Now it’s time to create more complex descriptions by describing nouns with adjectives, so we can say things like The child is tired or The woman is tall. We can also describe nouns with other nouns with sentences like The man is a teacher or The teacher is a singer. To make these types of sentences in Chamorro, we need to understand how the word order differs from English. We will also learn the article i and its accompanying vowel harmony rules, which dictate how sounds change to make our speech smoother. This post includes explanatory notes for these concepts, practice drills for vowel harmony, example sentences, Chamorro audio pronunciations, and a Quizlet Deck to help you practice. Happy studying!

Contents

Introduction to Describing Nouns in Chamorro Word Order The Article i Introduction to Vowel Harmony Practice Drills: Vowel Harmony Why Does Vowel Harmony Happen? Example Sentences With Adjectives: “The Woman is Happy” Example Sentences With Nouns: “The Woman is a Worker” Example Sentences: More Practice Drills How to Make Your Own Sentences Wrapping Up: Keep Practicing on Quizlet! Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

Introduction to Describing Nouns in Chamorro

In this lesson, we will learn how to describe Nouns (i.e.: woman, dog, coffee) with Adjectives (i.e.: tall, small, hot). The kinds of sentences we will learn how to say include: “The woman is tall”; “The dog is small”; “The coffee is hot.”

In these notes, we will learn about these three concepts to help us understand how to make these kinds of sentences in Chamorro:

1. Word Order
2. The Article i
3. Vowel Harmony Rules

Now that we have an overview of what we’ll be learning in this lesson, let’s talk about the order of words for these sentences.

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Word Order

In this sentence type, the descriptor comes before the noun being described. This is the opposite of English, where the noun being described comes first. In English we would say “The woman is tall” but in Chamorro the literal word order would be “Tall is the woman.”

Since the word order is the opposite of English, this may feel challenging at first. But with practice, this word order will stick and become more intuitive.

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The Article “i”

These basic sentences use The Article “i” which we can loosely translate to mean “the” in Chamorro. In these sentences, it will be used to link the descriptor with whatever we are describing.

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Introduction to Vowel Harmony

The final key concept for making these types of sentences is known as Vowel Harmony. It is probably one of the most important and pretty features of Chamoru, but it can also be challenging to learn and get used to. But trust me, it gets easier over time with consistent practice and language exposure.

So what is vowel harmony? Essentially, it refers to the fact that the pronunciation of a word will change depending on the words that are around it. Chamorro actually has many different types of vowel harmony, and a great way to get started is learning the sound changes associated with the article “i”.

When the “i” sound is in front of a word, the first vowel in that word changes for specific vowels. Those specific vowels and their sound change rules are below:

Rule	Root Word	Vowel Harmony
å changes to a	tåsi	i tasi
o changes to e	to’lang	i te’lang
u changes to i	guma’	i gima’

Additionally, vowel harmony does not typically apply to loanwords. So for the word flores, even though it has an “o” as its first vowel, we would not change it to i fleres. Instead, most Chamorus would just say i flores.

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Practice Drills With Vowel Harmony

Now that we’ve learned the rules for vowel harmony, let’s do some practice drills for applying vowel harmony rules with the article “i”:

Root Word	Vowel Harmonized
pugas	i pigas
hula’	i hila’
chugo’	i chigo’
mutong	i mitong
chupa	i chipa
songsong	i sengsong
donne’	i denne’
chopchop	i chepchop
chomchom	i chemchom
chotda’	i chetda’
påtgon	i patgon
låhi	i lahi
må‘pos	i ma‘pos
dågan	i dagan
gåmson	i gamson

Now that we’ve done some vowel harmony practice drills, let’s talk a little bit about the logic behind vowel harmony, because from an English language perspective it may still seem confusing.

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Why Does Vowel Harmony Happen?

Over time, I began to understand the beautiful logic behind vowel harmony, and it has to do with the physical nature of how we make certain sounds. To illustrate this, let’s pay attention to the placement of sounds in our mouth:

If you make the å or “ah” sound, notice that it occurs more toward the back of your mouth or throat. Same with the o or “oh” sound, it sits more toward the back of your throat. The u or “ooh” sound is more toward the middle-back in the mouth. But when we make the i or “ee” sound, that is at the front of our mouths, like it’s sitting right behind our front teeth.

Now let’s see what happens when we don’t apply vowel harmony rules.

Say the phrase i tåsi. Say it slowly, without vowel harmony rules applied, and enunciate every syllable. If you notice, the sound of the i is made at the front of your mouth, while the å in tåsi forces you to shift that sound to the back of your mouth.

Now apply the vowel harmony and say i tasi. Again, say it slowly and enunciate every syllable, noticing the placement of sound in your mouth. With vowel harmony, you get to keep all of those sounds at the front of your mouth.

