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Chamorro dictionary Working groups meet today
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Posted on Jan 14 2009
Members of the working groups tasked to revise the Chamorro-English dictionary will meet today at Room D1 Building N of Northern Marianas College starting at 9am.
The NMI Council for the Humanities’ Chamorro-English Dictionary Revision Project is now on its fourth month of implementation.
Six working groups from Saipan, Tinian, and Rota are currently reviewing to expand the first set of 90 pages of the Chamorro-English Dictionary by Topping, Ogo, and Dunga, which was first published in 1975.
The goals are to revise and update as much of these entries as possible by the third year of the project in 2011.
The six working groups of three members each are headed by Carmen S. Taimanao, Bernie P. Sablan, Jose Sanchez, Vicente Borja, Tina Hocog, and Angie C. Fitial.
A critical component of the project will be the inclusion of new entries with emphasis on cultural words that are not in the original dictionary, to be undertaken by cultural experts.
Experts in areas such as traditional fishing, customs and rituals, traditional medicine, etc., have been identified to serve as possible consultants.
Upon completion of all the new entries and revisions during Year Three, another group of Chamorro language experts, particularly the elders, will be consulted on specific words and meanings, as needed.
The project is a major part of the grant awarded to the Humanities Council by the National Science Foundation for a three-year collaborative project to study and help preserve the Chamorro language.
The total funds are $300,000, of which approximately $285,000 will go to the Council to support work in the CNMI.
The remainder will go to the University of California at Santa Cruz.
The grammar, revised dictionary, and oral histories—in video and print formats—will provide a highly detailed, accessible record of the Chamorro language for future generations.
