

’ f I I t I
si hwan catli°1° Sl mariya 'Juan hates Maria'

 

c-in-atli9i7 si mariya as hwan 'Juan hates MARIA (not
Jesusa)

 

I f O O t O
i kabazu ha 1191? 81 mariya 'The horse sees Maria'

 

l-in-i?i° si mariya nu i kabazu 'The horse sees MARIA'
(not Pedro)

 

3.2549 IMPERSONAL STRUCTURE. The third person plural hu_
pronoun, m§_'they,' is frequently used to form the impersona;_
construction. It is translated by the English impersonal

Pronoun 'they' or 'one,‘ or by the English passive voice.

93

ma-gwéyza-gwi? 'they like him' or 'he is liked'

 

ma-li?i°-gwi7 gi sédok nigap 'they saw him (he was seen)
at the river yesterday'

 

3.255 QQFECTIVE VERBS. Two frequently used verbs, ggygi_
and gwaha, permit none of the verbal affixation. They are
called defective verbs. They both express the idea of 'there
exists' or 'there is.‘ Both are used as standard expessions
for 'to have.’

gwaha cipé-hu 'I have cigarettes' (Literally, ’there are
my cigarettes')

 

gwaha'layta-nya 'he has a lighter' (Lit. 'there is his
lighter')

 

géygi giza hagu i cipé-hu 'you have my cigarettes' (Lit.
'there are to you my cigarettes')

 

gaygi i cipa-mu giza gwahu 'I have your cigarettes' (Lit.
'there are your cigarettes to me')

 

gaygi—zu?gwini 'I am here'

 

gaygi igima? giza gwam 'the house is in Guam' (Lit.
'there is the house at Guam')

 

taygi is the negative form of gaygi.

téygi i cipa-mu giza gwahu 'I don't have your cigarettes'

 

3.256 CAUSATIVE VERB na?. .33: is presented here as a
separate item because of the singularity of its use and
function, and because it spans two completely different
meanings in English, “make' or 'cause' and ‘let.’ It pat-

terns with preposed subject and postposed object pronouns,

94

. . . . l
and permits the lnle -1n- .

na" o7mak-gwi" 'give him a bath,‘ 'let him take a bath,‘
or 'make him bathe'

 

ha ha? co°gwi°-zu° 'he let me do it' or 'he made me do it'

 

I

si hwan n-in—aR amarizu nu i papaza 'the papaya caused
Juan to be yellow'

 

muna? is a variant form used when a preposed noun is the

subject. This is possibly a metathesized form of -um- plus

na9.
i papaza muna7 amarizu si hwan
'the papaya caused Juan to be yellow'

 

3.257 RECIPROCAL STRUCTURE. Reciprocal statements are
formed by affixation of the verb. Reciprocal marker §;_is
used to mark this structure. In non-future structures it is
always preceded by gm:3_or man-2 and occurs with g33_pro-
pronouns. In future verb constructions a:_is preceded by
hg_pronoun forms. a;_a1ways carries the primary stress.

li°i° 'to see'

um-a-li?i°-hit 'we two saw each other'

man-a-liBiR-hit 'we all saw each other'

u-fan-é-li?i° agupa'they will see each other tomorrow'

 

3.26 WORD FORMATION. All Chamorro contentives that
have not been previously described as irregular forms may

function syntactically as substantive, verb, or attribute.

95

Before a word of one syntactic class can function as a mem-
ber of another class, however, some bases must undergo cer-
tain morphemic changes. These changes are described below.

3.261 i-BASES AS SUBSTANTIVE AND ATTRIBUTE. irbases
may function as substantives or as attributes. This can
best be illustrated by the following examples.

léhi.'man/male'

i léhi 'the man'

patgon 'child'

i ciba 'the goat'

léhi na patgon 'boy' or 'male child'

 

patgon na ciba 'kid' or 'child goat'

 

mawlek 'good'

i méwlek 'the good (one)'

game}; na lahi 'the good man'

3.262 i-BASES AS VERBS. irbases accept the verbalizing
affixes :gm:£_and m§:_to form verbs. These are described in
3.2541 above.

3.263 VERBS AS SUBSTANTIVES. Substantives are derived
from verb bases in the following manner.

a. Nominalizing infix :ig:3, Affixation of the infix
:ig:i_produces a 'resultant' or 'passive' noun. This form
usually occurs with the nominalizing particle i_or a post-

posed possessive.

 

 

96

hé§9_'to think'

i h-in-aso 'the thought' (that which was thought)
h-in-aso—ku 'my thought'

féysin 'to ask'

i f-in-éysin 'the question' (that which was asked)

 

b. Reduplication of the initial syllable. Primary
stress falls on the initial syllable of the reduplicated
form. This change produces an 'agentive' noun. It usually
occurs with the nominalizing particle i,

égi.'to tridk' i aR-ati 'the magician'

géki_'to steel' i sa-saki 'the thief'

blagku 'to throw' i bla-blankg_'the thrower'

géki_'to steal'

i s-in-aki 'the theft'

i sa-gaki 'the thief'

Both of the derived forms described above may function as
attributes.

i s-in-aki na manok 'the stolen chidken'

i sa-saki na tawtaw 'the stealing man'

3.27 MODIFICATION. Attributes may precede or follow
the word that is modified. The most common modification
structure in Chamorro is Attribute + Attributive Particle

a + Substantive.

97

i mawlek na tawtaw 'the good man'
i dankulo na kabazu 'the big horse'

i malanu na palawan 'the sick woman'

 

When the attribute follows the substantive, n§_is often
omitted entirely, particularly in fast speech. Or, when
the substantive ends in a vowel, the attribute is linked by
n. Hence, one may hear any of the following forms.

i ga?1égo na a9paka? 'the white dog'

 

i gaRlago-n é?paka°

 

P.

ga?lago?a9paka°

 

ipalawan na malanu"the sick woman'

 

o I I
1 palawan malanu

 

There are a number of portmanteau words which show this
reduction of the particle 23:

tronkinhazu 'tree' from trgnko (Sp. loan) + hazu 'wood'

matanhégun (name of a fish which is heavily marked around
the eyes) mata 'eye' + hagun 'leaf'

 

 

 

tomonkanay 'elbow' from tomo 'knee' + kanay 'arm'

i cepcoptasi 'the seashore' from copcop 'to suck' +
tasi 'sea'

 

3.271 MODIFYING PARTICLES AND AFFIXES. In addition to
the system of modification described above, there are several
modifying particles which stand in absolute attribution, i.e.,
they do not require the particle 2&4 and a series of modifying

affixes.

 

 

 

98

A partial list of the modifying particles is given
below.
pinat intensifier pinat mawlek 'too good'

ti. negative ti gwahu 'not me'

tay negative tay salapi 'no money'

 

mampus intensifier mampus mawlek 'very good'

m§§_ intensifier mas maléti_'more intelligent'
itmas intensifier itmas maléti 'most intelligent'
gig_ strong intensifier gin mawlek 'very good'

gof/gos intensifier gof méwlek 'very good'

 

la? additive 1a9 mawlek 'a little better'

 

ha? intensifier mawlek-ha? 'very good' gwiza-ha? 'he
alone'

The following list of affixes includes only those which
were recorded in the field. (See Costenoble, pp. 442—460,
for a more complete list.)

Egg: 'pejorative' mét§_'eye' catamata 'myopic'

kg: 'to be about to' fanfi? 'to pick' ta ke-fénfi? lemay
'we're about to pidk breadfruit'

fina?- 'composed of' doni? 'red pepper' fina?-déni?
'composed of red peppers'

£37 “participial' titek 'to tear' ma-titek 'torn'

(Note: mg: is possibly the same morpheme as that in the
Impersonal Structure. See 3.2549.)

mi- 'abounding in' salapi 'money' mi-salépi 'rich'

99

£37 'limited negative' h-in-aso 'thought' e7-h—in-aso
'stupid'

:zun_‘capable of being done' haso-zun 'thinkable'

(Note: :zgg_occurs as :un_following /?/.)

3.272 COMPARATIVE. The comparative and superlative
are ordinarily expressed by particles m§§_and itmas, (See
examples above.) When a comparison is made between two
things, the comparative is expressed by a discontinuous
morpheme consisting of suffix :gya_plus kig§_'than.'

métgot 'strong'

metgot-nya kine gwiza 'stronger than him'

times. 'pIOW'

tunas-nya i luca-hu kine i lucé-mg_
'My row is plowed better than your row.‘

3.28 PLURAL STRUCTURES. Although plurality is an im-
portant feature in Chamorro pronominal and verb systems, it
is not indicated in nouns and modifiers unless it is espe-
cially critical to the meaning. The expression i tawtaw na
gwém could mean either 'the man of Guam' or 'the people of
Guam.’ Chamorro speakers usually depend on context rather
than plural markers.

Plurality can be indicated by the third person plural
guzftype pronoun, siha, It occurs in preposed and post-

posed positions.

100

I

siha na tawtaw 'men'

i tawtaw siha 'the men'
Plural substantives and their attributes are in concord.
When a plural substantive is preceded by an attribute, the
attribute must take the plural marker mag;.

man-mawlek na tawtaw siha 'good men'

3.281 IRREGULAR PLURALS. Certain substantives have

irregular plural forms which are invariable. The follow-

ing is a list of the forms found in the corpus.

lahi 'man' lalahi 'men'
pali 'priest' mamali 'priests'

patgon 'child' famagu?on 'children'

 

palawan 'girl' famaléwan 'girls'

peskadot 'fisherman' peskadoris 'fisherman'

3.29 PREPOSITIONS. Chamorro has four prepositions.
They are gi, giza, ginin, and ggn, Although gi§§_is a
combined form of gi plus iza! it will be treated as a
separate particle. The prepositions introduce preposition-
al phrases which may stand as separate utterances or as
units of modification. As modifying units, they may occur
preposed or postposed. Some Spanish loan prepositions are
used freely and are listed in 3.282 below.

3.291 CHAMORRO PREPOSITIONS. gi is the most fre-

101

quently used of these words. It usually denotes general-
ized location such as 'in, at, on, about'.

gi cepcup-tasi 'at the sea shore'

 

gi adaw 'in the sun'
gi tano? 'upon the earth'

gi lepblo-nya 'in his book'

 

gi is also used to express location in time.

qi oran alas unsi 'at eleven o'clock'

I

gi damingo 'on Sunday'

 

gi un mé’lak na talu2ani 'on a bright afternoon'

 

gi péyni 'last night'

gi nigap 'yesterday'

I

giza is used chiefly with place names, as in the

 

following examples:

matay-gwi2 giza zé’nya 'he died at Yona'

 

I . ’ I I
s-um-asaga—zu? giza gwam 'I live in Guam'

 

h-um-anaw-zu2 giza luta 'I went to Rota'

 

man-matu-siha giza hagatnya 'they came to Agana'

hu 1i?i? gwi? giza toto 'I saw her at Toto'

 

The preposition giza occurs with the emphatic pronouns

 

with the meaning of 'at the home of' or 'belonging to'.
(See 3.214.)

