Cia Cia "Little Korea" in Indonesia

There is an ethnic group in Indonesia using Korean alphabet to write their native language. This indigenous people called Cia Cia who lives in a small town in Sorawalio district, Bau-Bau which is located at Buton Island in Southeast Sulawesi.

Cia Cia ethnic group began using Korean alphabet known as “Hangeul” to write their native language since 2009. It all started when Bau-Bau municipality and Seoul municipality agreed to establish cooperation, and made Bau-Bau as  a ‘sister city’ of Seoul.

The reason why Cia Cia community decided to adapt Korean alphabet is to save their native language from extinction because the language so far do not have appropriate writing system. It’s  Chun Thai Yun, a professor of foreign studies in Hankuk University who initially introduced Korean alphabet for Cia Cia language after doing research on the languanges of indigenous tribes in Buton Island in 2008.

From the research, Korean alphabet is considered having as the closest similarity in “sound” with a spoken Cia Cia language so the local government decided to use Korean alphabet for Cia Cia language writing system. Profesor Chun Thai Yun and his team, supported by Korean Research Institute ‘Hunminjeonggeum’ and then begun to introduced Hangeul to Cia Cia community through language learning at schools.

Hunminjeonggeum institute also gives scholarship for some local teachers to study Korean in Korea, publishes Korean textbooks and helps preparing instructions for teaching and learning Korean at local schools.

The use of Korean alphabet di Sorawalio, Bau-Bau is now getting widespread. School names, street names nowadays are also written using Hangeul. KBS World ( Korean Broadcasting System) reported that it is the first time Korean alphabet used by an ethnic group outside Korea as a writing system for their native language.

Korean alphabet itself has 24 letters, consist of 10 vowels and 14 consonants. Hanguel was created in 1443 by Sejong the Great—the fourth king of Korea in Joseoun Dynasty

The use of Hangeul by Cia Cia community in Bau-Bau has received internasional media attention. It makes the ethnic group and the city famous and is well-known as a “Little Korea” in Indonesia. [various sources]