Cia-Cia language
| Cia-Cia | |
|---|---|
| Butonese | |
|
Bahasa Ciacia 바하사 찌아찌아 |
|
| Region | Buton Island, Sulawesi |
|
Native speakers
|
79,000 (2005) |
|
Latin Hangul (abandoned) Gundhul (historical) |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | ciac1237 |
Cia-Cia (Bahasa Ciacia), also known as Buton(ese), is an Austronesian language spoken principally around the town of Bau-Bau on the southern tip of Buton Island off the southeast coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia.
In 2009, the language gained international media attention as the town of Bau-Bau 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 was abandoned in 2012.
As of 2005 there were 80,000 speakers. Speakers also use Wolio, which is closely related to Cia-Cia, as well as Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia. Wolio is falling into disuse as a written language among the Cia-Cia, as it is written using the Arabic script and Indonesian is now taught in schools with the Latin script.
Cia-Cia is spoken in Southeast Sulawesi, south Buton Island, Binongko Island, and Batu Atas Island.
According to legend, Cia-Cia speakers on Binonko descend from Butonese troops sent by a Butonese Sultan.
The name of the language comes from the negator cia "no". It is also known as Buton(ese), Butung, and in Dutch Boetoneezen, names it shares with Wolio, and as South Buton or Southern Butung.
The language situation on the island of Buton is very complicated and not known in great detail.
Dialects include Kaesabu, Sampolawa (Mambulu-Laporo), Wabula (with its subvarieties), and Masiri. The Masiri dialect shows the greatest amount of vocabulary in common with the standard dialect. Konisi & Hidayat discuss two dialects, Pesisir and Pedamalan; Pedamalan has gh in native words where Pesisir has r, but has r in loan words.
Cia-Cia was once written in a Jawi-like script, called Gundhul, based on Arabic with five additional consonant letters but no signs for vowels.
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Wikipedia