O I O
giza hami “at our place'

 

102

giza gwahu 'at my house' or 'to me'

 

I

ginin is used in both space and time situations, mean-

 

ing 'from' or 'since.‘

I

ginin nigap 'since yesterday'

 

ginin i lunis 'since Monday'

 

h-um-anaw-zu2 ginin gwam esti sa?ip&n
TI'went from Guam to Saipan'

 

Although ginin is still commonly used in these contexts,
the Spanish loan disdi occurs with equal frequency.
disdi nigap 'since yesterday'
disdi i lunis 'since Monday'

disdi gwam esti sa’ipan 'from Guam to Saipan'

 

ggg precedes certain irbases which describe spatial
relations. It may be, and frequently is, omitted from the
utterance.

Sam halum.~.halum 'inside'

san hilu°‘~.hilu° 'above'

 

San huzunN huzun 'outside'
gi_is often redundantly used with these "space" words as
well as with the Spanish loan prepositions which follow.
It is always preposed.

3.292 SPANISH LOAN PREPOSITIONS. In addition to the

prepositions of native stock, the following assimilated

 

 

 

 

103

Spanish loans are found in general use.
kontra --- kontra i kélat 'against the fence'

qi kontra i kélat 'against the fence'
Eggg. ------ para i eskwéla 'to/towards school'

gi para i eskwéla 'to/towards school'

para i man-malanu 'for the sick ones'

 

para i apuza9-nya 'up to her navel'

 

disdi ---- disdi azu 'from that time on'
esti ----- esti sa°ipan 'to Saipan'

esti agupa? 'until tomorrow'

 

 

 

 

 

 

kon ------ kon puqas 'with rice'

di ------- kwatru biRahi di hu kokéni’ 'four times I am
taking it'

pot ------ pot gwahu (from Sp. por) 'for/on account of me'

éntis ---- éntis na tyimpo 'in former times'

sin ------ sin taza-ha2 kipblééku 'I am completely without

 

any money'
giggi_and §§Ei_are frequently used in place of ginin_and
gig§_in both space and time situations.

3.30 ATTRIBUTIVE PARTICLES AND SUFFIXES. In addition
to the prepositions described above, Chamorro has two par-
ticles and two suffixes which are used to form statements
translatable by English prepositionalfphrases. For con-
trastive purposes, they are presented here following the

prepositions.

 

 

104

3.301 ATTRIBUTIVE PARTICLES nu AND 2am. Particles Qu_
'agentive' and Egg 'and/with' are similar to prepositions
in that they link postposed modifying phrases to a preceding
constituent. Unlike the prepositions, they do not occur in
utterance initial position.

nu_is in free variation with allomorph pi, It is best
translated by English 'with.‘

man-aytay-gwi2 nu i mata-nya 'He reads with his eyes'

ha u?us i tipu ni i nifén-nya 'he chews cane with his
, ’ teeth'

hu punu? ni i kanay-hu-ha? 'I kill with my hands alone'

z§Q_'and/with' connects any two morphemes plus their
articles. Its similarity to English prepositional construc-

tions is shown in the following examples.

zé—hu i gwihan zen i fina2-déni7
'I like fish with pepper-sauce'

h-um-anaw-ham zen si pédro
'We went with (and) Pedro'

(In the second example, z§g_connects si pedro to -ham 'we

(excl.)')

3.302 BOUND ATTRIBUTIVE SUFFIXES. The bound attributive
suffixes ;g_'directive' and —izi 'benefactive' are also
translatable by English prepositions. They are affixed to

verbs. Primary stress always falls on the penultimate syl-

lable of the affixed form. Both suffixes occur in imperative

105

constructions (which take no subject pronouns) and in tran—
sitive constructions (which permit hu_subject pronouns
only). The suffix :i_is followed by a zgz_pronoun or a
substantive; :igi is followed by a zuz_pronoun or a proper
personal noun.

;i_'directive' may be translated by English 'on, to,

for' and possibly other prepositions.

ma-hahéga7-gwi2 'he is bleeding'

 

ha-hahagéR-i i cininé-hu 'he is bleeding on my shirt'

sanan un istoriya'tell a story'

 

’ Q C I O
sa an-i-zu? un istoriya 'tell a story to me'

 

fatinas un cinina 'make a shirt'

fatinas—i-gwi2 un cinina 'make a shirt for him'

:izi_'benefactive' occurs as :gi_when the final pho-
neme of the base is a vowel. It is best translated by
English 'for' meaning 'instead of.‘

sanan-izi-zu° nu i istoriya 'tell the story for me'
(in my stead)

fatinas-izi-gwi2 nu i cinina 'make the shirt for him'
(in his stead)

apasi-zi—zu2 nu i salépi 'pay the money for me'
3.31 INTERROGATIVES. Chamorro questions are usually
signaled by one of the following interrogatives which always

occur in utterance initial position. (For other types of

106

interrogative sentences, see 2.7.)

3.311 INTERROGATIVE + na. The interrogatives sa hafa
'why,’ mang_'which/which one,‘ and the Spanish loan kwanto
'how much' occur with linking particle g§_when followed by
a subsequent word or constitute.

sa hafa (i na) 'why' may be used singly, or it may be
followed by any contentive or emphatic pronoun.

sa hafa 'why'

sa hafa na mahalan-zu2 'Why do I miss it?‘

sa hafa na hu li?i? azu 'Why do I see that?’

sa hafa na asut 'Why blue?‘

sa hafa na gwiza 'Why him?‘

 

mano + na 'Which/which one' occurs preceding an i:base.
It occurs without n§_when it precedes other words.

méno na tawtaw t-in-in67-mu 'Which man do you know?‘

manozémmu 'Which one do you like?’

I I ,
mano malago?-nya 'Which one does he want?‘

 

kwanto 'how much' occurs with the linking particle na-
when an ifbase follows.

kwanto na kandi 'How much candy?‘

3.312 INTERROGATIVES + nay, g§y§2_'when' and m§n9_

'where' are invariably followed by the linking particle

92x-

 

 

 

 

107

nayan nay mafanyagu-haw 'When were you born?‘

 

nayan nay h-um-anaw 'When did he go?‘

néyan nay para u hanaw 'When will he go?‘

 

mano + nay 'where' is used with verbs. mangi 'where'

 

is used with ifbases and pronouns.

mano nay s-um-asaga-gwi2 'Where does he live?‘

 

mano nay para un gaygi agupa? 'Where will you be tomorrow?’

 

3.313 INTERROGATIVES WITHOUT LINKING PARTICLE. kaw,

hafa, hazi, mangi, taymano and kwantos do not require any

 

linking particle.

k§w_'general question marker' converts any statement
pattern into a question.

kaw s-um-asaga-haw giza gwam 'Do you live in Guam?‘

kaw un tunu gwi2 'Do you know him?‘

 

. f . . , I
kaw l-in-1212 s1 hose ES hwan 'Does Juan see Jose?I

ha§a_'what, how' is used singly, with iybases,
nominalized verbs + possessive, and with certain deictic
particles.

h駧_'What? How?‘

(hafa énaw 'What's that?‘

hafa 26 'What's up, Joe?‘

hafa t-in-in6?-mu 'What do you know?‘

108

This interrogative is also used in common greeting forms,
such as hafa dé, hafa lay, hafa tatamanu-haw, all of which
can be translated as something like 'Hello, how are you?‘

hagi_'who' is usually followed by possessive con-
stitutes or verbalized ifbases. It also occurs with certain
of the deictic particles.

hazi tata-mu 'Who is your father?‘

hézi s-um—asaga giza gwam ’Who lives in Guam?‘

hazi énaw 'Who is that?‘ (as in answering a knock)

 

mangi 'where' is used with ifbases or zu? pronouns. This

appears to be a sandhi form of mano nay gaygi + ifbase.

 

mangi si pedro 'Where is Pedro?‘

 

mangi haw 'Where are you?‘

 

mangi i ména 'Where is the mango?’

 

taymano 'how’ occurs with both ifbases and verbs.

I I I
taymano malanu-mu 'How Sle are you?’

 

taymano masanan 'How does one tell something?‘

 

taymano s-um-asaga-gwi? 'How does he live?‘

 

kwantos 'how many' is followed by i-bases or pronouns.

kwantos anyus haw 'How many years you?‘ (How old are you?)

 

kwantos hamzu 'How many of you?‘

109

3.314 INITIAL na. Initial n§_followed by ti_marks a
question to which an affirmative answer is anticipated.

na ti hagu man-gwagwasa?
'Are you not the one who is sharpening?‘

na ti si pédro s-um-asaga giza hagétnya
'Isn't Pedro living at Agana?‘

3.315 FINAL nay. nay is sometimes used as an utterance

 

final request for affirmation of the preceding assertion or
command.

bay hu halum pwédi ma-nunu-gwi? dididi? nay
'I will go in (and) maybe he will learn a little, no?‘

3.316 5;, §i_is employed in the single expression
ki ora 'What time is it?'.

3.32 CHAMORRO PHRASE STRUCTURE. A Chamorro phrase
consists of two or more words other than a verb base which
co-occur to form a constituent which may stand as a free
utterance, or as a composite attribute of another grammatical
unit. Some types of phrases that occur in Chamorro have been
shown in the preceding discussion of the grammar. A review
of these types of phrases with references to the sections
in which a fuller discussion can be found is presented here.

a. article + substantive (3.22)

i h-in-aso 'the thought'

b. irbase + ifbase (3.27)

110

i palawan malanu 'the sick woman'

 

i palawan si mariya 'Maria is the woman'

 

c. ifbase + na_+ ifbase (3.261; 3.27)

i léhi na patgon 'the male child' (boy)

 

d. nominalized verb + n§_+ substantive (3.263)
i s-in—aki na manok ‘the stolen chicken'
e. reduplicated verb + na_+ substantive (3.263)
i sasaki na tawtaw 'the stealing man'
f. iybase + g23_pronoun (3.2111)
tawtaw-zu? 'I am a man'
9. preposition + substantive (3.28; 3.281; 3.282)

gi tano? 'upon the earth'

irbase

verb >’+ “nya...kine + substantive (3.272)

metgot-nya kine si pédro 'stronger than Pedro'

 

i. nugni + substantive (3.291)

nu i nifén-nya 'with his teeth'

 

j. zen + substantive (3.291)

2am si pédro 'with Pedro'

 

k. interrogative i n§_+ any word other than a verb (3.30)

hafa énaw 'What's that?‘

The eleven types of phrases which have been described

can be reduced to six basic types: 1) nominal phrases (types

111

a, b, c, d, e); 2) pronominal phrases (type f); 3) prep-
ositional phrases (type 9); 4) comparative phrases (type h);
5) particle phrases (types i, j); 6) interrogative phrases
(type R).

It should be noted that some of the pronominal and
nominal phrases, as well as the interrogative phrases, are
expressed in English by full sentences.

3.33 CLAUSE STRUCTURE. A Chamorro clause consists of

 

a verb base, a verbalized ifbase, or a sequence including
one of the preceding. All clauses may be independent
sentences, or they may be constituents of larger utterances.
(See Hodkett 1958, pp. 147 ff. for discussion of Immediate
Constituents.)

The possible clause types in Chamorro are numerous.
The list presented below includes only the major types, i.e.,
those used with greatest frequency. Special types of con-
structions, such as the reciprocal, agentive, and benefac-
tive which are described in the preceding sections, are not
listed here.

