Wednesday, June 13, 2012

SMART "ÅLOK"

saudeviver.com

He wasn't just a smart aleck.  He was a smart ålok.

A friend asked me where I was and I said I was passing through Tiyan.

He said, "Your belly area?"

TUYAN / TIYAN

Ever wonder why it's called Tiyan, and not Tuyan?

For the same reason why a road and an area of Dededo is called I Sengsong, and not Songsong.  The root word is Songsong, but when you put the definite article "i," which means "the," it changes the initial vowel in Songsong to Sengsong.

The same goes for tuyanTuyan becomes "i tiyan."  In time, the definite article is dropped to shorten the name and it remains Tiyan.  I suspect the same thing happened with Piti, which was probably I Piti (from puti, meaning "ache") in the beginning.

BUT WHY THE BELLY?

I suppose maybe because Tiyan sits in the center of the island, what would be the abdominal region if Guam were a human body.  Not far is Barrigada, derived from the Spanish word barriga which means "tummy."

atumesa.com

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