TODAY'S CHAMORRO WORD : GIMEN

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GIMEN : to drink; a drink

Malago' yo' gumimen.  I would like to drink.

Kao malago' hao gumimen kafe?  Would you like to drink coffee?

Esta monhåyan yo' gumimen.  I have already drunk.

Tåya' gimen.  There are no drinks.

Na' gimen.  To give to drink/make drink.

Na' gimen si Påle'.  Give Father something to drink.

Gegmen.  A drinker.  Heavy drinker.  A contraction (shortening) of the word "gigimen," meaning "drinker."

Giminon.  Drinkable.  Ti giminon na hånom.  The water is not potable.  The construction of this word is based on the root word "gimen" to which is added the suffix -on, which in Chamorro means "-able."  Gimen+on = drink+able.

Historical Note : There is an archaic form of "gimen" no longer used in modern Chamorro.  It is "ginem."  "Ginem" is found in Father Ibáñez's Chamorro dictionary (1865) and in Påle' Roman's Chamorro dictionary (1932) as well as in Chamorro sermons from the 1870s.

Could "ginem" be the original word, and "gimen" a product of inversion, as seen in other languages?  Think, for example, of the inversion of the "s" and "k" when "ask" becomes "aks" in contemporary urban English.  "I wanna aks you something."