As in 3.11, substantive is used here to refer to pro—
nouns, ifbases, and nominalized verbs when they occur in
constructions where they may replace one another. The

abbreviations used are are S (substantive) and V (verb).

112

S V
1. ma hahaso 'They are thinking.’

V S
2. s-um-aga-zu? 'I lived/stayed.‘

 

S V S
3. hu gwayza haw 'I love you.‘

 

S V S S

I

4. hu tugi?-i gwi? i kéta 'I wrote him the letter.‘

 

S S V, S
5. si hwan ha li?i? si pédro 'Juan, he sees Pedro.‘

V S S
6. 1-in-i?i? si hwan as pédro 'It is Juan that Pedro sees.‘

 

S S V

I

7. gwiza hu li?i? 'I see him.‘

 

3.34 SUBORDINATING AND COORDINATING PARTICLES. Phrases
and clauses may be connected by a series of particles which
function very much like English subgrdinatgggJ sentence con-
nectors, and conjunctions. (The terms are adopted from
Roberts 1956, pp. 218-222.) These are subgrdinating and

coordinating particles.

 

3.341 SUBORDINATING PARTICLES. When one of the sub-
ordinating particles precedes a pronominal phrase, a nominal
phrase, or a clause, the construction becomes subordinate to
another phrase or clause in the same utterance. The relative
order of the clauses is optional. Chamorro has seven such
particles, including one Spanish loan, which are listed with

examples below.

113

sa? ‘because'

mas mawlek para gwahu sa? ti bay hu madinu gi eskwéla
'Better for me, because I will not be late to school.‘

kumu/kumun 'if/when' Both forms are in free variation

 

among different speakers. When followed by a word with an

O I I I I 0
initial nasal, kumun is more likely to occur.

kumu h-um-anaw-zu? papa? gi gima? té°lu bay hu koni?
'When/if I go down to the house again I will take

zuhi siha
these.’

zéngin/émgin 'if/when' The two forms occur in free

 

variation; zémgin is somewhat more prevalent and formal.
They may be used interchangeably with kumu.

zéngin (éngin) ma?u?day-ham pé?go nu sé?su
'If/when we are riding now often

ha-gagagaw-zu? nu i layta
he is asking me for the lighter'
kaw 'whether/if' never occurs utterance initial.

hékwa? magahit kaw hapopolu halum
'I don't know truly whether he put in (his dues)‘

anay 'when/while'

anay hu a?a?tan i litratu hu 1i?i? un gwaka
'When I am looking at the picture I see a cow'

gg_'the one(s) that' when followed by i, or gi_(sandhi
form of gu_+ i) with or without i, relates a relative clause

to the main clause structure, but only when the antecedent

is definite.

114
i tihun siha nu i man—mafétu man-béba
'The hats which came are bad'

si hwan ni um-asagwa yap matay
Juan, the one that was married at Yap, died'

 

Contrast the following two examples for use of pi,

hu kéno? i qwihan ni i nina?i-nya
'I ate the fish that he gave me'

hu kano? dididi? i nina2i-nya
'I ate a little of that which he gave me'

ha 'that' (relative) is possibly a variant form of nu,
but is never followed by i,

manunu—zu? un palawan na magwéyza dandan
'I know a girl that likes music'

EQDEISO links clauses following verbs such as élgk_'to say,'
géflagl'to tell,‘ tfiflg_'to know,‘ malégo? 'to wish,‘ hé§g_
'to think.’ In these structures, the best translation to
assign is 'that.‘

hu hahaso na malanu-haw 'I'm thinking that you are sidk'

 

malégo7-zu? na man-hanaw siha 'I wish that they would go'

nay 'where' parallels na_as a connector of a preceding
phrase attribute when the attribution refers to place.

i sam huzun nay ta méygo 'outside is where we sleep'

 

giza tanapak nay mafa°nyégo-zu? 'It was at Tanapak where
I was born'

 

Contrast the following examples for the meaning of nay.

115

esta gwi? na kwatu nay hu li?i? gwi?
'This (is) the room Where I saw him.‘

 

ézu na ha7ani nay hu 1i?i? gwi?
'That (was) the day when I saw him.’

The Spanish loanword used as a subordinating particle
is mintras 'while/during.'

ti sinya humuzun i galayde? si sagwa? mintras
'One can't go out in a canoe through a channel while

 

ti kahuhulu? i pilan
the moon isn't up.|

3.342 COORDINATING PARTICLES. Coordinating particles
may link phrases and clauses, and in some cases, words.
When this occurs, the constituents are said to stand in
coordinate construction. (See Hockett 1958, pp. 185 ff.)
There are five such particles, including two Spanish loan-
words, which may occur in utterance initial position, or
they may connect a series of constitutes within the boundaries
of two terminal contours.

z§_'and' is used to connect clauses or phrases; zgg_is
the form used with single words. (See 3.291.)

h-um-énaw-ham para papa? gwini giza sinahanya za
'We went down here to Sinajana (village) and

1-um-iliku-ham mam-bindi qwihan
went around selling fish.‘

116

pat ‘or‘ may connect words or clauses.

si hwan pat si hose para u hanaw
‘Juan or Jose will go.'

hafa mohun h-um-alum esti pat ti h-um-élum
‘What (your opinion), did it go in or not go in?‘
law ‘but/nevertheless‘

ha culi-ha? i layté-ku humahapaw# law gi birada
‘He takes my lighter and goes. But, in return

lokwi? kumun umasuda-ham hu gaqaqaw—ha? ta?1u
also if we meet I ask again

tati nu i layta—ku
in return for my lighter.‘

dispwés ‘then‘ is used at the beginning of utterances
which follow a terminal juncture, and which are related
sequentially to the previous utterance. pwg§_occurs
following medial juncture.

dispwégii nana-ha? sépbla ZQQ i dos gotalita
'Then the real mother left with the two daughters.‘

bay hu o?mak pwes bay hu minaqaqu
'I‘ll bathe, then I'll get dressed.‘

fwéra di 'in addition to/beyond that‘

§i pedro nu pusisvan malati fwéra di énaw malati-ha?
‘Pedro is in a position of intelligence; in addition
to that, is intelligent.‘

3.35 DEICTIC PARTICLES. There are two classes of

deictic particles: demonstratives and locatives.

3.351 DEMONSTRATIVES. The demonstratives are divided

117

into two sub-classes, demonstratives i na and demonstra-
tive i i.

3.3511 DEMONSTRATIVE i na. There are three demon-
stratives in this group: 駣i_‘this, very near,‘ énaw ‘that,
farther away but visible,‘ and é;u_‘that, far away or not
visible.‘ They occur singly, as object, or as a preposed
attribute of a substantive. In the latter case they al-
ways precede the substantive and are linked to it by pg,
Usually, no distinction is made between singular and
plural. If plural needs to be specified, the plural
marker siha_may follow the particle or the substantive.

é§3i_‘this one‘

I . I .
esti na guma? ‘this house‘

hafa énaw ‘what‘s that?‘

 

azu na tawtaw ‘that man (not present)‘
azu siha na tawtaw ‘those men (not present)‘
azu na tawtaw siha ‘those men (not present)‘
All three forms pattern with guz_pronouns in the idiomatic
form expressing preference.
é;ti;gwi3_‘he prefers this‘
énaw-zu? ‘I prefer that‘

azu-siha ‘they prefer that‘

3.3512 DEMONSTRATIVE i i. zuhi? ‘that/that one‘ is

118

the only demonstrative in this category. It is quite
similar to é§2_in use; but, unlike ézg_it is followed
by i_rather than na_when it occurs with a following sub-
stantive, and it is not followed by zuz_pronouns.

makat masanan zuhi? ‘difficult to say that‘

ilék-nya zuhi? i tawtaw ‘said he, that man‘

I

éstahun bisyu zuhi? i para umadiginu ‘already habit that
to be tardy‘

3.352 LOCATIVES. There are five locative particles:

 

I

gwini, qwénaw, qwihi, magi, and gwatu. Three of the loc-
atives parallel the demonstratives in the three relative
degrees of space and time. They are: ini ‘here and now,‘
gwénaw ‘there and then,‘ and gwihi ‘there, more remote in
time and space.‘

muna? gwini ‘don‘t do it here‘

i_gima?7gwénaw ‘the house over there‘

gwihi na tvémpo ‘a long time ago‘
All three of these may occur as preposed attributives with
"time" words, as in the last example above. gwini and
qwénaw combine with the prefix gay: to form the expressions

tay-gwini ‘like this‘ and tav-qwénaw ‘like that.‘

 

Magi ‘here, motion toward the speaker‘ and gwatu ‘there,

motion away from the speaker‘ occur only as postposed

119

attributives. If one of the demonstrative particles is
also used in the utterance, both the demonstrative and
locative are in ordinary concord.

é§3i_pairs with méqi_

énaw pairs with gwatu

égu_pairs with gwétu

esti-zu? magi_‘I prefer this here‘

ésti na tawtaw magi ‘this man coming here‘

énaw na tawtaw qwatu ‘that man going there‘

h-um-ahanaw-zu? azu gwatu ‘I am going to that place‘

 

But not *ésti na tawtaw qwétu
The locatives usually occur with the place prepositions

giza and 9;,

ha k6ni?-zu? si nana-hu qwatu qiza barigada
‘She took me, my mother, there to Barrigada.‘

h-um-anaw-zu? gwatu qi hay skul_
‘I went over there to high school.‘

 

 

IV. CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS, CHAMORRO—ENGLISH

4.0 INTRODUCTION. The purpose of a contrastive analysis

 

of any two languages is to bring to focus the areas of simi-
larity and difference between them. From such an analysis,
the applied linguist or the teacher of languages can then
direct his attention to special ‘target areas,‘ i.e., those
areas of the language to be learned which are most likely to
cause difficulty for the learner. Since this is the purpose
of such an analysis, we shall deliberately limit ourselves
to the most significant target areas rather than attempt to
show all, or even most of the differences between the two
languages. The target areas which are herein suggested are
based upon linguistic evidence and four years of the inves-
tigator‘s experience in teaching English to Chamorro speakers.
In the contrastive analysis, discussion of phonological
problems will precede the treatment of grammatical inter-
ference. The phonological problems of the Chamorro speaker
learning English can be stated with a fair degree of suc-
cinctness, since phonological conflicts are by their very
nature highly predictable and verifiable. In grammar, how-
ever, I can only point out where potential problem areas lie

and suggest, by comparison, the possible reasons.

120

 

 

121

4.1 PHONOLOGY: INTERFERENCE. An abbreviated sketdh
of the phonological structures of English and Chamorro is
presented first with specific conflict areas indicated. A
more detailed discussion of the problems involved follows.
The analyses of Trager and Smith and of Hockett were con-
sulted for the following statements on English phonology.
The Trager and Smith description of English stress and
juncture, which differs somewhat from Hockett‘s, is used
for contrastive purposes here. For a full treatment of
English phonology, the reader should refer to these works.
(Considerations of dialect variations are purposely excluded.)
The order in which the phonological problems are taken
up is influenced by Weinreich‘s discussion of the four basic
types of interference (Weinreich 1953, pp. 18—19): 1)
underdifferentiation of phonemes; 2) overdifferentiation
of phonemes; 3) reinterpretation of distinctions; 4) phone
substitution. To simplify this presentation, I distinguish
only two stages: I. new phonemes, and II. familiar phonemes
with new allophones and new distributions (Wolff 1950, p. 39).
The phonemes which are shared by both languages, and
whose allophones and distribution are similar enough not to
cause phonological interference are /alf s h m n n w y/.

