Languages of Guahan

By Rudolph Villaverde and Ronald Laguana. The official languages of Guahan are Chamorro and English. Both languages are taught in the schools and appear in official documents. The Chamorro (Chamoru) language derives its origins over 5000 years ago. It belongs to the western group of the Austronesian language family which includes the languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Palau. Chamoru stands as a unique subfamily of the Malayo-Polynesian Family Chart (Cunningham, 1992, Ancient Chamorro Society; 11). According to measurements in the degree of correlation, Chamoru is most similar to Indonesian languages (Cunningham, ibid). Clay Carlson (retired professor) at the Univ. of Guam contends that two ancient precontact languages may have combined to form the Chamoru language (Lawrence J. Cunningham, 1992, Ancient Chamorro Society pg 170). After post European contact (Magellan), many Spanish and American words have been assimilated into it.
Is the Chamorro language endangered? Results of survey.