| Cia-Cia | |
|---|---|
| Butonese | |
| Bahasa Ciacia 바하사 찌아찌아 بهاس چيا چيا | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Baubau, Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi |
Native speakers | 105,000 (2012)[1] |
| Latin (present) Hangul (present) Gundhul (historical) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cia |
| Glottolog | ciac1237 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Part of a series on | |
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Cia-Cia, also known as (South)Buton orButonese, is anAustronesian language spoken principally around the city ofBaubau on the southern tip ofButon island, off the southeast coast ofSulawesi, in Indonesia.[2] It is written using theLatin andHangul scripts.
In 2012, there were 105,000 speakers of Cia-Cia,[1] many of whom also usedWolio, which is closely related to Cia-Cia, as well asIndonesian. Wolio is falling into disuse as a written language among the Cia-Cia, as it is written using theArabic script, and Indonesian is now taught in schools using theLatin script.[3][unreliable source?]
In two[4]: 36 of the approximately 75: 19 Cia-Cia-speaking subdistricts, the language has been privately taught to schoolchildren using theHangul script since 2008. The students are also taught some basic Korean.[5] The program remained active as of 2025.[6][7]
Cia-Cia is spoken inSoutheast Sulawesi, southButon Island,Binongko Island, andBatu Atas Island.[8]
According to legend, Cia-Cia speakers on Binongko descend from Butonese troops sent by a Butonese sultan.[9]
The name of the language comes from the negatorcia, "no".[8] It is also known as Buton, Butonese, Butung,[8] and in DutchBoetonees, names it shares with Wolio, and as South(ern) Buton or Butung.[8][10] The ambiguous name "Buton", often referring generically to various ethnic and linguistic groups of the Buton area,[11] is said to be ofTernatese origin (butu – "market", "marketplace").[12][13] Names such as "South Buton"[8][10] can be used to disambiguate from Wolio, the historically dominant language of the island.[14]
The language situation on the island of Buton is very complicated and not known in great detail.[15]
Dialects include Kaesabu, Sampolawa (Mambulu-Laporo), Wabula (with its subvarieties), and Masiri.[16] The Masiri dialect shows the greatest amount of vocabulary in common with the standard dialect.[8] The Pedalaman dialect usesgh—equivalent tor in other dialects—in native vocabulary, andr inloan words.[17][page needed]
Phonology according to Rene van den Berg (1991).[2]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | ʔ | |
| prenasal vl. | ᵐp | ⁿt | ᶮt͡ʃ | ᵑk | |||
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |||
| prenasal vd. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||
| Fricative | s | (ɣ) | h | ||||
| Approximant | β | l | (j) | ||||
| Trill | (r) | (ʁ) | |||||
Notes:
Cia-cia has a common five-vowel system.[2][18]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
/e,o/ may also be heard as open-mid [ɛ,ɔ].[2]
Cia-Cia was once written in aJawi-like script calledGundhul, based on Arabic, with five additional consonant letters but no signs for vowels.[citation needed]
TheKorean alphabet, calledHangul internationally, was invented in the 15th century by the Korean kingSejong the Great. The writing system has since received significant praise from international linguists and is now considered a point of pride for Koreans.[19][20] South Korean linguists have been attempting to spread the script outside of Korea, particularly to languages that do not yet have their own writing systems. In the 1990s, a Hangul-based alphabet was devised for theLahu language of China and Southeast Asia, but this did not see significant adoption.[21]
Lee Ki-nam (이기남), whose father was a linguist, became a significant force in advocating for Hangul's use for Cia-Cia. During the 1910–1945Japanese colonial period in Korea, teaching Hangul was at times persecuted; the elder Lee was once dismissed from a teaching position for secretly teaching it to his students.[22][23] Around the 1990s, after retiring from her career, Lee Ki-nam began to domissionary and charitable work, and she developed an interest in spreading Hangul to ethnic groups with languages that did not already have well-established writing systems.[22][23] Beginning in 2003, with the help of South Korean Christian missionaries, she tried to spread Hangul in Nepal, Mongolia, Vietnam, and China, but her efforts had limited success,[23] so she began contacting linguists to aid her in this task. In 2007, she met with Kim Ju-won (김주원), a linguist atSeoul National University (SNU), who, along with several others, expressed interest in the project. In October of that year, they established theHunminjeongeum Society.[22] In July 2008, Lee led a delegation toBaubau to discuss the potential of adopting Hangul for Cia-Cia.[23][21] She offered to build a $500,000 Korean cultural center and establish economic ties between the area and South Korea; the deal was accepted.[23] Donations were also sent from South Korea to Baubau; Jeong Hyeon-tae (정현태), head ofNamhae County, sent around ₩5 million ($4,000) worth of school supplies to Baubau.[24]