These will not be treated during the discussion.

TABLE VI

AREAS OF PROBABLE PHONEMIC INTERFERENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAMORRO ENGLISH
SEGMENTALS
Vowels Vowels
I" """""" I F""'-""":
I 1 u I I l * uI
I I I I
I e o : I e a o:
——-- ----I
89I a I as: a 0:
Diphthongs Diphthongs
r ------------------ 1
ay aw :iy ey oy uw ow: aw ay
L __________________ J
Consonants Consonants
Stops: p t k ? p t k
b d b d g
i Africates: (6‘; E E E
I Y
I2 i i J:
L__l l__J
| . . I-—'-7
I Fricatives: f s f l 6 s | g ' h
lv 6 z E
Nasals: m n
m n n
Liquids: l r
l r
Semivowels: w y w y
(A solid line encloses new phonemes in the target language.
A broken line encloses phonemes which share overlapping
allophones.)

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE VI (CONTINUED)

 

 

CHAMORRO ENGLISH
SUPRASEGMENTALS
Stress Stress
Primary Secondary Weak Primary Secondary
Tertiary Weak
Pitch Pitch
3 2 l 4 3 2 1
High Mid Low Extra High Mid Low
High
Juncture Juncture
+ II # + II
Internal Rising Falling Internal Level Rising
Open Open
#
Falling

 

 

 

 

 

124

TABLE VI (CONTINUED)

 

 

 

CHAMORRO ENGLISH
SYLLABICATION
Vowel is nucleus Vowel is nucleus
Peak type Peak type
RHYTHM
Stress timed (?) Stress timed

ARRANGEMENT OF CLUSTERS

a. Initial clusters

1. Only 2-consonant l. 3-consonant clusters
clusters with either possible
a liquid or semivowel
as second member.

b. Medial clusters

1. Maximum 3-consonant 1. Many possibilities of
sequence, third mem- 2 or more consonants.
ber of which must be
a liquid or semi-
vowel.

c. Final clusters

1. None 1. 3-4 consonant
sequences possible.

 

 

 

 

 

125

(Note The phonetic transcription in this section fol-
lows’Trager (1958) for the consonants. The vowels which
are used in the transcription are given below with
illustrative words from American English. To facilitate
the contrastive analysis, complex nuclei are represented
by single symbols.

[i beet, need, fee
I bit, kid, rib

e bait, maid, Abe
E bet, red, deb

a bat, mad, tab

9 but, mud, rub

a hot, cod, mob

u hoot, rude, tube
U put, hood, cook
0 coat, road, lobe
o] caught, law, aural)

4.11 NEW SEGMENTAL PHONEMES. There are four segmental
phonemes in English for which there are no equivalents in
Chamorro. They are the fricatives /e 6 z E/. With the
exception of /§/, these phonemes occur in English in all
positions with relatively high frequency. Since these
represent new sounds to the Chamorro speaker, he usually

makes phone substitutions; the following are frequent:

 

 

126

ghamg;;g_ English
Initial: /t/ for /6/
/d/ for /6/
[dz] of /z/ for /z/
No data for /E/
Medial: /£/ for /e/
/d/ for /6/
/s/ for /z/

[s] or [a] of /s/ for /5/

Final: /f/ for /9/
/f/ for /6/
/s/ for /z/

No data for /E/

Chamorro

 

[tIn]
[dEm]

[dzu]

[mfens]
[fade]
[rosI]

[plESQr]

[bof]
[smuf]

[fas]

English

for

for

for

for

for

for

for

for

for

for

[GIn]
[6Em]

[zu]

[aeeenz]
[faaer]
[r021]

[pleier]

[hoe]
[smué]

[£92]

‘thin‘
‘them‘

‘zoo‘

‘Athens‘
‘father‘
‘rosy‘

‘pleasure‘

‘both‘
‘smooth'

‘fuzz‘

The above listed phonemes are those for which the Chamorro

speaker must learn new aural-oral habits, since Chamorro con-

tains phonetic categories which are only remotely similar and

are produced by different articulation.

I am assuming, with

Wolff (1950), that these new phonemes will prove less diffi-

cult for the learner to master than those for which there are

parallel phonetic categories in both Chamorro and English.

4.12 SHARED SEGMENTAL PHONEMES.

Shared phonemes are

those whose allophones exist in Chamorro and English, but

127

which differ in allophonic range or distribution or both.
These segmental phonemes will be examined by categories
determined by manner of articulation.

4.121 giggg, The six stops in English pose problems
of phonetic and phonemic variety.

Phonetic Differences

 

Initial / p t k / are more heavily aspirated in English
than in Chamorro. In final position / p t k / are released
in English but are generally unreleased in Chamorro.

Phonemic Interference

The voiced stops / b d g / occur finally in English but
not in Chamorro. The usual substitution of voiceless stops
for final voiced stops causes a major phonemic problem for
the learner. The following substitutions are nearly standard

for Chamorro speakers:

 

Chamorro English
[map] for [mab] ‘mob‘
[rot] for [rod] ‘road‘
[pIk] for [919] 'pig'

4.122 AFFRICATES.
Phonetic Differences
The Chamorro allophones [ts dz] are in free variation

with [E j] in initial position. The English affricates do

128

not have this variation. In medial position they geminate
to syllable final [t] and [d] respectively in Chamorro.
Phonemic Interference
Chamorro / c z / do not occur in syllable or word final
positions, while English / E j / occur in all positions.

Phone substitutions usually occur as follows:

 

Chamorro English
[hats] for [had] ‘hutch'
[bUEtse] for [bUEer] ‘butcher‘
[dzats] for [jaj] ‘judge'

4.123 FRICATIVES. Most of the fricatives in English
represent new phonemes, and are described in 4.11 above.
English /§/, however, causes additional difficulty in that
Chamorro has an allophone [a] which occurs only when pre-
ceding /y/. Phone substitution of [s] for /§/ is common,

but is less pronounced in initial position than in other

 

positions.
Chamorro English
[sus/sus] for [suz] ‘shoes‘
[fIsIn] for [fisin] 'fishing‘
[fIs] for [fIs] ‘fish‘

[posisyen] for [poZIsén] ‘position‘

 

 

129

4.124 gums AND SEMIVOWELS. / 1 r / occur only in
initial position in Chamorro, or as second members of CC‘s,
while their distribution in English is far less restricted.

Phonetic Differences

Initial /r/ in Chamorro (which occurs only in loan-
words) is flapped, while in English it is generally retroflex.

[rEn] for [ren] 'rain‘

[rot] for [rot] ‘wrote‘

Phonemic Interference

Final /r/ is usually omitted from words of English. In
final stressed syllables of certain Spanish loan words, /1/
is replaced by /t/. Generally, final /1/ in English offers

no serious problems for the learner.

 

Chamorro English
[ka] for [kar] ‘car‘
[motu] for [motor] ‘motor‘
[fidEt] for [fidEl] 'Fidel‘
[bIl] for [bIl] 'bill‘

/ w y / have distributional limitations in Chamorro.
They occur only as second members of CC‘s and diphthongs.
Initial /y/ in English does not cause any noticeable dif-
ficulty for the learner; /w/, however, is often confused

with the cluster /hw/ in initial position. Chamorro permits

 

 

130

this cluster but not /w/. Hence, the learner has diffi-

culty in distinguishing between such pairs as the following:

English
/hwat-dwat/ ‘what-dwatt‘
/hwEn--wEnt/ ‘when--went‘
/hwEr--wEr/ ‘where—awear‘

4.125 CONSONANT CLUSTERS. Consonant clusters in
Chamorro are quire limited in comparison with English. (See
Chart IV, page 44 for distribution of Chamorro CC‘s.)
Initial clusters in Chamorro have a maximum of two conso-
nants, the second of which must be a liquid or a semivowel.
English permits initial CC‘s with / r l w y p t k f m n v /
as second members. Initial clusters of three consonants are
not uncommon in English. (See Fries 1945, pp. l7-18 for
complete list of initial CC‘s in English.)

Medial consonant clusters in Chamorro are limited, the
maximum being three consonants, the third member of which
must be / l r w y /. English, in contrast, permits a wide
variety of medial clusters and ‘medial combinations‘ ranging
from two to five consonants. (See Asuncion 1960, pp. 62-63
for a partial listing of medial clusters.)

Initial and medial CC‘s are not a major source of inter-

ference for the learner. Some medial combinations, which

 

 

131

are composed of sequences of consonants which cross word
boundaries, are often sources of difficulty. Some examples

of the more difficult medial combinations are listed.

rkt + 9r worked through
mpt + fr exempt from

kt + spl looked splendid
njd + pl arranged places
ndz + v sounds very

(For an exhaustive listing of such sequences see Wallace
1950.)

There are no final CC‘s in Chamorro. Fries lists 152
different combinations of final CC‘s in English (Fries 1945,
pp. 18-20), ranging from two to four consonants.

The phonological interference caused by final consonant
clusters presents one of the more serious phonological
problems for the learner. It is further complicated by the
interference between the individual consonants of Chamorro
and English described above.

As a general rule, the Chamorro speaker has the greatest
difficulty with final voiced clusters. When these occur in
English, the learner usually substitutes the voiceless
counterpart, or omits part of the cluster. Some examples

of typical substitutions are:

 

 

 

132

Chamorro English Chamorro English

[sinks] for [sinz] sings [hakt] for [hagd] hugged

[belp] for [belb] bulb [dans] for [denst] danced
[bEnt] for [bEnd] bend [thlfs] for [twelf9s] twelfths
[fIks] for [£192] figs [dEsk] for [dEsks] desks

The lack of final clusters in Chamorro is doubtless one of
the major contributing factors to the difficulties which the
learner has with English plural nouns, and third person sin-
gular and past verb forms.

Outside the classroom, most Chamorro speakers simply omit
the final consonant (or consonants) from the cluster. The

following examples are not atypical.

Chamorro English

[hi go tu skul] He goes to school.

[si léyk fis] She likes fish.

[hi atIn klés] He attends class.
[majélan dIskafar gwam] Magellan discovered Guam.

4.126 VOWELS. The vowel structures of Chamorro and
English constitute the major source of phonemic interference.
All of the simple vowels in English are found within the
Chamorro vowel structure, but with different ranges of dis—
tribution and quality. Since Chamorro has no complex nuclei

except /ay aw/, the learner‘s reproduction of English

 

 

133

/ i e u o / is only approximate.

Chamorro has six vowel phonemes with eleven allophones,
exclusive of length. English has eleven vowel phonemes, all
of which are closely approximated by the allophones of
Chamorro. The learner has six distinctive vowel sounds with
which to distinguish eleven distinctive sounds of English,
all of which are covered by non-distinctive features of his
own language.

