Chamorro

/tʃəˈmɔroʊ/ noun

Definition

A member of the indigenous Austronesian people of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Austronesian language they speak.

Etymology

From the Chamorro language itself, meaning 'from the island' or 'noble.' The word appears in Spanish colonial documents dating to the 1600s, though the people's self-designation predates European contact by thousands of years.

Kelly Says

The Chamorro language is Austronesian—related to languages spoken from Madagascar to Easter Island—which means Chamorro speakers are linguistic cousins to peoples spread across half the globe, representing one of history's greatest seafaring migrations!

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