Language Information

Chamorro is spoken on the island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. Latest figures show approximately 40,000 speakers of the language (out of a total population of 110,000) and about 12,000 speakers on the Marianas, most of them on the island of Saipan. Chamorro is one of the Micronesian languages, which form a part of the Malayo-Polynesian family. Numerous Spanish words in the vocabulary reflect the three centuries of Spanish rule in Guam.

Guam (U.S.), Northern Mariana Islands (U.S.).

Family: Malayo-Polynesian(Austronesian)
Subgroup: Indonesian

Writing Sample

Translation

Kimio, Juan (and I), we went fishing last night. We caught more than two hundred pounds of fish. Then, when we finished fishing at two o'clock, we rested. Then in the morning at six o'clock, Kimio and I went to sell the fish at Bernardo's. Then we finished, they bought sixty pounds, we went to Sinajana and went around selling maybe forty pounds of fish.