This problem is illustrated by the graph below. The
phonemic symbols found in 4.1 are used here. The encircled
symbols are the Chamorro vowels; the other symbols represent
vowel phonemes of English. The lines indicate the English

phonemes that are covered by the allophonic variants of

 

 

Chamorro.
i
I
(‘ll" e
'E
e &

The vowel substitutes which the learner usually makes
are possibly affected by the vowel length as well as by the

articulatory factors. For example, [1°] occurs in the English

 

 

134

word live. Although Chamorro has [I] in certain closed
syllables, it never occurs lengthened. The learner, then,
may, and usually does, substitute his long allophone [i-]
in imitation of English [I-]; or, he may substitute [1].
This problem is shared by the vowels / i e u /. The fol-

lowing substitutions are commonly heard.

 

Chamorro English

[bit] for [bId] ‘bid‘

[bet/bEt] for [bEd] 'bed‘

[de] for [dip] ‘deep‘
[hut/hut] for [hud] ‘hood‘
[mEt/met] for [met] ‘mate‘

4.127 DIPHTHONGS. The English dipthongs / oy aw ay /
cause no apparent difficulty for the learner. The problems
of / iy ey uw ow / are phonetic and are described above.

4.13 STRESS AND INTONATION. The possible intonational
contours of any single language are many, and any attempt to
make a complete description of them would soon lead to a
work of considerable volume. It suits the purpose here to
focus attention upon the most significant points of contrast
between Chamorro and English intonation, namely primary word
stress, stress-pitch relationship, and terminal contours.

For a more complete treatment of Chamorro intonation see

 

 

135

Mathiot's thesis (1955). Pike's work on American English
(1945) gives a thorough analysis of English intonation.

4.131 PRIMARY WORD STRESS. As in English, any Chamorro

 

word spoken in isolation carries at least one primary stress.
Unlike English, /’/ is almost completely predictable in
Chamorro disyllabic words, and highly predictable (76%) in
multisyllabic words. In Chamorro disyllabic words of native
origin, /'/ always falls on the initial syllable. (See 2.5
for a detailed discussion of Chamorro stress.)

/ésu/ ‘smoke‘ /hanaw/ ‘to go‘ /pugwa?/ ‘betel nut‘

/tata/ ‘father‘
Contrast the above examples with the following English words.

alone absurd again before

always absent aqua béaten
The Chamorro speaker tends to superimpose the stress pattern
of Chamorro on English disyllabic words. The following are
typical examples of a learner‘s pronunciation of the first
four English disyllabic words listed above.

[alon apsart agEn bifor]

In multisyllabic Chamorro words, /'/ usually occurs on
the penultimate. This is the pattern which the learner

usually carries over into his pronunciation of English, with

such results as the following.

136

[fotograf frikwEntly ilUstrétIf]
for photograph frequently illustrative

Pike‘s statement on English word stress in continuous
speech applies to both Chamorro and English.

The semantically important words (i.e. CONTENT words)

in exposition tend to receive a stress and to constitute

the beginning of a primary intonation curve. Words

which indicate some grammatical relationship (i.e.

FUNCTION words), but which themselves have little spe-

cific semantic content, are usually unstressed, and are

submerged into a larger intonation or rhythm unit (Pike

1945, p. 118).
This similarity, however, does not obviate the interference
between Chamorro and English in the relationship of stress
to pitch in continuous speech.

4.132 STRESS—PITCH RELATIONSHIP IN CONTINUOUS SPEECH.
As Pike shows, primary stress usually occurs with high or
extra high pitch levels in English continuous speech.) In

I

Chamorro, the relationship is just the reverse: primary
stress usually occurs with low pitch. An English speaker,
using innate stress (Pike 1945, p. 27) would be likely to
produce the following utterance. (See 2.5 and 2.6 for
marking system. 4 is high; 1 is low.)

2 3-4 ’1. . .

Where are you go ing (falling pitch)

The learner is most likely to say the same utterance as

follows:

137

2Where are you 1go ing (rising pitch)

(Note: The - between the two numbers indicates that
the pitch may vary between the two levels.)

Contrast the following examples.
. 2 3 t 2 3 ,l . .
English: the pic ture of my mo ther (falling pitch)

2 f 2 .2 . . .
Chamorro: the 1pic ture of my 1mo ther (ris1ng pitch)

English: 2Look at the 3birldie. (falling pitch)

2 1 f 2 . . . .
Chamorro: Look at the bir die. (rlSlng pitch)

 

4.133 FREQUENCY OF PRIMARY STRESS IN LONGER UTTERANCES.
As shown in the examples in 2.53 and 2.8, longer utterances
in Chamorro are marked by frequent occurrence of primary
stress. The number of unstressed (non-primary) syllables
occurring between primary stressed syllables seldom exceeds
five. Each primary stress in the Chamorro utterance is of
approximately equal intensity.

English, on the other hand, permits rather long series
of unstressed syllables in longer utterances. For example,
in the following utterance we find ten relatively unstressed
syllables in succession.

My brother, who took his second degree from Cornéll,

last year, got drafted°
A Chamorro speaker trying to imitate the above utterance

would very likely superimpose a stress pattern as follows:

138

My brother, who took his second dégree from Cornell

last year, got drafted.

It is impossible, of course, to predict with certainty what
stress pattern any given learner might superimpose on the
longer English utterance. But, one may expect that the
learner will include more primary stresses than will the
native English speaker. Also, it is likely that the
learner‘s utterance will not include the ‘nuclear heavy
stress‘ which characterizes English contours. (See Pike
1945, p. 176 for discussion of nuclear heavy stress.)

4.134 TERMINAL JUNCTURE. Termination of Chamorro
statements is most frequently accompanied by rising pitch.
(See 2.8.) Falling pitch occurs only with ‘paragraph final
juncture.‘ (See 2.8.) Terminal rising pitdh (level 3)
always occurs in Chamorro questions.

English statements, as well as questions introduced by
a question word, normally terminate with falling pitch,
while ‘yes-no‘ questions are normally marked by a terminal
rising pitch.

The learner tends to superimpose the rising contour of
Chamorro on English statements and questions which are nor-
mally spoken with falling pitch. This tendency does not

often cause the speaker to be misunderstood; it does,

139

however, contribute to the ‘Chamorro accent.‘ Utterances
such as the following are not uncommon among Chamorro
speakers:
2 l , 2-3 . . .
Where were you born (riSing pitch)
. . l 12 . . .
I live in Me ri zo (rlSing pitch)
. l ,2 . . .
Give me some mo ney (riSing pitch)
Chamorro terminal juncture /|I/ (rising pitch) marks
‘phrase‘ as well as ‘sentence' completion. (See 2.8.)
That is, following /II/ the speaker might continue the
utterance by adding coordinate clauses to the main topic of
the utterance, or he may start a new sentence. This char-
acteristic of Chamorro speech possibly contributes to a
writing problem which is typical of most Chamorro students,
the ‘run-on‘ sentence construction. Since Chamorro phrases
and clauses may stand as separate utterances, separated by
a brief pause, or as constituents of longer utterances, the
Chamorro speaker tends to equate them with English sentences.
Hence, in written English the learner frequently runs his
English sentences together as though they were one con-
tinuous utterance. The following examples will illustrate.
‘There was a king who has three daughter, then the king

was getting very old, he called his three daughter and
ask them, how much they love him.‘

140

‘Congo was once a peaceful town, until the people of

this town came to the conclusion of self-government,

so the people and their official talk it over and

finally they reach the verdict in which they demand

the independence.‘

4.2 GRAMMAR AND SYNTAX: INTERFERENCE. The discussion
of English-Chamorro grammatical interference follows the
same order as that in Section III, the discussion of the
grammar. Although this treatment does not cover all the
possible areas of grammatical interference between the two
languages, it focuses attention on some of the principal
points of conflict. Certain lexical problems are included
in the discussion.

The following statements which pertain to English
grammar have not been taken from any single authority. The
works of such students of structural English grammars as
Francis, Hill, Fries, Sledd and Roberts have been consulted,
in addition to those previously mentioned in 4.1, and their
influence will be evident.

The examples in the text below which are shown in single
quotation marks are from themes written by students at the
College of Guam. Those shown in double quotation marks are
based on the investigator‘s memory of spoken utterances.

4.21 PRONOUNS (3.21) (Note: The numbers in parentheses

following the headings refer to the relevant portions of the

141

preceding section on Chamorro grammar.) Most Chamorro
speakers experience certain persistent difficulties with
English pronouns. These difficulties are apparent in both
written and spoken English.

The lack of gender distinctions in Chamorro pronouns
doubtless contributes strongly to the learner‘s frequent
confusion of the masculine-feminine distinction in third
person singular pronoun forms. The following sentences taken
from student themes will illustrate:

'I haven‘t seen Steve since she got off the army.‘

‘The old king didn‘t know that her daughter get already
married.‘

Masculine pronoun forms are substituted for feminine pro-
noun forms as frequently as the converse.

An additional problem arises from the Chamorro omission
of third person pronouns in narrative in which the referent
has already been clearly established. The omission of ‘he-
she-it‘ in the learner's English is therefore not uncommon.

"When my father go to school does not study English."

"If he go spear fishing never lose one fish."

Since Chamorro zu? pronouns may occur as subject or
object of verbs, the learner frequently substitutes English

subject pronoun forms in object positions. For example:

142

"I see they."

"I know she."

"He gave it to I."
However, substitution of object pronoun forms for subject
pronoun forms rarely occurs.

The Chamorro construction consisting of iybase + pos—

sessive + proper noun (i tata-nya si pédro) has no parallel

 

in English, and may cause rather frequent faulty construc-
tions like ‘Pedro his father,‘ and ‘My father his house.‘

4.22 ARTICLES (3.22). One of the most vexing problems

 

for the learner lies in gaining control of English articles.
One would expect Chamorro speakers to use English articles
with proper names, yet they rarely do. One would expect them
to omit ‘a/an, the‘ before direct objects; and they regularly
do, as the following examples show:

‘My cousin and I went to buy gift.‘

‘They should listened to lecture.‘
In addition, Chamorro speakers, like other foreign learners
of English, are plagued with the full gamut of difficulties
of English articles. The problem mentioned above results from
a specific point of interference between Chamorro and English.

4.23 VERBS (3.25). The Chamorro speaker faces greatest

difficulty with the English verb system. The differences

143

here are conceptual and lexical as well as structural.
Through a great variety of structure words and an inflec-
tional system, English can cover a great range of tense,
mode, and aspect. While Chamorro verb constructions have
these three features, they are quite divergent from those
found in English, and the semantic range covered by them
is much more restricted.

The English ‘irregular‘ verbs and auxiliaries constitute
a separate problem independent of any particular grammatical
interference. Hence, they are not included in this discus-
sion. The difficulties caused by the Chamorro Defective
Verbs and the absence of a copulative are treated in the
section on clause structure. (See 4.262.)

4.231 VERB TENSE AND ASPECT (3.24). Since verb tense
and aspect are so interrelated in both Chamorro and English,
they are presented here together in order to demonstrate the
kinds of complex interference that stem from differences in
the two verb systems.

