Seoul Ties up with Indonesian Tribe Using Korean Alphabet

Kompas, Tuesday, 22 December 2009 | 2:50 PM

The coast of Sulawesi is seen from a plane approaching the island. A small Indonesian tribe, living around Bau-Bau city in southeast Sulawesi, that lacks its own written language has signed an agreement to promote a script pioneered by a Korean king almost six centuries ago. (AFP/Romeo Gacad)

SEOUL, KOMPAS.com - A small Indonesian tribe that lacks its own written language signed an agreement Tuesday to promote a script pioneered by a Korean king almost six centuries ago. The Cia-Cia tribe, living around Bau-Bau city in Southeast Sulawesi, earlier this year announced it was adopting Korea’s unique Hangeul alphabet to transcribe its spoken tribal language.

On Tuesday Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Amirul Tamim, mayor of Bau-Bau, signed a letter of intent to promote the spread of Hengeul and cultural exchanges. The Seoul city government will help set up a centre in Bau-Bau to train language teachers and support the exchanges.

South Korea has already provided manpower and material support including Korean-language textbooks for members of the tribe, which totals about 60,000. The Bau-Bau mayor arrived on Monday for a six-day visit, leading a nine-member delegation including the tribal chief.

Oh said his city and the central government would push to spread the Korean alphabet further afield after its adoption by the Cia-Cia — the first such case worldwide. Koreans are intensely proud of their 24-character Hangeul alphabet, which was introduced by King Sejong the Great around 1443 to supersede the use of Chinese characters.

International linguists have praised its logical structure. A Bau-Bau City official said the Indonesian tribe had chosen Hangeul script, in preference to the Latin alphabet used by the rest of the archipelago, because it was better suited to the nuances of their language.

“We’ve decided to adopt the Korean alphabet as this system can transcribe words correctly which, if written in Latin alphabet, cannot be discerned,” the official, Ibnu Wahid, told AFP. The Hunminjeongeum Research Institute, a Seoul linguistic society, has been trying for years to spread the Korean alphabet to minorities across Asia which lack their own writing system.

Editor: jimbon / Source : AFP