Tembo (Kitembo) language
Tembo, also known as Kitembo, is a Bantu language spoken in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, mainly in North Kivu and Ituri. About 500,000 to 700,000 people speak Tembo (2023). It is part of the Niger-Congo language family. Its ISO code is tbt and Glottolog name is temb1270.
An adapted Hangul writing system has been developed for Tembo. Inspired by Hangul’s use for the Cia-Cia language in Indonesia, Korean linguists created a Hangul-based script for Tembo (Chitembo). Korean teachers in Los Angeles taught this writing system to primary school teachers from Bunyakiri in Congo, who then taught it to local communities. Children can write their names in the new script within about 30 minutes, and hundreds of speakers have learned the adapted Hangul.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:35 (CET).