Looking for expert Chamorro translation services? Since 2003, Green Crescent has been providing professional translation services between English and Chamorro to clients worldwide. We specialize in sectors such as legal, business, community, and marketing. Our team ensures precise, high-quality translations tailored to your specific needs. Get a fast, free Chamorro translation quote today!
Our Comprehensive Chamorro Translation Services
Green Crescent’s skilled team of Chamorro translators includes subject matter experts for industry-specific needs. We provide translations tailored to the linguistic nuances of Chamorro, ensuring cultural and contextual accuracy across its various dialects.
- Standard Chamorro
- Regional Chamorro variations across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands
We specialize in both English to Chamorro and Chamorro to English translations, offering the following services:
Simple Translation
Our simple translations in the English/Chamorro language pair are designed for basic communication needs. These translations are completed by a single Chamorro translator without the involvement of an editor or proofreader, and therefore should not be considered final or polished work for most professional or formal use cases. While they are typically of high quality, simple translations are essentially "rough drafts" that do not go through additional editing, proofreading, or other quality control processes. These translations are ideal for personal letters, informal communications, initial drafts that will later be revised, or for situations where you need to quickly understand the general meaning or "gist" of a Chamorro text.
Standard Translation (TEP)
Our Standard Chamorro Translation service is designed to provide high-quality translations for everyday use, including business correspondence, websites, reports, presentations, and similar content. This service includes translation, editing, and proofreading (TEP) to ensure the highest level of accuracy and clarity in your Chamorro communications.
Organization Critical Translation (TEP+)
Our Organization Critical Chamorro Translation service is designed for situations where precision is essential. This option is recommended for texts intended for large-scale printing, legal contracts, medical documents, or any case where an error could be critical or costly. Each translated line is reviewed by a minimum of three linguists, with multiple rounds of proofreading. Subject matter experts (SMEs) may be involved as needed throughout the Chamorro translation, editing, and proofreading (TEP) process.
Bilingual Editing
Bilingual Editing for Chamorro Translation is the process of editing a translated text by comparing both the source and target texts in the English/Chamorro language pair. The editor, fluent in the source language and a native speaker of Chamorro, ensures that the translation is accurate, consistent, and faithful to the source text while also maintaining clarity and fluency in Chamorro. This step occurs after the initial translation in our TEP (Translation, Editing, Proofreading) Organization Critical and Standard Translation services. We also offer this service as a standalone option for translations completed by individuals or organizations not affiliated with Green Crescent.
Proofreading
Our proofreading service for English to Chamorro and Chamorro to English translations involves reviewing a single-language text to identify and correct surface-level errors, such as spelling mistakes, grammar issues, punctuation errors, and formatting inconsistencies. This step is the final phase in our TEP (Translation, Editing, Proofreading) Organization Critical and Standard translation services. We also offer proofreading as a standalone service for translations completed by individuals or organizations not affiliated with Green Crescent.
Legal Translation
Green Crescent's elite team of linguists, each with subject matter expertise in legal fields, is ready to assist you with the translation of a wide range of judicial, administrative, and private legal documents between Chamorro and English. We can also implement enhanced security measures to ensure strict confidentiality upon request.
Technical Translation
Technical translations involve any text that features specialized vocabulary or language registers, necessitating additional research and terminology verification. Common technical subject matter includes legal, medical, scientific, and IT topics. These translations require the expertise of linguists with in-depth knowledge of the relevant technical field in both Chamorro and English.
Medical Translation
Green Crescent provides professional Chamorro medical translations with a focus on accuracy and confidentiality. Our team of skilled linguists, specialized in medical terminology, ensures that your translations are both precise and secure.
Localization
Our translation services are tailored for specific target markets that require localized varieties of the Chamorro language. Green Crescent ensures that your content resonates with the intended audience. Our experienced linguists provide translations that are not only accurate but also culturally relevant and engaging.
Back-translation
Back-translation is a crucial component of quality control, particularly for critical translations in the Chamorro/English language pair. This process involves translating a previously translated text back into its original language, either Chamorro or English, and comparing the result to the original translation for accuracy.
Peer Review
Green Crescent offers professional peer review services where one or more linguists not involved in the original translation process assess the quality, style, and overall fitness of the translation for its intended purpose.
SME Review
Subject Matter Expert (SME) review is a specialized form of peer review conducted by non-linguist professionals with expertise in specific fields. This process ensures that Chamorro to English or English to Chamorro translations of highly technical texts are both linguistically accurate and technically precise.
Transcreation
Our Chamorro Transcreation Service adapts your content creatively to resonate with Chamorro-speaking audiences. We ensure that your brand’s messages maintain their original intent, emotional impact, and tone while aligning with the cultural and linguistic nuances of the target market.
MTPE-Full (Machine Translation Post-Editing - Full)
MTPE-Full involves comprehensive post-editing of machine-generated translations to meet the highest standards of linguistic quality. This includes correcting grammar, syntax, and terminology to ensure the text flows naturally in Chamorro or English.
MTPE-Light (Machine Translation Post-Editing - Light)
MTPE-Light is a streamlined version of post-editing designed for situations where speed and cost-efficiency are prioritized. The human editor fixes major errors, ensuring the overall meaning is clear and understandable.
