Cia-Cia language
Cia-Cia, also known as Buton or Butonese, is an Austronesian language spoken principally around the city of Baubau on the southern tip of Buton island, off the southeast coast of Sulawesi, in Indonesia.
| Cia-Cia | |
|---|---|
| Butonese | |
| Bahasa Ciacia 바하사 찌아찌아 بهاس چيا-چيا | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Baubau, Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi |
Native speakers | 79,000 (2005) |
| Hangul (present) Latin (present) Gundhul (historical) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cia |
| Glottolog | ciac1237 |
In 2009, the language gained international media attention, as the city of Baubau was teaching children to read and write Cia-Cia in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, and the mayor consulted the Indonesian government on the possibility of making the writing system official. However, the project encountered difficulties between the city of Baubau, the Hunminjeongeum Society, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2011. The King 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; it reopened them in 2022. In December 2023, Agence France-Presse again published an article with interviews showcasing the Hangul effort.
As of 2017, Hangul remains in use in schools and on local signs. In 2020, the first Cia-Cia dictionary was announced. Written in Hangul, it was published in 2022.