Tembo (Kitembo) language

Not to be confused with Litembo language.

Tembo is a Bantu language spoken by people in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.

Tembo
Kitembo
Native to	Democratic Republic of Congo
Region	Kivu
Native speakers	500,000 to 700,000 (2023)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Shi–Havu Tembo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tbt
Glottolog	temb1270
Guthrie code	JD.531[2]

Writing System

Tembo alphabet^{[3][verification needed]}

a

aa

b

ch

e

ee

f

h

i

ii

k

l

m

mb

mv

n

nd

ng

nj

ny

nz

o

oo

p

r

s

sh

t

u

uu

w

y

Hangul

The sister of a Twa leader from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo visited Korea in 2015 for a cultural exchange event. She learned that Hangul was used for the Cia-Cia language in Indonesia, and thought it would help her people, who speak Chitembo, estimated to be spoken by 500,000 to 700,000 people. Korean linguists developed a version of the alphabet for Chitembo over the next few years, which previously had no writing system. Korean language teachers in Los Angeles, California taught the alphabet to primary school teachers from Bunyakiri in Congo. The school teachers, along with Korean missionaries, taught it to people in the region. They found that children could write their names within half an hour, while adults took longer, but reported that hundreds of them have been able to learn the adapted Hangul.^[1]