The basic areas of interference are first presented in
simple outline form. This is followed by a more detailed
discussion of the conflicts, with a comparative listing of
forms which illustrate the conflicts. The English willrmode

(future) and passive verb construction, having very near

144

Chamorro equivalents, cause little interference and need not
be discussed.

In general, the potential areas of interference can be
summarized as follows. Chamorro makes sharp distinctions
only between future and non-future; English distinguishes
sharply between past and non-past. Chamorro verbs imply
past or present time through the verb forms, whereas English
verbs may imply present, past (narrative form, as in ‘So he
says to the guy, get lost.‘) or future (as in ‘My plane
leaves soon.'). Chamorro verb constructions have formally
distinct aspects to indicate past and duration; English verb
constructions formally have durative, habitual (or common),
and perfect aspects.

As the brief summary indicates, there is very little
congruity between the English and Chamorro verb systems. In
Chamorro, the only tense that can be called definite is the
future tense. Other forms of the verb in Chamorro only imply
tense, and do not mark the more specific concepts of past
activity which are marked in English verbs by inflection
and auxiliaries. In contrast to the Chamorro definite future
tense, English verbs show definite past tense. This is a
basic dichotomy between the two systems. The differences,

however, extend considerably beyond this. Since tense and

145

aspect are so interrelated, it will be necessary here to
say something about aspect before the differences can be
clearly shown.

Chamorro verb constructions show two kinds of aspect:
durative and remote past. Although they are semantically
somewhat similar to the English durative and past perfect,
they are not the same.

When the concept of past remote time is critical in a
Chamorro utterance, ginin is preposed to the verb construc-
tion. If the concept of past time is not critical, the
non—reduplicated verb form is ordinarily used, in which case
past time may be implied, though not necessarily. (See
3.2511.) Qiflifl.may occur with the reduplicated or non—
reduplicated form of the verb, and there may be one or more
activities described in the utterance. Once the time ele-
ment has been established in the narrative by ginin, then
the subsequent non-reduplicated verb forms signal past com—
pleted action, which the learner tends to translate by past
perfect English verb forms.

In contrast to the Chamorro system, the English speaker
ordinarily uses past perfect forms only when there are two
past activities described in the utterance, one of which was

completed before the other began. Unless this condition

146

obtains, the English speaker uses the past tense form of the
verb for past time, and is extremely precise in distinguish-
ing between present and past actions.

The problem here appears to stem from the learner‘s
equating ginin_verb constructions (remote past completed)
with English past perfect forms. The result is overusage
of English past perfect forms in past tense situations, at
times almost to the exclusion of English past tense. The
following examples are representative.

Q. When did you see him?

A. "I had seen him last year."

Q. Where were you born?

A. "I had been born in Barrigada."

The Chamorro durative aspect, which is marked by a re—
duplicated verb form, is only approximately equivalent to
the English durative aspect (marked by V-ing verb forms).
Although this particular feature of Chamorro grammar has not
yet been thoroughly explored, enough is known to warrant
certain conclusions about the problems of interference.

In most Chamorro verb constructions which are not marked
by a future marker or ginin, the reduplicated form of the
verb is used. For example, the Chamorro speaker would not

say sumaga-zu? gwatu (literally ‘live I there‘) if he is

 

147

still living in the same place. He would use the redupli-

cated form, sumasaga, to show the continuous nature of the

 

activity. If he used to live there for an extended period
of time in the past, he again would use the reduplicated
form with ginin to indicate duration of activity (ginin

sumasaga-zu?); sumaga—zu? without ginin might be used to

 

 

indicate that the speaker stayed at a place for a relatively
brief time in the more recent past.

This practice of using the reduplicated verb forms in
most Chamorro constructions which are not clearly marked by
ginin-or a future marker is very likely the cause of the
Chamorro speaker‘s persistent overuse of progressive English
verb forms. The following examples are typical:

"I am sitting in this seat every day."

"It is raining a lot in Guam."

Frequently the auxiliary is omitted, an error which can be
linked to the absence of the copulative in Chamorro. (See
4.262.)

Certain types of activities, it appears, are more likely
to be expressed by the reduplicated form than others. Note
the reduplicated forms (indicated by double lines) in the

following example:

148

gof zé-hu na ma?éstra sa? zéngin manespléplehin
‘Very much like I teacher because if (she) explaining
huzun nu mampus ha-na? kumpriprindi-hit

out very much she causes comprehending we'

The learner would very likely produce the above utterance
in English by using the progressive verb forms as follows:
"I like the teacher very much because if she is explaining
things out, she causing (helping) us comprehend." The verb
forms for "explaining" and "comprehending" are reduplicated,
while the verb construction zén-hu is not, even though it
expresses a present activity.

The reduplicated form does not occur with all verbs,
and the reason is not always logical to the English speaker.
A good case in point is métay_‘to die.‘ When the redupli-

cated form of this verb (*mamatay-zu?) was produced by the

 

investigator during a paradigmatic test, the informant
immediately rejected it as a non-occurring form. What should
have translated as "I am dying" proved totally incompre-
hensible to the informant.

Obviously, the concepts which are expressed by the
Chamorro durative aspect are not quite the same as those
expressed by the English durative. This is an area of con-

siderable conflict, and one which needs more investigation.

149

The chart on p. 150*will help to illustrate further
the differences between the tense-aspect features of the
two verb systems. The English form is shown in the left
hand column. The center column contains the Chamorro verb
form (or forms) which would be used to express the same or
approximate concept, insofar as it is possible to express
it, in Chamorro. The last column lists the English trans—
lations which the Chamorro speaker is likely to produce.

As the chart indicates, there are certain aspects ex-
pressed in English verbs that can not be expressed through
Chamorro verbs. This difference, in addition to the dis-
similarity in the durative aspect of the two systems, pro—
vides fertile ground for serious grammatical interference.

4.232 MODE (3.24). The English modal auxiliaries
constitute another source of difficulty for the Chamorro
speaker, chiefly because no similar forms exist in Chamorro.
‘Should‘ and ‘must‘ are especially troublesome for the
learner. The single Chamorro loanword debidi is the only
form for expressing obligation, and it is often omitted.
To illustrate this problem, note three different transla-
tions, elicited from a variety of informants, of the fol-

lowing utterance.

150

.m>HH HHH3
.o>HH HHH3

.msH>HH on 0» poms
.moaoas am

.Apvm>HH oma\ou poms

.msH>HH on 0» 0mm:
.msH>HH Em

.oonoas on on owns
.m:a>aa so

.oooaa omn\om>aH
.ooaoas so

ZOHBflQmZ¢mB

H.
H.

H.
H.

H.

H.
H.

H.
H.

H.
H.

 

mmwm on awn
sown 5: won

 

 

oSNImmmmeSm sHsHm
ooNImmmmesm

 

 

oSNImmmEom sflsfim
\

 

ooNImmmmmEom chHm
\

 

ooNImmmmmfiom
\

 

ooNIMmMmmEsm sfisfim
\
ooNImmmmmESm

 

 

ooNImmMEsm
\

 

osulmmmmmfism
\

OMMOZflmU

po>HH m>ms oHDOB H I ummm
po>HH o>mn HHHB H I ummmIsos
«nommumm mooelHHHB

msH>HH sown cm: H I ammo
msH>HH soon m>m£ H I ummmIsos
um>HumHoo uowmumm

om>aa on: H I ammo

UE>HH w>m£ H I ummmlsos
"poommm uommumm

msH>HH mm3 H I ammo
msH>HH Em H I ummmlsos
«powmmm m>Humnon

om>aa H I ammo
w>HH H I ummmlsos

uonEHm

mmHHOZm

151

bayhanaw bay faco?cu?

 

(Literally: future marker + to go + future marker + £223)

1. ‘I must go to work.‘

2. ‘I will go to work.‘

3. ‘I should go to work.‘

'If‘ statements are expressed in Chamorro by phrase or
clause constructions introduced by the subordinators kgmg_or
zangi . The resultant subordinate construction is either pre-

ceded or followed by a future verb form.

zéngin gwaha sinko sintimoso bay hu famahan kéndi

‘If I have five cents I will be buying candy‘
This construction apparently interferes with English modal
constructions using ‘would‘ and ‘could.‘ It is very likely
that this Chamorro construction forms the source for such
utterances as the following:

‘If I am you, I will go to States.‘

'If my father is rich he will send me to Stateside
College.‘

The present forms of the verbs in the ‘if‘-clauses probably
stem from direct translations, plus the fact that the cor-
rect English forms are irregular.

The causative n§3_(3.256) poses a problem similar to
that of débidi in that it is translated by English ‘make‘
(as in ‘Make him do that‘) and ‘let‘ (as in ‘Let him do

that‘).

152

While this brief analysis does not begin to cover the
myriad problems in the teaching of English verbs to Chamorro
speakers, it does point out the areas of major interference
which the language teacher should emphasize.

4.24 AFFIXATION (3.254; 3.26; 3.27). Affixation occurs
in both English and Chamorro, and so it is not in itself a
new linguistic experience for the learner. However, the
great variety of forms and functions of English affixes pose
some rather serious problems for the learner.

4.241 INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES (3.254). Chamorro verbs are
inflected by three affixes and reduplication: mgn:} (plural
marker), :um:? (indefinite object marker), :iflz} (topic
marker), and reduplication of the tonic syllable (durative
aspect). English verbs are inflected for third person
singular (-Zl), past tense (-d1), and aspect (—d2 [used in
perfect verb phrases] and -ing [used in durative verb
phrases]). Only one of the inflectional categories for
verbs is shared by both English and Chamorro (durative as-
pect), and, as was pointed out in 4.231, it is not the same
in the two languages.

Besides differences in inflectional categories of verbs,
the methods of affixation do not remotely resemble one

another. English permits inflectional suffixes, while

153

Chamorro has none of these.

English pronoun, adjective, and noun inflection often
causes difficulty for the learner. These inflected forms
represent new categories for the Chamorro speaker since they
do not occur in Chamorro. The interference of inflected
pronoun forms has been discussed in 4.21. The adjective
problem is not peculiar to Chamorro speakers, who, like
other foreign learners of English, follow the typical pat-
tern of using ‘more‘ or ‘most‘ in place of the suffixes
-gr, —§§£J or of using both. For example:

"more better"

"most big"

"most longest"

(Note: The first of the above examples has become almost

standard in certain Pacific dialects of English, notably

Hawaiian.)

Plural and possessive noun inflections rank high among
the areas of interference between Chamorro and English.
Except for certain irregular forms (3.281), plurality is
not shown in Chamorro nouns unless it is critical to the
meaning, in which case the functor gih§_occurs either before
or after the noun.

Irregular plural nouns in English (men, children, fish,

etc.) do not seem to cause as much difficulty as the

154

regular plural forms ( /-s, -z, iz/ ). This fact can per-
haps be attributed to the final consonant cluster problem
described in 4.125 above.

4.242 DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES (3.2_). There are only
three kinds of derivational formations in Chamorro which
occur with a high degree of regularity. They are the ver-
balizer :gm;}, the nominalizing infix :in:?, and redupli-
cation of the tonic syllable of verb bases.

