Cia-Cia

Cia-Cia (바하사 찌아찌아 / Bahasa Ciacia)

Cia-Cia is an Austronesian language spoken by about 80,000
people on Buton Island, a part of Indonesia to the south east
of Sualwesi. Most Cia-Cia speakers live in and around the town
of Bau-Bau, on the soutern tip of Buton, and there are also
speakers on Binongko and Batu Atas Islands.

Cia-Cia, which is also known as Buton(ese) or Butung, has
quite a few different dialects, including Kaesabu, Sampolawa,
Wabula and Masiri. It is closely related to Wolio, which many
Cia-Cia speakers also speak.

Cia-Cia was originally written with the Gundul script, a version
of the Arabic script. Since 2009 students in Bau-Bau have been
taught to write their language with a version of the Korean Hangeul
alphabet using textbooks published by the Hunminjeongeum Research
Institute, a linguistic society based in Seoul. The idea of using
Hangeul to write Cia-Cia was first proposed by Nicholas T. Dammen,
Indonesian Ambassador to Korea, and Professor Chun Tai-hyun in 2007.

Cia-Cia alphabet and pronuciation

Cia-Cia alphabet and pronuciation

Notes

  • ᄙ is not considered a separate letter and is used to write /l/ when that sound occurs in medial position, but ㄹ is written twice when it occurs across two syllables, e.g. 빨리 (pali).
  • The empty vowel ㅡ is added before an initial doubled ㄹ, so that initial /l/ is written 을ㄹ-. However, final /l/ is written with a single ㄹ; for final /r/, the empty vowel is added, so that it is written 르 as if it were a separate syllable, as in 사요르 (sayor).

Sample text in Cia-Cia

아디 세링 빨리 노논또 뗄레ᄫᅵ시. 아마노 노뽀옴바에 이아 나누몬또 뗄레ᄫᅵ시 꼴리에 노몰렝오.
adi sering pali nononto televisi. amano nopo’ombae ia nanumonto televisi kolie nomolengo.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cia-Cia_language

Links

Information about the Cia-Cia language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cia-Cia_language
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cia

News report (in Korean) about the adoption of Hangeul for Cia-Cia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czdwvRRjySI

  • Post category:Languages
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