114 USEB^UL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



piirticlos to the noun, w liicli Ixn-omo unitodcncliticiilly to it, as " tjita-lio,'' 

 my futlior; •" tatii-nio." thy father; "tata-iia,'' his futhcM- " tata-ta." our 

 father (inchidini;' the person addressed); 'tatan-nianie"' (exchidino- the 

 l)erson addressed), etc. To this division l)elongs tiie Chaniorro lan- 

 j^nai^e of (xuain. 



One feature of the Chaniorro hmguage, which has led to much con- 

 fusion in the \:iri<)us vocabularies of that language appearing in the 

 reports of scientific expeditions, is the modification of tonic vowels of 

 nouns and adjectives when immediately following the definite article. 

 Thus "a" (like ''a" in father) becomes "ii" (ver}' nnich like ''a*" in 

 hat). ••()" tx'comes ""e." and "'u'" becomes "i,'' We have 'Mahc," 

 man. but "i l;ili(\'"' the man; guma, house, but '" i gima," the house; 

 '•loksi na guma." high house, but ''i leka na guma," or "i gima na 

 loka," the high house. It also possesses the characteristic, common to 

 the group to which it belongs, of uniting an attributive adjective to 

 its noun by means of a ligature ("na") as shown in the preceding 

 example." The plural of a few nouns is formed by reduplication of the 

 tonic syllal)le, the plural of all adjectives and a certain class of nouns 

 is formed by prefixing the particle "man" to the word; as "mauleg 

 i lahe," good is the man; "manmauleg i liilahe," good are the men; 

 "aniti," ghost, "mananiti," ghosts." The plural of most nouns, 

 however, is indicated b}' placing after them the word "siha." which 

 is the plural of the third personal pronoun, as "guma siha" houses. 



For a more complete account of the Chaniorro language of Guam 

 the reader is referred to a series of papers b}^ the author in the Amer- 

 ican Anthropologist, new series, volumes 5, 6, and 7, 1903-5. 



In the two following tallies a number of Guam words are compared 

 with corresponding words in the Polynesian, Philippine, and Malaysian 

 languages. In the column of Philippine names "T." indicates the 

 Tagalog language; " V.," the Visa3'an; "I.," the Ilocano, and "P.," 

 the Pampago. In the column of Polynesian names "S." stands for 

 Samoa, "H." for Hawaii, and "N. Z." for New Zealand. The words 

 given in these tables are selected from among a great number which 

 do not show such close correspondence. It would be misleading to 

 give the impression that the Chaniorro language bears a very close 

 resemblance to the Poh^nesian dialects or that it ma^^ be considered 

 a Philippine dialect. Certain words, it is true, are closely allied to 

 lioth the Polynesian and Philippine names for the same thing, but on 

 the other hand there are words much more nearly like the primitive 

 ]VIala3'an than either the Philippine or Polynesian forms, and in no 

 one language of the Philippine Archipelago is there a close corre- 

 spondence either in the vocabulaiy or in the verbal forms with those 

 of the Chr.morro. 



« This feature will be seen in many Philippine plant names. The ligation is in 

 some cases shortened to an // or mj added to the noun; as rhotdan layo (foreign 

 banana), and kamoting kahoi (tree sweet-potato), cassava plant. 



