For most known languages of the world, certain words exist for the sole purpose of denoting what is considered masculine and feminine. In the CHamoru language, there are two words that identify male and female. The first, låhi, is used for man while pålao’an is used for woman. In addition to these common words, there are other words that can be altered. Usually these vocabulary words will either end with a letter U or A at the end with each being male and female respectively. However, there exist some who do not meet this specific rule but the same concept follows the latter.
For the sake of understanding, the female version of the word will always be the first sample given. Here are a few examples:
Bunita/u
- Definition: beautiful, pretty, pleasing to the eye
- Part of Speech: adjective
Suruhåna/u
- Definition: herbal doctor
- Part of Speech: noun
Måhadera/u
- Definition: rascal, rogue, tricky
- Part of Speech: noun
Bailadora/t
- Definition: dancer
- Part of Speech: noun
First, let’s start with the word bunitu. You can alter the ending by using the letter A to use for something feminine or to describe a woman. For example, you could say: Ennao bunita i pålao’an or “That woman is pretty.” Alternatively, you could use the original word, bunitu, to describe a man; ennao bunitu i låhi or “That man is handsome.” Since the word itself has multiple meanings, you can derive it to the best way that fits for what you’re trying to say. Furthermore, let us say you are to describe how an object looks such as a painting or a photo. In this case, you would use the masculine version of the word which is bunitu. Second, the next word on our makeshift list falls under how we denote female versus male practitioners of the herbal craft. Third on the list, we have a word which refers to someone who is considered to be a “rascal” or tricky to deal with, not to be confused with the word for a child who’s naughty: båba. Lastly, you’ll notice that this word for dancer doesn’t follow the A/U structure. Bailadora and bailadot is but one example of a word pairing that has male/female versions of itself but the male version doesn’t have the letter U at the end of it. Considering that some words in the CHamoru language are borrowed from Spanish, it’s possible that this pairing is simply the CHamoru version of the same thing.