FAMILY NICKNAMES : GAYEGO

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GAYEGO

A branch of the Díaz family in the Marianas is known as the Familian Gayego.

When something in Chamorro sounds awfully close to Spanish, one has to wonder if there is a connection.

The nickname Gayego differs in only one sound from the Spanish word (and name) Gallego. The double L in Spanish (LL) sounds like a Y, and Spanish Y becomes Chamorro DZ. The Chamorro letter Y sounds like DZ. Listen to Yigo and Yoña.

Spanish mantequilla (butter) becomes Chamorro mantekiya.

The Spanish name Quintanilla, pronounced KIN - TA - NI - YA is pronounced KIN - TA - NI - DZA in Chamorro.

So Chamorro Gayego could very well be based on the Spanish word (and name) Gallego.

"Gallego" in Spanish means "someone from Galicia."  Galicia is a region of Spain, famous for the shrine in Compostela to Saint James (Santiago), its cooking and the many Galicians who took to the high seas. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's paternal roots are Galician.  Famous actor Martin Sheen's real last name is Estévez and his father was born in Galicia, Spain.

"Gallego" is also a last name, just like in English there are people who are ethnically French, Fleming or Turk but there are also people with the last name French, Fleming or Turk. 

Once again, it is a mystery why a Chamorro family should have Gayego as a family nickname.  Did this Diaz family originate in the Marianas from a Galician named Diaz who settled on Guam?  We know of some Galicians (Gallegos) who moved to Guam, including a priest. We even have a word (fosiños) for a farm implement based on the Galician language. So we have evidence of some Galician influence in the Marianas. Was there a Chamorro Díaz who was given Gayego as a nickname for some unknown reason?

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THE REGION OF GALICIA IN SPAIN

"LOVER"

Some people define gayego as a "lover" of some sort.

This meaning has appeared only very recently.

An online Chamorro dictionary says it means the lover of a widow (female) or widower (male), or a mistress (that means, a female lover). This online dictionary credits as sources Topping's dictionary and Von Preissig's dictionary, but neither dictionary has an entry for gayego so one wonders what is the source for this definition.

In the latest Chamorro dictionary, the one authored by Dr Katharine Aguon in 2009, gayego is defined as the "lover or admirer" of a married woman, differing from what the online dictionary said about gayego being the lover of a widow (a married woman whose husband has died).

So even in the only two modern sources for this meaning of gayego the definitions do not entirely agree.

Older dictionaries say nothing about gayego. Was this an oversight in all those many dictionaries? Or did gayego become a slang word for "lover" only recently?