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Commission urges updated Chamorro orthography, warns PUDs may complicate place-name restoration
Summary
Dr. Robert Underwood of the place-names commission briefed mayors on a project to research and restore indigenous Chamorro place names and align spellings with current orthography; he cautioned planned-unit developments and external map databases can complicate renaming efforts.
Dr. Robert Underwood, representing the Commission I Fino’na’fåna’ (place-names commission), told the Mayor’s Council of Guam on May 10 that the commission is studying traditional Chamorro place names with a goal of restoring authentic pronunciations and spellings under current Chamorro orthography.
“our main mission is to honor our ancestors by aligning place names with, updated tomorrow orthography, researching the meaning of indigenous place names, and understanding the history of place,” Dr. Underwood said, describing the commission’s legal responsibilities to research and affirm traditional names for rivers, summits, springs, bays, points and commonly used locales.
Underwood said the commission does not control village legal boundaries or road names assigned by other authorities but does have standing with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to advise on official place names for Guam. He said some changes will be primarily spelling updates — for example recommendations to render Tamuning as Tamuning Tomhum — while other cases will be more controversial, especially where planned-unit developments (PUDs) have introduced new neighborhood names.
The commission has catalogued more than 1,300 place names to review, Underwood said, with the southern villages holding the most historical names and the northern and central villages likely to generate more discussion. He cited work with the Water and Environmental Research Institute on river and watershed names and said the commission is coordinating with federal mapping agencies but continues to seek input from village elders and informants.
Underwood warned the commission expects debate over names introduced by developers and military agencies: “planned unit developments will likely cause the greatest controversy in renaming,” he said, noting Apple and Google map labels and U.S. Geological Survey conventions also shape which names are widely used. He said the commission has recommended a compromise format for some village names (e.g., Agana Heights-Tutujan) and will forward recommendations to the legislature where legal changes are required.
No formal council action was recorded; mayors asked clarifying questions and Underwood said the commission will continue community consultations and return with proposed changes.
