During our morning practice group this past Saturday, we talked about applying the man- prefix. There are several applications of the man- prefix, and there are slightly different ways to understand how and why it’s applied depending upon if it is applied to transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, nouns, or pronouns. It can get pretty confusing! I’ll be doing a mini-series about the man- prefix and how it is applied to different types of words. In this post I’ll be exploring the application of the man- prefix to transitive verbs and laying out my own systematic way of understanding this prefix.

Introduction to the Man- Prefix

One of the cool things about Chamorro is how it modifies root words with prefixes, suffixes, and infixes to convey different aspects of that same word. In the world of Chamorro prefixes, the man- prefix is important because it is used for three things:

1. Indefinite Objects
2. Pluralizing
3. Actor Focus

In this post I’ll be focusing on uses #1 and #2 when applied to transitive verbs because I think these uses tend to come up frequently. Especially now that I’m trying to read the New Testament in Chamorro, I see these uses of the man- prefix everywhere.

Definite and Indefinite Objects in Transitive Sentences

To understand how and why we use the man- prefix with transitive verbs, we first need to understand the difference between definite and indefinite objects in transitive sentences. As a quick recap, transitive sentences are sentences with objects that receive the action of the verb, while intransitive sentences do not have objects that receive the action. Transitive sentences can have either definite objects or indefinite objects. In transitive sentences with definite objects, the action of the verb is being transferred to a specific object. For a more in-depth recap on these basic sentences, see this post. Some examples of transitive sentences with definite objects are as follows:

• I washed the apple.
• She read the book.
• They lifted the table.
• We bought the car.

In the above sentences, the action is being done to a definite or specific object – the apple, the book, the table, or the car. Compare this to sentences where the object, or the thing that receives the action, is indefinite. In other words, the object is not specific. Here are examples of transitive sentences with indefinite objects:

• I washed an apple.
• She read a book.
• They lifted a table.
• We bought a car.

And for this last group of sentences, it’s important to note a big difference between English and Chamorro. In English, transitive sentences typically always have an object that is stated explicitly. In Chamorro, you can have transitive sentences without an explicit object because an indefinite object is implied but not stated:

• I washed (something)
• She read (something)
• They lifted (something)
• We bought (something)

To illustrate the differences between English and Chamorro more clearly for the sentences with implied indefinite objects, I will do a side-by-side literal translation between Chamorro and English. Note that in English, it is common to explicitly state the word something in these sentence types. But in Chamorro, we only state the verb and the pronoun, and no object is explicitly stated:

English	Chamoru
I washed something.	Mama’gåsi yo’. I washed (something).
She read something.	Manaitai gue’. She read (something).
They lifted something.	Manhåtsa siha. They lifted (something).
We bought something.	Mamåhan ham. We bought (something).

Indefinite Man- Prefix for Transitive Verbs

For English sentences in the three categories above, we make them by either changing the article in front of the object (the becomes a or an) or removing and/or modifying the object. In Chamorro, we accomplish the same thing by either leaving the verb in its root form or modifying our transitive verbs with the indefinite man- prefix. For quick reference, here are the above sentences in Chamorro:

Definite Object Verb in Root Form	Indefinite Object Man- Prefix Added to Verb	Indefinite Object Implied Man- Prefix Added to Verb
Hu fa’gåsi i mansåna. I washed the apple.	Mama’gåsi yo’ mansåna. I washed an apple.	Mama’gåsi yo’. I washed (something).
Ha taitai i lepblo. She read the book.	Manaitai gue’ lepblo. She read a book.	Manaitai gue’. She read (something).
Ma håtsa i lamasa. They lifted the table.	Manhåtsa siha lamasa. They (2) lifted a table.	Manhåtsa siha. They (2) lifted (something).
In fåhan i kareta. We bought the car.	Mamåhan ham kareta. We (2) bought a car.	Mamåhan ham. We (2) bought (something).

As seen in the above table, transforming transitive verbs with the indefinite man- prefix changes the sentence structure. The general sentence structures for the above are as follows:

Transitive Sentence with Definite Object

Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb + i + Object

Transitive Sentence with Indefinite Object

Man- Prefix (indefinite) + Transitive Verb + Yo’ Type Pronoun + Object

Transitive Sentence with Implied Indefinite Object

Man- Prefix (indefinite) + Transitive Verb + Yo’ Type Pronoun

General Rules for Applying Man- Prefix

When applying the man- prefix to words, there are a set of rules for transforming the words. In general, you just add man- in front of the word, unless the word starts with the following letters:

