Guam English

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The Guam English language has many differences to continental English, says researchers

One Swiss PhD candidate noticed in her research that the English used in Guam differs significantly in terms of language, intonation and phonetic - such as the pronunciation of the words "Ziploc" and "Jiploc". "Eva Kuske, who is an English teacher at the Universität Bern, spends her first year in Bern to study the English language of Guam.

"I' m not here to say that the Guamese don't really talk English, but I'm here to learn the difference between Guam English and English in America," she said. "Guamese have their own English dialects and that's what I'm working on. "Kuske presented her results from her journey to Guam last year, where she combed the locals to interviews more than 60 champions of all age, who spoke English.

While compiling and transcribing her interview, she analysed words and sentences that were different from the English used in the USA. English was the most strikingly different among the older Chamorros, while the younger generation of Chamorros was similar to the English used in Hawaii and California, Kuske said.

Older chamorros have characteristic tones when they express the characters d, w, v, y, and z. These syllables are voiced, i.e. without vibrations, and this produces a different one. Music by Kuske was provided by an older Chamorro lady who said "bag" like "bak". "Kuske also found the older Chamorros she had spoken to and spoke the characters t and k with little ambition, while the English of America spoke them with more breathing.

Rather than an aerial p-tone in "arm", Chamorros would begin the term with a brief p-tone, similar to the Chamorro term for wood, "påpet". "She also noticed Guam's differences in the voices. When she said the term "ID", for example, Chamorros put it as "EYE-dee" in comparison to the "eye-DEE" of the American Englishman.

Featuring more than 100 different types of English around the world, Kuske said she was attracted to how the influence of colonialism affected Micronesia's languages. Guam-English is not only affected by the native Chamorro languages, but also by Hispanic, English and a little too much Japan, Kuske said.

With a scholarship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Kuske was able to visit the archipelago and do research there. They and their counterparts are working together to bring the English to the whole of Micronesia. She said that besides Guam, there are also trials on Saipan and Palau.

Completing her studies, Kuske said she would work on the English differences in Filipinos and Caucasians who have grown up in Guam.