This is a story we've been following for well over a decade (see "Selected readings"). Improbable as it may seem that the Korean alphabet might be adaptable for writing an Austronesian language of Indonesia, there are some promoters of this idea who continue to push it enthusiastically: "An Indonesian Tribe’s Language Gets an Alphabet: Korea’sThe […]
"How Korea's alphabet is saving an Indonesian dialect", SCMP (1/4/24)
In previous posts, I chronicled the bizarre story of how the Hangeul alphabet was chosen to be the "official" script for a language called Cia-Cia spoken by an obscure tribe in Indonesia: "The Hangeul Alphabet Moves beyond the Korean Peninsula" "Hangeul for Cia-Cia, part II" "Hangeul for Cia-Cia, part III" Because the whole proposition was […]
Back in August and December of last year, I wrote about the efforts of Hangeul enthusiasts to get a tribe in Indonesia to adopt Hangeul as their script. The latest news, in the Korea Times, no less, is that the rumors of the tribe's having chosen Hangeul as their offical script were not only premature, […]
Back in August, I posted a report about how the Hangeul alphabet had moved beyond the Korean Peninsula. Now, nearly half a year later, it may be worth taking a look at how things are progressing in this novel attempt to introduce the Hangeul alphabet to members of a 60,000 member Indonesian tribe called the […]
In this comment to "'Neutrino Evidence Revisited (AI Debates)' | Is Mozart's K297b authentic?" (11/13/24), I questioned whether John Searle's "Chinese room" argument was intelligently designed and encouraged those who encounter it to reflect on what it did — and did not — demonstrate. In the same comment, I also queried the meaning of "understand" […]
Language wars, the Korean edition "Foreign words dominate signboards, restaurant menus in Korea", omonatheydidn't, LiveJournal (10/8/23; page loaded 10/9/23); source: The Korea Times Trendy use of foreign languages apparently sparks outrage in Korea as well. A Seoul-based office worker surnamed Kim, 35, was perplexed at being unable to locate the Japanese restaurant he had reserved […]
Bizarre scriptplay in Korea: [Newsmaker] "What is ‘daengdaengi?’ Government’s use of Hangeul slang stirs controversy"By Lim Jae-seong, The Korea Herald (Oct 7, 2022) The article is rather long. Here I quote only the first portion, but will summarize some of the more important points at the bottom. The National Institute of Korean Language’s use of […]
Most of what is said below applies mainly to South Korea, since Hangul-only writing has been even more deeply entrenched in North Korea than in the south.
I've long been aware that many of the languages of Southeast Asia are referred to as bahasa. Here's a list from Wikipedia: The Indonesian language, or Bahasa Indonesia The Malay language, or Bahasa Melayu The Javanese language, or Basa Jawa, also Basa Jawi The Sundanese language, or Basa Sunda The Balinese language, or Basa Bali […]