The acting president of Guam's Department of Chamorro Affairs says an indigenous dictionary being unveiled today is the result of years of hard work and dedication.
Chamorro is the language of the native people of Guam and the Northern Marianas.
Sylvia Flores says the government had a mandate to publish this dictionary decades ago but it accidentally got packed away in a box during an office move and forgotten until it was discovered again years later.
"It was started by this group of elders and school teachers and it was just accidentally found in a box in an office when they were making the transfer before. And when it was found out that the production of [that] and the printing of the dictionary was a mandate since 1970, it is just now a dream for everyone and it is a dream that has finally come true."
Sylvia Flores says the island's first locally produced dictionary has been funded solely by donations, and the first print run is 3,000 copies.