What I’m getting at is, from a physical perspective, shifting sounds from the front to the back of your mouth requires more work. Vowel harmony eases this burden for us by keeping the sounds more at the front, allowing us to speak with more ease.

As native English speakers, we may say, “Okay, but what is the big deal? It’s not really that difficult to say i tåsi versus i tasi.”

For me, the answer lies in the musical nature of spoken Chamorro. We often hear that when Chamorro is spoken well, it should sound like we are singing.

To sing effectively, where our tone is even, clear and effortless, we need to think about the placement of the sounds in our mouths. Singing an “ee” sound is great because it’s already at the front. But switch to an “oh” sound without thinking, and it sinks to the back of your throat and you lose the same level of clarity and volume.

In Chamorro, we don’t need to worry about those things, because vowel harmony takes care of that for us. Essentially, our language is built to facilitate singing, or to speak in a sing-song way. This is increasingly important as you speak faster and start to use longer words. Vowel harmony eases our path. Without vowel harmony, the sounds get stuck in our throats and we become tongue-tied.

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Example Sentences With Adjectives: “The Woman is Happy”

To get started with these more complex descriptions involving nouns and adjectives, we can use the following basic sentence structures. To describe nouns with adjectives to say sentences like “The child is tired” use the following structure:

Adjective + i + Noun

Note that the adjective comes first, followed by the noun. To learn this pattern, let’s describe different nouns with the word magof. Let’s practice with the sentences in the table below:

Noun	Chamoru	English
neni	magof i neni	the baby is happy
palao’an	magof i palao’an	the woman is happy
ga’lågu	magof i ga’lågu	the dog is happy
fafa’någue	magof i fafa’någue	the teacher is happy
paluma	magof i paluma	the bird is happy

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Example Sentences With Nouns: “The Woman is a Worker”

Then to describe nouns with nouns so we can say sentences like “The mother is a teacher”, use this structure:

Noun + i + Noun

In this structure, the noun acting as the descriptor comes first, followed by the noun being described. Let’s practice this pattern by describing the word palao’an in the table below:

Noun	Chamoru	English
fafa’cho’cho’	fafa’cho’cho’ i palao’an	the woman is a worker
nåna	nåna i palao’an	the woman is a mother
tiha	tiha i palao’an	the woman is an aunt
fafa’någue	fafa’någue i palao’an	the woman is a teacher
fáfalågu	fáfalågu i palao’an	the woman is a runner

Example Sentences: More Practice Drills

Now let’s practice vowel harmony with some simple sentences. In addition to heling us practice vowel harmony, I think this simple sentence structure is great for building our vocabulary. We can look at everything around us and start describing them. This also helps us make sentences that are immediately relevant to our lives.

[Adjective or Noun] + i + Noun

Chamorro	English
Makkat i lamasa.	The table is heavy.
Mañaña i magågu.	The clothing is soft.
Applacha’ i platu.	The plate is dirty.
Kadada i estoria.	The story is short.
Maipe i kadu.	The soup is hot.
Manengheng i kafe.	The coffee is cold.
Yayas i fafa’na’gue’.	The teacher is tired.
Betde i franela.	The t-shirt is green.
Ñålang i patgon.	The child is hungry.
Pika i nengkånno.	The food is spicy.
Guaguan i sapåtos.	The shoes are expensive.
Måtai i tilifon.	The phone is dead.
Mappot i che’cho’.	The work is difficult.
Kakånta i palao’an.	The woman is a singer.
Matuhok i pale’.	The priest is sleepy.
Matatnga i taotao guafi.	The fire fighter is fearless.
Bråbu i fafalågu.	The runner is healthy.
Pulitikåt i lahi.	The man is a politician.
Susiadot i palao’an.	The woman is a social worker.
Estudiante i patgon.	The child is a student.

Vowel Harmony Study Tip: Vowel harmony can be difficult at first for native English speakers. To learn it faster, try to practice speaking as much as possible and pay attention to how the sound moves in your mouth. It will become more intuitive when you link it with physically speaking.

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How to Make Your Own Sentences

We have practiced with different phrase and sentence drills in this lesson, but if you want to make your own practice sentences make sure to reference my list of 100 Adjectives in Chamorro and People Vocabulary Lists to build your own drills that are meaningful to you and your life.

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Wrapping Up: Keep Practicing on Quizlet!

In this lesson we’ve learned how to make basic sentences to describe others, such as “The woman is happy” or “The woman is tall.” We’ve learned about the basic word order, the article “i”, and how to apply basic vowel harmony rules when using the article “i”.

To keep practicing with the example sentences in this lesson, use this Quizlet Deck as a supplementary tool.

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Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

When you are ready for the next lesson, click the link below to learn how to add more details to your descriptions when talking about yourself or others.

Basic Descriptions Part 4: Adding Details When Describing Yourself and Others – “I Am Tired Student”