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Neologism
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Posted on Jan 02 2012
A young indigenous lad was telling me in a recent encounter that he couldn’t find a word in the Chamorro language for “cake.” I asked him why he couldn’t find such a word because he just said it. But he insisted that the English word “cake” is not a Chamorro word, therefore it is impossible for that word to be one of Chamorro origin. I emphatically responded that that is very true, but the Chamorro word for the English word “cake” is “kek.” Perhaps because of my stature as an elder, the lad submitted to my suggestion but he continued to argue that I was just making up the word “kek.” In response to the lad’s puzzling doubt, I told him that it is true that I made up the word “kek.” Is it official? Not necessarily, but it’s a made-up word nonetheless. In the linguistic world, this is known as “neologism.”
What is the point here? Well, the Chamorro language is just like any other language, it is not stagnant, but always evolving. This means that those agencies in the CNMI government by their jurisdictional roles involved in the preservation, perpetuation, and development of the Chamorro language should practice “neologism” to keep up with modern day demands and needs of the indigenous people. We could draw on the resources of the Chamorro Language Commission and the Indigenous Affairs Office to put a brake on the likely chance that one day our language may face a slow death of extinction and it will be difficult for it to recover its original glory. The PSS would be a benefactor of the intelligent input by efforts and contributions of experts in government agencies that have direct ownership of the responsibility over these issues.
