News | Videos
saipantribune.com | January 4
On Dec. 23, 201, a TV series titled Finu' Chamorro premiered at the state-of-the-art American Memorial Park Museum Theater, signaling the start of efforts to fight back against the language's extinction.
read more »
dailyfreepress.com | November 28, 2011 | by Dana Finley
Konstantinakos, a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Teaching and a senior lecturer in the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages program at BU, and the CGC have begun working on a photo-essay book in the Chamorro language. Having received a leave of absence for the spring, he said he will travel to Guam to educate students about the language.
pacificnewscenter.com | November 3, 2011
Wanting to learn and teach the Chamorro language to his children, the Yona resident says he moved back home after living in Las Vegas for 13 years. However, he couldn't find material that was simple enough to teach his children independently and launched his business around that void.
This is the personal blog of Peter J. Santos, a native Chamoru speaker originally from Santa Rita, Guam. This blog is Peter's random thoughts about the Chamoru Language and Culture, his life growing up, and the world in general. This is the first and only blog written entirely in the Chamoru Language. Hopefully there will be others in the future.
saipantribune.com | September 20, 2011 | by Clarissa David
Barbara Dewein, a PhD candidate in linguistics from the Universitat Bremen in Germany, said that continued use of the Chamorro language is key to its preservation. “It's people's choice to speak the language or not and people might have good reasons to speak English instead of Chamorro but if they want to preserve Chamorro, there's no other choice than speaking it and giving it on, passing it on to the next generations,” Dewein told Saipan Tribune.
saipantribune.com | September 19, 2011 | by Clarissa David
A group of linguists from the Universitat Bremen in Germany has embarked on a project that would possibly aid in the preservation of the Chamorro language in contemporary times.Dr. Thomas Stolz and Barbara Dewein, who are part of the five-member team working on the Chamorrica project, discussed some of their findings in a presentation sponsored by the NMI Humanities Council at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center Theater last Saturday.“We're trying to find as many manuscripts-unedited manuscripts-as possible that deal with the Chamorro language during the colonial times before 1950,” said Stolz in an interview after the presentation.
Pacific News Center | September 14, 2011
"My idea is perhaps people here want to preserve their language," Stolz remarks. "They can learn from others trying to do the same. What have they done wrong and what measures are candidates for successful revitalization of language."
Pacific News Center | September 8, 2011
Steve Pagel will give a lecture on the writings of German Captain Georg Fritz who was stationed on Saipan in 1906. Pagel's lecture is entitled "Chiafi - A fairytale from the Marianas by Georg Fritz: A Commented Re-edition."
The lecture will be delivered on Tuesday, September 27 from 6 until 7 pm in the UOG CLASS Lecture Hall.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
Dr. Robert A. Underwood hosts the 14th presentation in his Presidential Lecture series featuring Dr. Thomas H. Stolz, a professor at the University of Bremen in Germany, who will present "Language Endangerment - A Comparative Perspective".
The lecture will be held on September 20, 2011 at 5:30 p.m. in the IT&E Lecture Hall Room 131, 1st Floor of the Jesus S. and Eugenia A. Leon Guerrero School of Business and Public Administration Building UOG Campus, Mangilao.
saipantribune.com | September 13, 2012
The general public is invited to a presentation by Prof. Dr. Thomas Stolz and Barbara Dewein, who will share information related to the Chamorrica project.The lecture will take place on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 10am at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center Theatre.Chamorrica aims to translate, re-edit, and annotate various documents on the Chamorro language that were produced between 1668 and 1950. Members of the community will have an opportunity to ask questions about the project and to share with the visiting scholars concerns related to Chamorro language planning and revitalization.From the Universitat Bremen in Germany, Stolz and Dewein are also meeting with local researchers and scholars involved in efforts to study and preserve the Chamorro language. Admission is free and open to the public.
A visiting German scholar will give a special presentation on the Chamorro language next Wednesday, September 14th.
Barbara Dewein will be speaking about H. Costenoble's 1940 Chamorro Dictionary.
Her lecture begins at 6 pm in the CLASS Lecture Hall on the UOG campus.The presentation is free and open to the public.