Two teachers representing two language groups in Baubau went to Seoul for a six-month training course in Hangul at SNU. One of them quit, but the other returned to Baubau in July 2009 to begin teaching Hangul to 50 third-graders.[23] This later expanded to two more schools. The then-mayor of Baubau, Amirul Tamim, said he would consult the Indonesian government on whether Hangul could be adopted as an official script. However, Chun Tai-hyun, a linguist who first proposed the project to Tamim in 2007, said he found the prospect unlikely, asIndonesian law requires that all tribal languages use the Latin script for national unity.[25]
The project encountered difficulties between the city of Baubau, the Hunminjeongeum Society, and theSeoul Metropolitan Government, in 2011.[26] TheKing Sejong Institute, which had been established in Baubau in 2011 to teach Hangul to locals, abandoned its offices after a year of operation, in 2012.[27] In January 2020, the publication of the first Cia-Cia dictionary in Hangul was announced;[28][29][30] it was published in December 2021.[31] This renewed interest in Hangul for Cia-Cia, and the King Sejong Institute reopened its offices in Baubau in 2022.[28] In December 2023,Agence France-Presse again published an article with interviews showcasing the Hangul effort.[32]
As of 2025, Cia-Cia's use of Hangul remains limited to schools and local signs in the two subdistricts that originally adopted the program.[33][6][7]
| Consonants | Vowels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Latin | Hangul[35] | IPA | Latin | Hangul[18] |
| /ɡ/ | g | ㄱ | /a/ | a | ㅏ |
| /k/ | k | ㄲ | /e/ | e | ㅔ |
| /n/ | n | ㄴ | /o/ | o | ㅗ |
| /d/ | d | ㄷ | /u/ | u | ㅜ |
| /ɗ/ | dh | ㅌ | /i/ | i | ㅣ |
| /t/ | t | ㄸ | (null) | ㅡ | |
| /r/ | r~gh | ㄹ | |||
| /ʁ/ | ㅋ | ||||
| /l/ | l | 을ㄹ[a][b] | |||
| /m/ | m | ㅁ | |||
| /b/ | b | ㅂ | |||
| /β/ | v~w | ㅸ | |||
| /ɓ/ | bh | ㅍ | |||
| /p/ | p | ㅃ | |||
| /s/ | s | ㅅ | |||
| /ʔ/ | ' | ㅇ | |||
| /ŋ/ | ng | ||||
| /dʒ/ | j | ㅈ | |||
| /tʃ/ | c | ㅉ | |||
| /h/ | h | ㅎ | |||
| /ᵐb/ | mb | 음ㅂ[b] | |||
| /ᵐp/ | mp | 음ㅃ[b] | |||
| /ⁿd/ | nd | 은ㄷ[b] | |||
| /ⁿt/ | nd | 은ㄸ[b] | |||
| /ᶮt͡ʃ/ | nc | 은ㅉ[b] | |||
| /ᵑɡ/ | ŋg | 은ㄱ[b] | |||
| /ᵑk/ | ŋk | 은ㄲ[b] | |||
Cia-Cia, likeMuna, has three sets of numerals: a free form, a prefixed form, and a reduplicated form.[2] The prefixed form is used before units of 10 (pulu), 100 (hacu), and 1,000 (riwu), and before classifiers and measure nouns. The reduplicated form is used after units of ten when counting.ompulu is an irregular exception.[2]
| Latin | Hangul | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | dise, ise | 디세, 이세 |
| 2 | rua, ghua | 루아, 쿠아 |
| 3 | tolu | 똘루 |
| 4 | pa'a | 빠아 |
| 5 | lima | 을리마 |
| 6 | no'o | 노오 |
| 7 | picu | 삐쭈 |
| 8 | walu, oalu | ᄫᅡᆯ루, 오알루 |
| 9 | siua | 시우아 |
| 10 | ompulu | 옴뿔루 |
| 29 | rua-pulu-po-picu | 루아-뿔루-뽀-삐쭈 |
| 80 | walu-pulu | ᄫᅡᆯ루-뿔루 |
An example of the Hangul script, followed by the Latin alphabet and IPA:[38][39]
3R:third person realis3IR:third person irrealis3DO:third person direct object3POS:third person possessive
VM:verbal marker세링
sering
seriŋ
often
빨리
pali
pali
very
뗄레ᄫᅵ시.
televisi.
teleβisi
television.
이아
ia
i.a
he
뗄레ᄫᅵ시
televisi
teleβisi
television
꼴리에
kolie
koli.e
don't
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.
aɗi seriŋ pali nononto teleβisi amano nopoʔomɓa.e i.a nanumonto teleβisi koli.e nomoleŋo.
Adi.NOM often very 3R-watch television. Father-3POS 3R-tell-3DO he 3IR-watch television don't 3R-VM-long
Adi often watches television. His father advises him not to watch too much TV.
Rene van den Berg (1991) provides a few more examples.[2]
.svg)
e18 was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).The island was their "market" orbutu in Ternate language. Thus the island became known as Buton.
Because of its strategic geographical position, Buton served as a major stopping place for military and merchant vessels, whence it got the name of "market", after the Ternate wordbutu for marketplace.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)With one exception, the Cia-Cia phonemes can be mapped onto a subset of those of Korean and are therefore written the same way. The exception is the fricative /v/, which is not found in contemporary Korean, but for which Lee resurrected the obsolete hangul jamo (or Korean letter) ᄫ (U+112B). (ᄫ was used as a symbol for the voiced bilabial fricative.) The Cia-Cia implosives /ɓ/ and /ɗ/ are written with standard hangul jamo, as ㅍ and ㅌ. So the series /t, d, ɗ/ are written with the jamo that in Korean stand for /t*, t~d, th/ respectively, namely ㄸ, ㄷ, ㅌ.
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