[4] It is the historic native language of the Chamorro people, who are indigenous to the Mariana Islands, although it is less commonly spoken today than in the past.

Some authors consider Chamorro a mixed language[7] under a historical point of view, even though it remains independent and unique.

In virtually all cases of borrowing, Spanish words were forced to conform to the Chamorro sound system....

Once again, the linguistic influence was restricted exclusively to vocabulary items, many of which refer to manufactured objects...."[8]In contrast, in the essays found in Del español al chamorro.

Rodríguez-Ponga (1995) considers Chamorro to be either Spanish-Austronesian or a Spanish-Austronesian mixed language, or at least a language that has emerged from a process of contact and creolization on the island of Guam since modern Chamorro is influenced in vocabulary and has in its grammar many elements of Spanish origin: verbs, articles, prepositions, numerals, conjunctions, etc.

A century later, the 2000 U.S. Census showed that fewer than 20% of Chamorros living in Guam speak their heritage language fluently, and the vast majority of those were over the age of 55.

A number of forces have contributed to the steep, post-World War II decline of Chamorro language fluency.

After the war, when Guam was recaptured by the United States, American administrators of the island continued to impose "no Chamorro" restrictions in local schools, teaching only English and disciplining students for speaking their indigenous tongue.

[citation needed] There is a difference in the rate of Chamorro language fluency between Guam and the rest of the Marianas.

[citation needed] Representatives from Guam have unsuccessfully lobbied the United States to take action to promote and protect the language.

Other creative ways to incorporate and promote the Chamorro language have been found in the use of applications for smartphones, internet videos and television.

Kids is a first-of-its-kind show, because it is targeted "for Guam's nenis that aims to perpetuate Chamoru language and culture while encouraging environmental stewardship, healthy choices and character development.

This is most regular for words containing middle *ə (schwa), e.g. *qaləjaw → atdaw "sun", but sometimes also with other vowels, e.g. *qanitu → anti "soul, spirit, ghost".

[22] If a word started with a vowel or *h (but not *q), then prothesis with gw or g (before o or u) occurred: *aku → gwahu "I (emphatic)", *enem → gunum "six".

The agreement morphemes agree with features (roughly the grammatical case feature) of the question phrase and replace the regular subject–verb agreement in transitive realis clauses:[25] Ha3sSAfaʼgåsiwashsiPNDJuanJuanithekareta.carHa faʼgåsi si Juan i kareta.3sSA wash PND Juan the car'Juan washed the car.

WH[NOM].wash the car'Who washed the car?The following set of pronouns is found in Chamorro:[26] The letters ⟨c⟩, ⟨j⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨v⟩, ⟨w⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨z⟩, ⟨ll⟩, and ⟨rr⟩ are only used in proper names.

Syllables may end in at most one consonant, as in che’lu 'sibling', diskåtga 'unload', mamåhlåo 'shy', oppop 'lie face down', gåtus (Old Chamorro word for 100), or Hagåtña (capital of Guam).

[28] The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands revised their official Chamorro orthography in 2010,[29] which included a version translated into English.

[30] Current common Chamorro uses only the number words of Spanish origin: uno, dos, tres, etc.

Current common Chamorro uses only the days of the week which are Spanish in origin but are spelled and pronounced differently.

CHiN was founded on the occasion of the Chamorro Day (27 September 2009) which was part of the programme of the Festival of Languages.

The foundation ceremony was attended by people from Germany, Guam, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States of America.