Chamorro language

Chamorro
Finuʼ Chamorro
Finoʼ CHamoru
Native toMariana Islands
EthnicityChamorro
Native speakers
58,000 (2005–2015)[1]
Latin
Official status
Official language in
 Guam
 Northern Mariana Islands
Language codes
ISO 639-1ch
ISO 639-2cha
ISO 639-3cha
Glottologcham1312
ELPChamorro
Chamorro is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Chamorro (English: /tʃəˈmɔːroʊ/ chə-MOR-oh;[2] endonym: Finuʼ Chamorro [Northern Mariana Islands] or Finoʼ CHamoru [Guam])[3] is an Austronesian language spoken by about 58,000 people, numbering about 25,800 on Guam and about 32,200 in the Northern Mariana Islands and elsewhere.[4] It is the historic native language of the Chamorro people, who are indigenous to the Mariana Islands, although it is less commonly spoken today than in the past. Chamorro has three distinct dialects: Guamanian, Rotanese, and that in the other Northern Mariana Islands (NMI).

  1. ^ Chamorro at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Definition of Chamorro". www.merriam-webster.com. 5 August 2024. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  3. ^ "Chamorro Orthography Rules". Guampedia. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Chamorro", Ethnologue (19th ed.), 2016, archived from the original on 5 April 2018, retrieved 4 April 2018