Additional Language Services and Options for Chamorro
Certified Translation
Green Crescent provides certified translations of a wide range of legal documents, including birth, marriage, and death certificates, diplomas, school transcripts, passports, and much more, in both Chamorro and English. Our certified translations are recognized for their accuracy and compliance with legal standards, making them suitable for official use. You can receive hard copies of our standard certificate of translation mailed directly to your home or business.
Rush Service
If you require expedited service, Green Crescent can usually accommodate such requests. However, please note that rushing translations may come with trade-offs, which could affect both price and consistency. Please consult with a project manager for more details.
Discounts
Volume discounts are available for large projects, long-term clients, and for non-profits, charities, NGOs, and government organizations.
Minimum Fee
There is a minimum project fee of $75.00 USD per language, which can be reduced or waived for regular clients.
Additional Language Services
In addition to translation, Green Crescent offers a range of other Chamorro language services, including interpretation, transcription, website design and development, and desktop publishing.
About the Chamorro Language
Chamorro, known locally as "Finu' Chamoru," is the native language of the indigenous Chamorro people of the Mariana Islands, which include Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Chamorro is an Austronesian language that has undergone significant influence from Spanish due to over 300 years of colonization, as well as from English in more recent times. Chamorro is spoken by approximately 58,000 people, primarily in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, though there are also Chamorro-speaking communities in the U.S. mainland.
Chamorro is central to the identity of the Chamorro people, reflecting a rich cultural and historical heritage tied to the islands' indigenous traditions, Spanish colonization, and American administration.
The Cultural Context, History, and Linguistic Features of Chamorro
The Chamorro language has deep roots in the Austronesian language family, which includes languages spoken across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Over time, Chamorro has integrated numerous loanwords from Spanish and English, reflecting the colonial and post-colonial history of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Despite this, Chamorro retains its unique grammatical structure and vocabulary, which reflect its Austronesian origins.
Historically, Chamorro was an oral language, and much of the cultural knowledge and tradition was passed down through storytelling and songs. With the arrival of Spanish missionaries in the 17th century, Chamorro began to be written in the Latin script, which led to the introduction of new linguistic elements, including Spanish loanwords and changes in pronunciation.
Linguistically, Chamorro is agglutinative, meaning that words are formed by combining prefixes, suffixes, and infixes to a root word. This allows for the expression of complex ideas within single words, a feature that distinguishes Chamorro from more analytic languages like English.
The Writing System: Latin Alphabet
Chamorro uses the Latin alphabet, which was introduced during Spanish colonization. The alphabet consists of 24 letters, excluding the letters F and Z from the traditional English alphabet. Chamorro also uses the letter Ñ, as well as the digraph Ng to represent sounds unique to the language.
Vowels and Consonants: Chamorro has five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 19 consonants, including Ñ and Ng. The vowel sounds in Chamorro are consistent, making the language relatively easy to pronounce once the sounds are learned.
The Chamorro Alphabet
Chamorro is written using the following alphabet:
- 5 vowels: A, a, E, e, I, i, O, o, U, u
- 19 consonants: B, b, C, c, D, d, G, g, H, h, J, j, K, k, L, l, M, m, N, n, Ñ, ñ, Ng, ng, P, p, R, r, S, s, T, t, W, w, Y, y
Unlike English, Chamorro does not use the letters F or Z, and it includes the digraph Ng, which represents a nasal sound found in many Austronesian languages. Chamorro's orthography is relatively phonetic, meaning words are generally pronounced as they are written, though Spanish and English loanwords can introduce pronunciation variations.
Key Linguistic Differences Between Chamorro and English for Translation
Several important linguistic features differentiate Chamorro from English, and these must be carefully managed in translation to ensure both linguistic accuracy and cultural relevance:
Sentence Structure: Chamorro typically follows a Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) sentence structure, though this can vary based on emphasis. In contrast, English uses a fixed Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure. For example, "I am eating food" in English becomes "Kao magågu yo' hånao" in Chamorro, where the verb comes first.
Word Formation: Chamorro is an agglutinative language, meaning that root words are modified with various affixes to convey tense, aspect, and other grammatical functions. This can result in long, complex words that express concepts more compactly than English. For example, the Chamorro word "chumålek" means "to laugh," but by adding various affixes, it can mean "I will laugh" or "I laughed."
Loanwords: Due to centuries of Spanish influence and more recent American influence, Chamorro has adopted many loanwords from these languages. While these loanwords have been integrated into everyday speech, they may require special attention in translation to ensure they are understood in their cultural context.
Verb Conjugation: In Chamorro, verbs are conjugated based on tense, aspect, and sometimes mood. However, Chamorro verbs do not change according to the subject’s gender or number, which is different from English, where verbs change depending on whether the subject is singular or plural.
Reduplication: Chamorro frequently uses reduplication, where part of a word is repeated to change its meaning. For instance, "pao" means "to sew," while "pao-pao" means "to sew repeatedly." This linguistic feature adds nuance to the language but can be difficult to capture in English translations.
Honorifics and Politeness: Chamorro employs different levels of politeness and formality, particularly when addressing elders or individuals in positions of authority. These cultural subtleties must be respected in translation to convey the appropriate tone and formality.
By addressing these key linguistic and cultural differences, Green Crescent ensures that our Chamorro translation services are both accurate and culturally sensitive, delivering translations that reflect the true meaning and context of the source material.