Pacific News Center | September 7, 2011
On August 26, 2011, the Sakman Chamorro Che’lu (which means “brother or sister”) sailed for the first time, proving seaworthy as she traveled through the San Diego Bay.Construction of the boat began in July 2009 with funding from friends, family, and donors, including San Diego-based Che’lu, Inc. It is planned to have an 8-12 member crew sail back to the Mariana Islands from where the Sakman tradition originated, with the Che’lu serving as a Chamorro ambassador for the islands.
Led by master carver Mario Reyes Borja, a dozen or so Chamorro supporters have worked to raise awareness about Chamorro history and culture — from the flying proas they once engineered and were for centuries the fastest sailing vessels in the world to reviving interest in the Chamorro language among youth. The group hopes this single vessel will help them make the journey to connect with their ancestral legacy.
This blog is a small help in the effort to perpetuate the Chamorro language and culture. You'll find some Chamorro words and lessons, and hopefully some discussions following them.
Guampdn.com | August 1, 2011 | by Jojo Santo Tomas
Almost 400 people crowded the hotel ballroom and tapped their feet, swayed their heads and mouthed the lyrics to their favorite Chamorro songs. The Inetnon Gef Pa'go dancers joined them on stage for their opening number, "Kåntan Chamorro," and just as the title said, the celebration had begun.
(Full article no longer available)
Guampdn.com | Pacific Daily News
A researcher at the University of Bremen has been awarded a $480,000 grant for a three-year Chamorro language project, according to a University of Guam release. The German Science Foundation awarded the grant to Thomas Stolz, linguistics professor and vice president of the Chamorro Linguistics International Network. Stolz and two PhD candidates will edit, evaluate, translate and comment on Chamorro-related texts from periods of Spanish, German and Japanese rule in the region. Stolz will be cooperating with the University of Guam, the Northern Marianas Humanity Council, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and the Asociación Espanola de Estudios del Pacífico in Madrid, Spain.
PNC - Pacific News Center
Guam - Since 1996, linguists at the University of Bremen have been successfully involved in research on Chamorro, the autochthonous language of the Marianas in the West Pacific. During the first Festival of Languages (17 September –7 October, 2009),experts from ten countries founded CHIN (“Chamorro Linguistics International Network”) which is the first international Organization devoted to the study, the preservation and the development of Chamorro, a moderately endangered language.
[More...]
Pressestelle Universität Bremen | Eberhard Scholz
Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft fördert dreijähriges Editionsprojekt der Bremer Linguistik zum Chamorro.
Seit 1996 wird von der Bremer Linguistik über das Chamorro, die austronesische Ethnosprache der Marianen-Inseln im Westpazifik erfolgreich geforscht. Während des weltweit ersten Festivals der Sprachen (17.9.-7.10.2009) in Bremen gründeten Fachleute aus zehn Staaten mit CHIN ("Chamorro Linguistics International Network") die erste internationale Organisation, die sich der Erforschung, dem Erhalt und dem Ausbau des vom Aussterben mittelbar bedrohten Chamorro widmet. Der Sitz von CHIN ist in der Universität Bremen (http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/chin/), der Bremer Linguistik-Professor Thomas Stolz Vizepräsident der Gesellschaft. Ihm hat nun die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) ein dreijähriges Projekt mit einem Finanzvolumen von 320.000 Euro bewilligt
Weiter...
Guampdn.com | October 27,2009 | Peter Onedera
Humånao yu' para Bremen, Alimåna para i Ferian Lengguåhi siha. Humånao yu' guatu sigun ginen embitasion Doktot Thomas Stolz, ge'hilo' gi i Dipåttamenton Lengguåhi siha gi iya Unibetsedåt Bremen. Ha kombida yu', si Prufesora Rosa Salas Palomo yan si Doktot Robert A. Underwood, prisidenten Unibetsedåt Guåhan.
Beim Bremer Sprachen-Festival im September und Oktober 2009 sind drei neue internationale sprachwissenschaftliche Organisationen aus der Taufe gehoben worden. Sie befassen sich mit der Etnosprache der Marianen-Inseln, mit den indigenen Sprachen Amerikas oder den Indianersprachen sowie mit wenig verbreiteten Sprachen.
Professor Thomas Stolz and Babarba Dewein interviewed on Chamorro by Pacific News Center