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The increasing numbers of Chamorros, especially Chamorro youth, relocating to the U.S. mainland, has complicated both the definition and preservation of Chamorro identity. On Guam, a Chamorro rights movement has developed since the United States gained control of the island.
Chamorro (English: / tʃ ə ˈ m ɔːr oʊ /, chə-MOR-oh; [2] endonym: Finuʼ Chamorro [Northern Mariana Islands] or Finoʼ CHamoru [Guam] /t ͡saˈmoɾu/) [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.
Chamorro may refer to: . Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific; Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas
Many Chamorros have Spanish surnames, although few of the inhabitants are themselves descended from the Spaniards. Instead, Spanish names and surnames became commonplace after their conversion to Catholicism and the imposition of the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos in Guam.
The Spanish later called them Chamorros, a derivative of the local word Chamurre (meaning of Chamorri is "noble race"). They began to grow rice on the island. [ 3 ] The modern CHamoru language has many historical parallels to modern Philippine languages in that it is an Austronesian language which has absorbed much Spanish vocabulary.
The ancient Chamorros were organized into matrilineal extended family groups, stratified into three hierarchical classes. Chamorro seamanship and the sakman, also known as the "flying proa," impressed the first Spanish sailors to the Marianas.
After the war, this would cause resentment between the Guamanian Chamorros and the Chamorros of the Northern Marianas. Guam's Chamorros believed their northern brethren should have been compassionate towards them, whereas having been administered by Japan for over 30 years, the Northern Mariana Chamorros were loyal to the Japanese government. [30]
The Chamorros and Carolinians make up less than half of the people on CNMI. [43] They are 4.6% of the population on CNMI. According to the 2010 American FactFinder profile on CNMI the Carolinians number over 2,400. [44] In Saipan they are 20% of the population. [45] The population in the United States has increased a lot. [46]