"I Love You Page" by Michael Lujan Bevacqua

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Chamorro Public Service Post - I Love You

When I first started voyaging out into the internet full force several years ago, meaning I started using Google and Yahoo to search for random crap, interesting things would always pop up when I was looking for stuff related to Guam and Chamorros.

For instance, if you do just general Guam searches you will find a surprisingly alot of Gay community website. I never imagined Guam as some gay oasis in the Pacific, but apparently around the Pacific alot of people do think of Guam as just that.

Also, if you do just general searches for Chamorro, you will receive a bunch of sites for Chamorros in Nicaragua. These aren't ethnic Chamorros but people with the last name Chamorro, such as Edgar Chamorro, a contra fighter and former ambassador to the United Nations, or Violeta Chamorro, a President of Nicaragua in the 1990's.

When I would do searches for Chamorro language however, a certain type of page would constantly show up, "I Love You Pages." I'm sure that most of us have stumbled across these pages, they basically feature how to say "I Love You" in all the known languages in the universe. The real hard-core pages will not just have mainstream dialects like English, Spanish and Hindi, but will also have "disappearing" languages with smaller speech communities, like indigenous languages. The pages which are completely unstoppable, are those with either concocted or fictive speech communities like Esperanto, Klingon or Gallach from the Dune books.

Although creating a page like that of my own would really be as simple as copying and pasting one of the pages floating around out there, I decided to make a sort of similar page, with just a nice little indigenous inversion.

Here I'm proud to present, a sort of "I Love You Page," where I provide a list of different ways to say or express that you love someone in Chamorro.

Hu guaiya hao
I love you

Ya-hu Hao
I like you

Kinenne' yu' nu Hågu
I'm hooked (literally 'taken with') on you.

Un foyung yu'
You knock me down

Sinekkai yu' nu Hågu
I have a crush (literally 'snagged') on you

Un kahnåyi yu'
Un bewitch (literally 'cast a spell on') me

Bai hu gofli'e hao
I will care for you

Ti bai hu dingu hao
I will not leave you

Kao siña un såga na'ya?
Can you stay for a while?

Gof bunita hao
You are very beautiful

Ha penta i eriyå-hu siha mitkilot i binitå-mu
Your beauty paints the world around me with many colors

Todu i bidå-mu siha kulang milagro siha
Everything you do is like miracles

Un na'gofha'an todu i ha'ani-hu siha
You make sunny all my days

Taya' somnak an taigue hao
There's no sunshine if you're gone

Hagu i minagahet-hu
You are my truth

Ti bei maleffa i pinachå-mu
I won't forget your touch

Mafa'tinåsi hao nu Guahu.
You were made for me

Kada kinalamten-mu siha manmatuge' gi i hinasso-ku
Each of your movements is written into my memory

Gof mangguaiya yu'!
I'm really in love!

Hågu i guinefe-hu
You are my dream

Ni' håyi fuera di Hågu
No one but you

Hågu ha' i malago-hu
You are all I want

Ti siña yu' mumaigo put Hågu
I can't sleep because of you

http://minagahet.blogspot.com/2006/10/chamorro-public-service-post-i-love.html