CHamoru

American  

[chuh-mawr-oh, chah-mawr-raw] / tʃəˈmɔr oʊ, tʃɑˈmɔr rɔ /

noun

CHamorus, plural CHamoru plural

1. a people inhabiting the Mariana Islands, or people of CHamoru origin or descent.

2. the Austronesian language of the CHamoru.

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Spelling

The first two letters are both capitalized in the official spelling of CHamoru to indicate that they make a single sound. Several other languages have such digraphs marked by spelling conventions, such as the ligature œ in French or æ in Old English.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• CHamoru
  plural
• CHamorus
  plural

Etymology

Origin of CHamoru

First recorded in 1990–95; a native name based on the indigenous orthography of the Spanish Chamorro ( def. )

Example Sentences

He would thrash a course into the thicket to collect firewood from the slender trees — tangen tangen in CHamoru, the language of the Indigenous inhabitants of Guam, which Roy’s grandmothers and grandfathers were.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2023

We pulled up to a small, neat cemetery, all that remains of the largest historic CHamoru village pre-contact, where we waited for Roy to arrive.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2023

Over centuries of migration, the CHamoru have become a minority on the island.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2023

The ones who did didn’t seem to have been given much of a primer on Guam’s history, status or CHamoru culture.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2023

Currently, military personnel and their families number around 22,000, while the civilian population is 154,000 — 41 percent of whom identify as CHamoru.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2023