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

See Examples For:

CHamoru

Roy Gamboa, a member of Guam’s native CHamoru people and a Marine veteran.Credit...

From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023

A group of activists came together under the umbrella of We Are Guåhan, the CHamoru name for Guam, and pulled apart every page of the document to create a CliffsNotes version of the plan.

From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023

He saw the veterans as descendants of the ancient CHamoru warfighters, who had taken on the Spanish conquistadors with slings in hundreds of sail-powered outrigger canoes, circling them at two to three times their speed.

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

Nearly 11,000 CHamoru — half the population at that time — lost their property.

From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023