Speech Attribution in Chamorro part 3: The Reciprocal Á- Prefix

Continuing our blog series on speech attribution in Chamorro, we will learn how the reciprocal á- prefix is used to indicate who is speaking in Chamorro stories. This prefix is used in sentences such as “The women asked each other” or “Juan and I sang to each other.” The reciprocal á- prefix is used in more than just speech attribution, but it can be helpful to learn this prefix in the context of storytelling. This post includes an introduction to the á- prefix, sentence drills in Chamorro with the audio, and English translations. Happy studying!

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Speech Attribution in Chamorro part 2: Using the -IN- Infix

This post is part 2 of the blog series on Chamorro speech attribution, where we learn about the most common ways we can indicate who is speaking in a story (ie: he said, she asked, the woman asked her, etc.). Understanding speech attribution helps us if we are reading or listening to stories in the language, if we want to write our own stories, or if we are interested in translating existing works into Chamorro. It can also give our speaking and storytelling more flavor 😉 In this post we will learn about speech attribution patterns that use the -IN- infix. This post includes an introduction to the -IN- infix, how to transform words with this affix, and practice drills. All Chamorro drills include audio in Chamorro. This is a fairly long post, with 10 sections of practice drills. Happy studying!

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Speech Attribution in Chamorro part 1: Using “Ilek”

This year I am focused on listening to Chamorro while reading along with the transcript to better train my ear and absorb more fluent or native-level speech patterns. One set of patterns that I am now more comfortable with is how speech attribution (phrases like he said, “__” or she asked, “___”) occurs in Chamorro. In this series of blog posts, I’m going to talk about the 4 patterns I’ve noticed around speech attribution, and this first post will focus on the use of the work ilek.

taitai mås