Introduction to Pronouns in Chamorro

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner, Word Lists16 Comments

This lesson is part of the Beginner Chamorro learning path.

Pronouns like I, you, them, and her are foundational words in everyday speech—they help us talk about people without needing to say names over and over. In this post, we’ll explore how pronouns work in Chamorro, including the four main pronoun groups, key features that make Chamorro pronouns unique, and the sentence types where each group is used. Whether you’re talking about yourself, asking questions, or referring to others, learning about Chamorro pronouns is a foundational step to building your language ability. Happy studying!

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How the Japanese Started Honoring Their Elders

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

This was a lovely story that I found on Påle’ Eric Forbes’ blog called Estorian Reinhold Mangloña which was told to Påle’ Eric by Richie Mangloña, who heard it from his father Reinhold Atalig Mangloña , who heard it from his Japanese teacher when he was growing up on Luta. We read this story together in one of our Chamorro-language practice groups, and everyone really enjoyed it. The story’s moral of respecting elders gave us all satisfaction, and the Chamorro stretched some of our brains, helping us to learn new vocabulary.

This post includes the Chamorro text with modified spelling, the English translation, and an audio narration by Jay Che’le, since Påle Eric’s original blog post for this story did not include a narration. Enjoy!

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Lalåhi by Pacific Cool – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Songs2 Comments

Last week Jay and I went to see Pacific Cool perform in Portland, and it was such an enjoyable night. When they played a set of cha-cha songs, we danced to every.single.song. And I’m still a bit tired from that night, but it was worth it. And so, continuing on my streak of Pacific Cool songs, here are Chamorro lyrics and an English translation for “Lalåhi” which is so much fun to sing. Listen and enjoy 🙂

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How to Say “This” and “That” in Chamorro

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner6 Comments

This lesson is part of the Beginner Chamorro learning path.

In this post, we will learn how to say the words for “this” and “that” in Chamorro. We will also go over how to use these words with nouns, to make simple sentences such as “This is coffee” or to use phrases with “this and that” in sentences with verbs. Happy studying!

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A Chamorro Matchmaker

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

Over the past few months I’ve been a bit obsessed with matchmaker television shows, and when I stumbled across this story in Påle’ Eric’s book Estoriåye Yo’ I was so excited. We read and translated this story in our Saturday morning practice group, and all of us got a great chuckle at the story’s end. If you don’t already have a copy of Påle’ Eric’s book Estoriåye Yo’, I would highly recommended getting it. It’s a collection of over 300 stories in Chamorro with English translations for every story, which is fantastic for those of us learning the language. I hope you enjoy this story about I Atkaguete, or The Matchmaker, written by Påle’ Eric Forbes and narrated by Jay Che’le.

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