FORGOTTEN CHAMORRO

Trust our mañaina (elders) to come up with a descriptive Chamorro name for a bell clapper; the hanging metal piece that strikes the bell from the inside.

We didn't have bells until the Spanish came and brought them with them, for use in the church, primarily. Thus our word for "bell" is borrowed from the Spanish - kampåna (in Spanish, campana).

So the Chamorro word for the clapper can also be the Spanish name for it, which is badajo (or badåho in Chamorro).

Our elders also called it the panak kampåna (bell striker).

But two other old dictionaries give us descriptive Chamorro terms for the clapper.

Von Preissig (1918) calls it the CHILIN KAMPÅNA.

Påle' Román (1932) calls it the DAMMUT KAMPÅNA.

Both chili and dammut mean the male organ.

Go figure.