Recently get into a fight with your Chamorro-speaking girlfriend, and you’re wondering what “chadananamu” means? Fret not, friend. Google Translate now translates Chamorro to English and English to Chamorro.
Now, I wouldn’t recommend hurling the word back to her once you find out what it means, but I digress. Google added 100 languages – including Chamorro and Chuukese – to its Translate application on June 27 this year.
Go to translate.google.com to access the application’s features.
The application has a “Detect language” feature, where in the left box you can type (for example) ‘Hafa adai,’ and the application will produce an English translation from whichever language is detected based on what you type. The application won’t always detect the correct language. If you type ‘Hafa adai’ today, Google detects the language as Hausa, which apparently means ‘just like that.’
Type in ‘hu guaiya hao,’ and Google detects the Chinese phrase Lake Monster, which I think is hilarious.
You can choose “Chamorro” in the left box, then type a word to translate into English, which gets rid of the detection confusion. Correct spelling appears to be required in order to get a proper translation. For example, Google translates ‘hafa adai’ to ‘hello,’ but translates ‘hafadai’ to ‘hafadai.’
Fortunately, Google Translate has no English translation for either ‘chadananamu,’ ‘chada na namu,’ or ‘chada na’namu.’ There must be a domestic violence filter built in.
