SUCKING WIPES

Manuel, age 16, was at the kitchen sink when he casually asked his grandmother :

Manuel : Nåna, håfa "sponge" gi fino' Chamorro?

Manuel : Grandma, what is "sponge" in Chamorro?

Nåna : Espongha.

Nåna : Espongha.

Manuel : Ti "saosao mañopchop?"

Manuel : It isn't "sucking wipes?"

Nåna threw her slipper at Manuel.

But to use Manuel's remark as a learning tool, let's look closer.

ESPONGHA is borrowed from Spanish, where the word for "sponge" is ESPONJA.

MARINE SPONGES

A SPONGE FOUND AT GABGAB BEACH

The first sponges were from the sea. People figured out that these marine animals (yes, animals - not plants) were absorbent and could be used to apply oils or perfume on human skin. From there, the human imagination put the marine sponge to many other uses. Famously, a Roman soldier dipped a sponge in vinegar and lifted it up for Jesus to drink while He was hanging on the cross.

Obviously our ancestors, being so at home in the ocean, knew about marine sponges. Whether they used them for anything, or whether there was a word for them, I don't know. But in the last 100 years or more, our people just call sea sponges espongha, and there isn't any regular use of them.

In time, people were able to make sponges from different material and, when these were first sold in the Marianas, our people called them espongha.

TO FLUFF UP

But espongha can also be used to mean "to puff up, to be fluffy." Even in Spanish that can be a meaning. And, common sense will tell you the reason just by looking at a fluffy cake like the SPONGE CAKE.

No one calls sponge cake kek espongha in Chamorro, but one could call it that.

What our mañaina (elders) did say, as evidenced in older dictionaries, is na' espongha when they wanted someone to fluff up something like, let's say, a cake or bread.

SAOSAO MAÑOPCHOP

Manuel's invented phrase saosao mañopchop is not without logic.

Saosao means "to wipe" or the wipe itself.

Mañopchop comes from chopchop, which means "to suck."

To suck means to absorb, to take into. The guy in the picture is sucking on a straw and is taking in the drink. He is absorbing the drink through the straw he is sucking on.

A sponge absorbs the liquid it is wiping up.

So one could say saosao mañopchop, but nobody does. Only Manuel thought that one up. And grandma's slipper put a quick end to it.

HOW TO PRONOUNCE

Many readers ask me to always put an audio clip so they will learn how to say the word. Here it is :