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

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).