BÅTBAS UHANG

 

So I learned a new Chamorro word today and I wanted to share it with you.

In English it's called the shrimp's antennae. Even then I'm sure people come up with their own word(s) for it, even calling it a "thingy" if we ever have to talk about it at all!

But I was so happy to hear an older man call it the BÅTBAS UHANG. The shrimp's beard!

Sure enough, I found the expression in some older Chamorro dictionaries.

But what pleases me is how our elders looked at something and came up with words that describe the thing just as it is, as they saw it. We find it in many other words and phrases we use for things that other languages see differently. Just one example would be "sleeping water" for a water puddle.

The word BÅTBAS (beard) is used in combination with other words, too, for other things. But I'll save those for future blog posts.

By the way, we aren't the only ones who describe shrimp antennae using facial hair.

In Filipino it is called the SHRIMP'S MUSTACHE. Bigote ng hipon.

Both bigote (used in both Filipino and Chamorro) and båtbas (barba) are borrowed from Spanish.