UOG hosts discussion on changing CHamoru language
UOG hosts discussion on changing CHamoru language
UOG hosts discussion on changing CHamoru language
5/3/2023
V
isiting scholar Dr. Sandra Chung will share with the Guam public the findings of her
research on how the CHamoru language is changing as part of a broader effort to keep
the language thriving.
Regarded as one of the foremost scholars of the CHamoru language, Dr. Chung will discuss
“CHamoru Language Across Islands and Generations,” at 6:30 p.m., Friday, May 5, in
Room 101, HSS Building, University of Guam. Participants can join on Zoom by clicking
this link: https://zoom.us/j/97146231548
Dr. Chung is one of the two premier linguists who studied the CHamoru language in
depth, the other being the late Don M. Topping, said UOG President Emeritus Robert
Underwood.
“She brings a lot of knowledge about topics that we don’t normally consider in the
development of the language and that’s the reason why it’s important to listen, to
hear the results of their ongoing studies about changes in the language,” Dr. Underwood
said.
Dr. Chung is the author of the book “Chamorro Grammar” and is a Distinguished Professor
Emerita at the University of California Santa Cruz where she served as served as Chair
of Linguistics.
She is also a consulting linguist on the National Science Foundation’s Documenting
Endangered Languages grant.
The grant supports the project “Developing CHamoru Language Infrastructure: Goggue
yan CHachalani Mo’na i Fino-ta,” which is led by Dr. David Ruskin, Assistant Professor
of Linguistics, Division of English and Applied Linguistics at UOG, and Dr. Underwood.
Both serve as the project's co-principal investigators.
Through the grant, Dr. Ruskin and Dr. Underwood are training local CHamoru speakers
in documentary linguistics and establishing archives of recordings of the increasingly
endangered CHamoru language.
Dr. Matthew Wagers, Professor and Chair of Linguistics at UC Santa Cruz, and Manuel
F. Borja, an author, and educator who lives in Saipan, collaborated with Dr. Chung
in the research. They investigated the different ways that CHamoru speakers in the
Northern Marianas produce various sentence constructions.
“Understanding how the language is changing and where it is headed is essential when
forming policies to help bolster the language and foster its use. Work like Dr. Chung's
shows us how important it is to act now to ensure a future for the CHamoru language,”
Dr. Ruskin said.
For more information, contact:
Dr. David Ruskin
UOG Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Division of English and Applied Linguistics
Email: ruskind@triton.uog.edu
Dr. Robert Underwood
UOG President Emeritus
Email: anacletus2010@gmail.com.