English, on the other hand, includes a host of deriva-
tional suffixes, most of which do not occur with sufficient
regularity to allow for predictability. Some of the more

common English derivational suffixes listed by Sledd follow:

-age -ism -ness -ly
-ance -ist -ster -ish
-dom —ity -tion -able
-ess -let -ize

-hood -ment -ify

(Sledd 1959, p. 72).

These suffixes present what is primarily a lexical
problem. This problem is not made any simpler by the fact
that Chamorro ifbases may function as modifier or substan-
tive without affixation. This feature of Chamorro encour-

ages learners to produce such forms as "It is a friend

155

dog"; "She sings beautiful"; "He has a boy face."

4.25 PREPOSITIONS (3.29; 3.30). English prepositions
are the bane of virtually every student of English as a
second language. Chamorro students are no exception. The
most obvious reason for this universal problem is that many
English prepositions have overlapping domains of meaning
which are often determined by the substantive with which
the preposition occurs. Even if Chamorro, like English, had
a large number of prepositions, the English prepositions
would still have to be learned as non-shared items.

The most frequently occurring preposition in Chamorro,
g2, is quite general in meaning. It occurs in constructions
which would normally be translated by English ‘on, at, in,
until, to.‘ Although no statistical evidence is available
at this time, I suspect that to the Chamorro speaker, gi_
comes closest in meaning to English ‘on,’ for that is the
preposition most frequently misused by the learners. Some
examples of English prepositional constructions produced by
Chamorro speakers follow:

‘The teacher were strict to the children.‘

'Tom Willard was interest on his son.‘

‘It is difficult to me.‘

‘She make fun on him.‘

156

‘She got angryed on me.‘
‘He kicked the policeman on the belly.‘
(Note: The last example comes from the GUAM DAILY NEWS.)

4.26 ORDER OF CONSTITUENTS (3.27; 3.32; 3.33). The

 

basic conflict between Chamorro and English order of con-
stituents is that English word order is rigid while Chamorro
word order is far more flexible. Only the main constituents
of the constructions are considered.
4.261 ORDER OF CONSTITUENTS IN MODIFYING STRUCTURES

3.27 . As shown in 3.27, the modifier may precede or fol-
low the headword in Chamorro with no change in meaning or
emphasis.

. I I
i palawan na malanu
the woman sick

 

. I I
i malanu na palawan
the sick woman

 

While this flexibility of construction does not often lead
to parallel constructions in the learner‘s English, it may
contribute to the general disregard for the fixed order of
English sequential modification constructions. For example,
in the construction ‘the big fat lazy caribou,‘ the imme—
diate constituents stand in fairly rigid order. Since the
learner has no sudh limitations in his own modifying con-

structions, he must learn new habits. Modifiers in sequence

157

are relatively rare in Chamorro. When they do occur, they
are usually joined by zmn.

i bunito zmn malati na tawtaw
‘the handsome and intelligent man‘

si mistar mésan nu bunitu na tawtaw lé’ka? zan pusisyan
‘Mister Mason handsome man tall and position

 

malati
intelligent‘

(‘Mr. Mason is a tall, handsome man with an intelligent

position.‘ ‘Intelligent position‘ refers to his being

a college professor.)

4.262 ORDER OF CONSTITUENTS IN CLAUSE STRUCTURES (3.135
3.31; 3.32; 3.33). Before discussing the specific order of
constituents in clause structures, a brief glance at an
additional problem occasioned by the absence of the ‘copu-
lative‘ verb in Chamorro is fitting.

The English speaker would no doubt find it extremely
difficult, if not impossible, to make a five minute speech
or write a brief essay without using some form of ‘be‘ and
'have.‘ These forms, in fact, are the most frequently used
verbs in the English language, and are essential to many
clause structures. Since equivalents for these forms do
not exist in Chamorro, we may anticipate serious interfer-

ence. The learners‘ written and spoken English often omits

these verbs in headword as well as in auxiliary positions.

158

This omission is also noticeable in question patterns, as
the following examples will show.

‘At this time the people excited.‘

‘The houses different today than before the war.‘

‘Before the war, Saipan undered Japan.‘

'What name you?‘

‘Why you doing that?‘

The order of constituents in certain Chamorro nominal
and pronominal phrases is just the reverse of the order in
their English translations. This will be shown in the list
of clause structures compared below.

To facilitate contrast and comparison between English
and Chamorro constituent order, we shall here analyze the
most common Chamorro phrase and clause constructions in terms
of syntactic function units which are applicable to both
languages. II have assigned the terms to particular words
or groups of words on the basis of how the entire construc-
tion translates into an English syntactic structure. The
abbreviations which are used in this section are as follows:

S - Subject of the utterance

RS - Redundant subject (when followed by a subject
pronoun referring to the subject noun).

V - Verb

DV

DO

IO

PG

MC

PA

PN

Q

159

Auxiliary

Defective verb

Direct object

Indirect object

Prepositional group

Modifier (The modifier is linked to that which it
modifies by -—--. The constituent that is modified
is marked by{ :>.

Modifying clause

Predicate attribute

Predicate nominative

Interrogative

The symbols are placed above the appropriate word in each

construction. Literal translations are given in parentheses

immediately following the Chamorro construction. X- indi-

cates the Chamorro constructions in which the order of con-

stituents is unlike that in English. Subject pronouns are

labeled active or inactive in the literal translation. (See

3.2111 and 3.2112.)

BASIC PHRASES

 

PA S

l. X-mawlek-zu? (good I—inactive)

 

S V PA
‘I am good.‘

160

S PN
2. X-i lahi sipédro (the man the Pedro)

S V PN
‘The man is Pedro.‘

Q PN
3. X-hézi na?an-mu (who name your)

Q V S
'What is your name?‘

Q S
4. X—mangi si pédro (where the Pedro)

 

O V 8
‘Where is Pedro?‘

BASIC CLAUSES

S V
1. ma hahaso (they-active thinking)

S A V
‘They are thinking.‘

V S
2. X-sumasaga si nana (staying the mother)

 

S A V
‘Mother is staying.‘

S V DO
3. hu gwayza haw (I—active love you)

 

S V DO
‘I love you.‘

s v, IO DO
4. hu tugi?-i gwi? i kata (I-active wrote to him the letter)

 

S V IO DO
‘I wrote him the letter.‘

161

 

 

5 RS , v DO
5. X-si hwén ha li?i? si pédro (the Juan he—active sees the
S V DO Pedro)
‘Juan sees Pedro.'
S I V RS DO
6. X-ha li?i? si hwan si pédro (he-active sees the Juan the
S V DO Pedro)

‘Juan sees Pedro.'

V DO S
7. X-l-in-i2i? si hwan as pédro (it is Juan that Pedro sees)

S V DO

‘Pedro sees Juan.‘

[DO 5 ,V
8. gwiza hu li?i? (him I-active see)

 

S V DO DO S V
‘I see him.‘ 'Him I see.‘
V S DO

I

9. X-malégo?-zu? nizuk (want I-inactive coconut)

 

S V DO
'I want a coconut.‘

IMPERATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

l. falago (run) ‘Runi‘

V I0 DO V IO DO
2. na7i-zu? mansana (give me apple) ‘Give me an apple.‘

 

SUBJECT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS

DV DO
1. X-gwaha cipa—hu (there exist cigarettes my)

 

S V DO
‘I have some cigarettes.‘

162

PHRASES AND CLAUSES WITH MODIFIERS

M--—--o- {S } PN
l. X- -i ga?lago na?an-nya si fidet (the dog name his the Fidel)

 

 

M S V PN
‘The dog‘s name is Fidel.‘
{v s} ¢----M (PG)
2. X-sumaga-zu? giza hagatnya (lived I-inactive in Agana)
S V PG

‘I lived in Agana.‘

M(PG) -------- —- {M}-- {V S}

3. X-gi un ma?lak na talu?ani matay-gwi? (on a bright after—
noon died he—inactive)

 

S V M (PG)
'He died on a bright afternoon.‘

{3} 4— ----- M v

4. X-i palawan na malanu matay (the woman sick died)

 

M S V
‘The sick woman died.'

{v 130} -———-M
5. ha u?us i tipu nu i nifén-n -nya (he-active chews the cane
with the teeth his)

 

S V DO M (PG)
‘He chews cane with his teeth.‘

{v s} a—v (MC) 3
6. X-malégo2-zu? mumétay-gwi? (want I-inactive to die he)

 

S V DO

‘I want him to die.‘

Obviously, there is little similarity between English
and Chamorro constructions in the order of constituents.

Chamorro permits far more variation in the order than does

163

English. This dissimilarity is in all probability a major
factor in the typical learner‘s difficulty with English
clause and sentence structure. The above evidence would
suggest that extensive work on basic English sentence struc-
ture is needed for Chamorro speakers learning English.

4.27 INTERROGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS (3.31) . Interroga-
tive constructions of Chamorro and English stand in almost
direct structural Opposition, and consequently provide an-
other major source of grammatical interference. ‘Yes—no‘
questions are formed in Chamorro by one of two methods:

1) Rising intonation to the highest level (see 2.7); 2)
kgw or ng_ti_preceding any statement pattern. English ‘yes—
no‘ questions are usually formed by: l) inversion of
subject-verb (be, have) or subject-auxiliary; or, 2) ‘do-
does-did‘ preceding a statement pattern.

The similarity of ‘yes-no‘ question constructions be—
tween Chamorro and English does not extend very far, perhaps
because the Chamorro question marker k§w_and the verb form
remain constant, while in English the question marker changes
its form depending on the verb tense and person. For exam-
ple, in English the following constructions are common.

Did you see him?

 

Do you see him?.

 

 

 

 

164

Hay§_you seen him?

Hag_you seen him?

The single Chamorro construction kéw un li?i? qwi? might
translate into any one of the above four English questions.
Many learners, it appears, tend to equate kaw;with gg_or
gig, and consequently use the same form irrespective of
tense.

Other types of questions (whg_and wh§n_types) are formed
in both English and Chamorro by the use of a series of
interrogatives. The Chamorro interrogatives may occur with
particles or phrases to form a complete utterance. English
questions, however, normally include a verb structure. This
particular conflict is shown in the clause constructions
which are compared in the preceding section.

The Chamorro question marker n§y_(utterance final) occurs
with statements and is roughly equivalent to English ‘isn‘t
it,‘ as in ‘It‘s a nice day, isn‘t it?.‘ The Chamorro form,
gay, is constant and may occur with any statement of asser-
tion or command. In the English 'tag question‘ construction,
the verb of the appended question takes its form from the
verb in the preceding statement. For example:

He likes Gwili, doesn‘t he?

He went to Palau, didn‘t he?

165

It was a bad storm, wasn‘t it?

Since the Chamorro form n§y_is constant, it is probably the
source for such utterances as the following recorded examples.

‘He like Gwili, isn‘t he?‘

‘He went to Palau, isn‘t he?‘

‘It was a bad storm, isn‘t it?‘

4.28 SUBORDINATE AND COORDINATE CLAUSE CONSTRUCTION
(3.33). Chamorro shares with English certain functors which
are here described as subordinato£§_and connectors, Those
which have nearly identical counterparts in English (§§3_
‘because,‘ kgmg_‘if,‘ zangin ‘if,’ mintras ‘while/during,‘
gg ‘and,’ p§;_‘or,‘ lgw;‘but,‘ and dispwes ‘then‘) are not
in themselves points of interference; however, some English
subordinators often require rather complex verb constructions,
particularly the subordinators "while" and "if," which caused
difficulties for the learner. These difficulties are de-
scribed in 4.23.

