Tuesday, April 30, 2013

FINO' I MAN ÅMKO' : CHE'CHO' CHAPUS



Very sloppy work, doing a bad job, as in the horrible sewing shown above, is called che'cho' chapus.

A bad hem; buttons sewn in the wrong place; one sleeve longer than the other....all che'cho' chapus.

The stress is on the last syllable; cha - PUS. 

Now don't use your Americanized head and pronounce it as in bus or fuss.

Use your Chamorro head and pronounce it OO, as in loose or juice.

Che'cho', of course, means "work" or "deed."

The word chapus comes from the Spanish chapuz, meaning "sloppy work."

Påle' Roman, in his pre-war Chamorro dictionary, has this word, but he spelled it chapuus, showing that, at least some Chamorros in his day, changed the pronunciation a little, giving it three syllables : cha - pu - us.

But the lady who taught me this phrase pronounced it like the Spanish original : cha - pus.  Two syllables.


I don't know anything about plumbing, but maybe the above is another example of a che'cho' chapus.

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