If the first letter is…	Do this…	Root Word	Indefinite Man-
Ch	drop the ch man becomes mañ	cho’gue	maño’gue
F	drop the f man becomes mam	fa’gåsi	mama’gåsi
K	drop the k man becomes mang	konne’	mangonne’
P	drop the p man becomes mam	puno’	mamuno’
S	drop the s man becomes mañ	sodda’	mañodda’
T	drop the t add man	taitai	manaitai

Exceptions to Man- Prefix Rules for Transitive Verbs
There are also exceptions to the above rules for specific words, which are as follows:

Root Word	English	Indefinite Man- Prefix
tuge’	to write	mangge’
tufok	to weave	mamfok
tife’	to pick	mamfe’
tufong	to count	mamfong

Another Important Exception: To Eat
There is also a very important exception for the word to eat. When using this word with definite objects, we use the transitive verb kånno’. But when using it to refer to indefinite objects, we do not add the man- prefix to kånno’. Instead, we use the intransitive verb chocho and verbalize it with um. See examples below:

Definite Object	Indefinite Object	Indefinite Object Implied
Hu kånno’ i mansåna. I ate the apple.	Chumocho yo’ mansåna. I ate an apple.	Chumocho yo’. I ate.

Applying the Plural Man- Prefix

All the sentences above that have the indefinite man- prefix applied are still in the singular or dual form, meaning that the subjects doing the actions are either a single subject or two subjects. To get the sentences that refer to indefinite objects into plural form, an additional plural man- prefix must be added to the verb. Also note that the verb for the transitive sentence with definite object stays the same; the verb does not need to be modified in this sentence structure to refer to plural (3+) subjects. The basic structure for the three sentence types with plural subjects is as follows:

Transitive Sentence with Definite Object (3+ subjects)

Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb + i + Object

Transitive Sentence with Indefinite Object (3+ subjects)

Man- Prefix (plural) + Man- Prefix (indefinite) + Transitive Verb + Yo’ Type Pronoun + Object

Transitive Sentence with Implied Indefinite Object (3+ subjects)

Man- Prefix (plural) + Man- Prefix (indefinite) + Transitive Verb + Yo’ Type Pronoun

Let’s take the rule chart from above and apply the plural man- prefix to all the words. Note that the indefinite man- prefix must be applied first, and then the plural man- prefix:

If the first letter is…	Do this…	Root Word	Indefinite Man- 1 or 2 subjects	Plural Man- 3+ subjects
Ch	drop the ch man becomes mañ	cho’gue	maño’gue	manmaño’gue
F	drop the f man becomes mam	fa’gåsi	mama’gåsi	manmama’gåsi
K	drop the k man becomes mang	konne’	mangonne’	manmangonne’
P	drop the p man becomes mam	puno’	mamuno’	manmamuno’
S	drop the s man becomes mañ	sodda’	mañodda’	manmañodda’
T	drop the t add man	taitai	manaitai	manmanaitai

And now we’ll take our original sentence examples from the beginning of the post, and apply the plural man- prefix to any sentence with plural subjects:

Definite Object Verb in Root Form	Indefinite Object Man- Prefix Added to Verb	Indefinite Object Implied Man- Prefix Added to Verb
Ma håtsa i lamasa. They lifted the table.	Manmanhåtsa siha lamasa. They lifted a table.	Manmanhåtsa siha. They lifted (something).
In fåhan i kareta. We bought the car.	Manmamåhan ham kareta. We bought a car.	Manmamåhan ham. We bought (something).

Summary

In summary, here are the highlights of how to apply the man- prefix to transitive verbs:

• Apply the indefinite man- prefix to transitive verbs when you want them to refer to indefinite objects (I washed an apple vs. I washed the apple)
• In Chamorro, we can understand indefinite objects as explicitly stated or implied
• When you transform a transitive verb with the indefinite man- prefix, the basic sentence structure changes from Subject–Verb–Object to Verb–Subject–Object
• Apply the plural man- prefix to transitive verbs that have been transformed by the indefinite man- prefix to make them refer to plural (3 or more) subjects. In other words, to get to this form you must apply the man- prefix twice. Once to make the transitive verb refer to indefinite objects, and then a second time to make it refer to plural subjects.
• There are general transformation rules for applying the man- prefix. But there are also specific exceptions to those rules for transitive verbs. And some rules may not always be applied consistently in speech.

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References

Topping, D. M., & Dungca, B. C. (1980). Chamorro Reference Grammar (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia). University of Hawaii Press.

• Indefinite Man- Prefix: pg. 85-87
• Indefinite Man- Prefix: pg. 186
• Plural Man- Prefix for plural subjects and indefinite objects: pg. 186 – 187
• Definite and Indefinite Objects with Transitive Verbs: pg. 233
• Definite and Indefinite Objects: pg. 239 – 242