Some rather serious problems of interference do arise
from three of the Chamorro functors (kgw, fig? and gay) which
often lead to faulty English subordinate constructions.

Although k§w_is listed in 3.331 as a subordinator for
the purpose of grouping like constructions, it is probably

the same morpheme as kaw ‘question marker‘ (see 3.30). The

166

example given in 3.331 would translate literally as follows:

hékwa? magahit kaw ha popolu halum
I don‘t know truly does he put in

This is precisely the type of construction that the learner
is likely to produce in place of one including ‘whether‘ or
‘if.‘ See the following examples.

‘I wonder does it rain much in California.‘

‘He ask me am I going to fiesta.‘

g§_is used in Chamorro with mampus ‘very‘ to connect
clauses which would take ‘so...that‘ in English.
mampus-gwi? dankulo za ti—sinya k-um-ahulu?
Literal: very much he big and not can get up

English: He was so big that he couldn‘t get up.

I

mampus atrasaw za‘hu disidi na bay hu saga gi gima?

Literal: very much late and I decided that I will stay at
home

English: It was so late that I decided to stay home.

The examples of faulty ‘so...that‘ constructions are legion.

‘English is very important now that if you don‘t know
to speak English you can not get job.‘

'It was very difficult for him that he will go to his
room to practice it.‘

‘It is very hot that I wish to go swimming.‘

167

N§y_refers to either place or time in Chamorro. English
uses the subordinators 'where‘ and ‘when‘ to distinguish the
two, as in ‘That‘s where I met him,‘ and ‘That‘s when I met
him.‘ Chamorro students tend to confuse English ‘where‘ and
‘when.’ The most apparent reason for this lies in the lexi-
cal interference.

As a general rule, coordinating particles are used far
more frequently in Chamorro, particularly in narratives,
than they are in English, which is very likely the reason
for chronic overuse of ‘and,‘ ‘but,’ and ‘then‘ in the learn-
er‘s English.

4.29 LOCATIVE AND DEMONSTRATIVE FUNCTORS (3.35). The
Chamorro deictic particles are presented last because they
are rated as least significant among the specific points of
grammatical interference between the two languages. The
demonstratives §§Ei_and ézg_occur in a manner parallel to
‘this‘ and ‘that‘ in English. But, there are no plural forms
in Chamorro. This fact will perhaps help to explain the
reasons for such constructions as the following.

‘This are the rules; and every student should do.‘

‘He knew he must fight these temptation or surrender
to it.‘

‘This Japaneses would stayed on the island.‘

168

The ‘this-these‘ problem is also compounded by the phono-
logical interference described in 4.126.

In addition to this somewhat minor problem, it should
be noted that overuse of certain locatives is characteristic
of some learners‘ English. Such expressions as ‘I go to
school there in Mangilao‘ and ‘He put the fish there in

the boat‘ are not uncommon.

V. SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CONCLUSION?

5.0 SUMMARY. This study was made for two different,
though by no means unrelated, purposes. The first of these
was to provide a descriptive analysis of Chamorro phonology
and grammar which might serve as a reference for anyone
concerned with the language of the Marianas Islands. The
second, and perhaps more immediate purpose, was to focus
attention on the major areas of conflict between Chamorro
and English, pointing out, by comparison, the more serious
problems that the Chamorro speaker encounters when learning
English as a foreign language.

Although two phonological studies of Chamorro have been
made within the past eight years (Mathiot and Seiden), their
conclusions do not always agree with those of this inves-
tigation. Hence, I have, even at the risk of some repeti-
tion, included a complete phonology which was compiled during
a two-year period on Guam island. The data were obtained
from a variety of informants of varying ages. Some minor
dialect differences among the speakers from different islands
were pointed out, though not fully explored.

The description of Chamorro grammar presented in this

study is based entirely on the investigator‘s findings during

169

170

the two-year period. The older grammars of Safford and
Costenoble were also consulted; but since those grammars
were written outside the framework of descriptive linguis-
tics, their statements on Chamorro, even though informa-
tive, were not suitable for our purposes.

Following the description of Chamorro phonology and
the selective grammar, I have presented a partial compari-
son of Chamorro and English, with special emphasis on the
areas of potential interference. Since competent studies
of English phonology and grammar are readily available, I
have purposely omitted what would only be a redundant
analysis, assuming that the reader can refer to the works
on English which are mentioned in the text.

The major areas of interference - phonological and
grammatical - for the Chamorro speaker learning English are
summarized here in a descending order of significance.

This listing is based upon the linguistic evidence and the
investigator‘s four years of experience in teaching English
to Chamorro speakers at the College of Guam.

Phonological

 

Vowels: / i e a a u o o / and the complex nuclei
exclusive of / ay aw oy /.

Consonants: i a / b d g r /
v 6

9 z s 2 / in all positions.

U<l-'

n
v
C

F
/

171

Initial /w/.

All final consonant clusters, and
clusters of more than two consonants
occurring elsewhere.

Suprasegmentals: Placement of primary word stress.

Stress frequency and stress-pitch
relationship in continuous speech.

Terminal pitch contours.

Grammatical

Verb tenses and aspect.

Modal auxiliaries.

Inflectional and derivational affixation.

Prepositional phrases.

Pronouns.

Articles.

Word order in constructions of modification.

Word order in clause constructions.

Subject-verb agreement.

Many other items of English grammar, no doubt,
could justifiably be labeled ‘problem‘ areas for the
Chamorro speaker. Anyone who has ever taught English in
the Marianas could probably add something to this list, for
example, the substitution of ‘I like‘ for ‘I want.‘ Since
I have not attempted to be all-inclusive, I can only hope

that this study will serve as a reference and guide to other

172

teachers of English by helping them to attack their imme-
diate problem through the comparative method.

5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER LINGUISTIC STUDIES.

The Chamorro language offers several topics of pure lin-
guistic interest that warrant immediate attention. A more
thorough description of Chamorro grammar than is given here
ranks high on the priority list. This should then be fol—
lowed by a dialect survey to determine the extent and kinds
of dialect variation in the island chain.

Since Chamorro is the only Micronesian language for which
Older grammars dating from the seventeenth century are avail-
able, it affords an excellent opportunity to study language
changes in this particular group of the Malayo-Polynesian
family.

The political history of these islands — Spanish, German,
Japanese, and American administrations and schools over a
relatively short period of time - has helped to provide a
unique opportunity to study the amount and kinds of word
borrowing.

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENGLISH TEACHING IN THE

MARIANAS. English classes in the schools of the Marianas

 

have been (and probably will be for some time to come)

staffed by teachers with no linguistic training. Some of

173

these teachers who are contracted from the United States
speak English as their native language; most, however, are
Chamorro speakers who have themselves learned English as a
foreign language, usually under less than optimum conditions.
Among the latter group, control of English ranges from poor
to excellent.

Since virtually none of the teachers engaged in English
teaching has had linguistic training, I have attempted,
insofar as possible, to present my discussion of the areas
of interference in such a way that the non-linguistically
trained teachers may utilize the findings of the thesis.

For the American trained English teachers in the
Marianas, I would like to emphasize that the problems Of
Chamorro speakers learning English are vastly different from
those, for example, of a European. By the same token, their
problems are not at all like those which the teacher may
have experienced in his study of college French, German, or
Spanish. It is completely unrealistic to try to compare the
two experiences, which seems to be a common practice of many
Of the two—year contract teachers. The problems of Chamorro
speakers are unique, and, as I have shown, it is possible to
sort them out by the comparative method. Only after the
problems are isolated can the teacher set about correcting

them intelligently.

174

With all due respect to the educational administrators

and the past and present teachers of English in the Marianas,

many of whom have done a superb job, I would like to take

this opportunity to quote from Professor Charles Hookett‘s

recommendations for English language teaching in the

Marianas (Hockett 1961), even though they go against the

present educational policies.

1.

40

Any teacher whose major business is teaching English
to Chamorro speakers should seek at least a minimum
control of Chamorro and an understanding of its
essential structure.

Familiarity with oral English should precede liter-
acy training in English.

The materials used by the teachers both in oral
training and in literacy training in English ought
to be adapted to the local situation. QiCR and Jane
will not do . . . . Proper materials need to be pre-
pared here [Guam], on the scene, by experts who know
how to adapt to local requirements, including the
structure of Chamorro.

The Department of Education should have a ‘Language
Specialist.‘

(Note: Since Professor Hockett‘s visit to Micronesia in
1961, the Trust Territory Department of Education has
acquired such a specialist in the person of Dr. Byron
Bender. The Government of Guam, I am sorry to say, has
not.)

To Professor Hockett‘s recommendations, I would like to

add the following.

1.

Since Guamanian schools are integrated - native

English speakers and native Chamorro speakers - I recommend

175

that the students be divided on all levels - primary grades
through college - for English training only. English for
Chamorro speakers and English for English speakers must be
taught as separate disciplines. When the Chamorro speaker
has achieved control of the basic sound and grammatical
systems of English, then his study Of language can safely
follow the pattern of the native speakers, but not before.

2. The ‘Language Specialist' of the Department of
Education should be a person trained in linguistics who
would be given a free hand to direct the preparation of
materials, to select English teachers, and to provide for
their further training.

3. Basic literacy in Chamorro should be taught as a
subject in the schools, both to adults and to children.
The present orthography used in the Trust Territory sChools,
even though it has serious faults, could continue to be
used. This recommendation is based upon my convictions
that, l) literacy is a skill apart from language, and hence
should be approached through a familiar path; and, 2) in
the Chamorro culture, as in most others, a written language
carries more dignity and instills in its speakers no small
amount of pride. And pride in one‘s language and culture is

a serious matter for a people experiencing the social changes

176

that have been taking place in the Mariana Islands since
the end Of World War II.

5.3 CONCLUSION. The English language program in the

 

schools Of dszarianas Islands needs complete revision. I
strongly recommend abandoning tradition-oriented methods
and texts in favor of a system based upon the findings of
this thesis and other linguistic studies of Chamorro and
English, and on the growing body of materials in the field
of Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

If the present study can in any way contribute to more
effective English teaching in the islands — and especially
Guam - then I will rest content that the many hours given

to its development will not have been spent in vain.

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Bera, Roman M. de (Pale). Debosionario. Manila: Jose N.
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Bloch, Bernard and George Trager. Outline of Linguistic
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Bloomfield, Leonard. Language. New York: Henry Holt and
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"Tagalog Texts with Grammatical Analysis,"
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Burrus, E. J. "Sanvitores‘ Grammar and Catechism in the
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Callistus, Father. Chamorro Grammar. Translated from the
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ChamorroéWOrterbuch. Hong Kong: Typis Socie-
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Cammack, Floyd M. and Shiro Saito. Pacific Island Biblir
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Capell, Arthur. "Oceanic Linguistics Today," Current
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Conant, Carlos E. "Consonant Changes and Vowel Harmony in
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