Researchers from the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics have recently completed two AHRC-funded projects to help preserve and document the Enggano language, an indigenous language spoken off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Map Data © 2025 Google
Both projects involved collaboration between the Enggano community and a multinational research team from the University of Oxford, the Australian National University; Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main; Udayana University; University of Bengkulu and the Indonesian research organization BRIN.
Professor Mary Dalrymple (University of Oxford), Professor I Wayan Arka (Australian National University) and Dendi Wijaya (BRIN) discussing the aims of the Enggan project with community leaders in Enggano, January 2020.
Project Team Members Engga Zakaria Sangian (Enggano Community Member), Dendi Wijaya (BRIN), Gede Primahadi Wijaya Rajeg and Charlotte Hemmings (Post-doctoral researchers at the University of Oxford) returning to Enggano for the end-of-project celebration.
Enggano is a traditionally oral language spoken by 1,500-1,600 speakers. Like many of the over 700 regional languages spoken in Indonesia, Enggano is classified as endangered according to the Ethnologue. This is because speakers are increasingly using the national language, Indonesian, in contexts where they might once have used Enggano. The shift is particularly marked among the younger generations and in villages where the percentage of non-Enggano people in the population is higher. Consequently, it was felt that there was an urgent need for documentation before knowledge of the language was lost irreversibly.
The Enggano research projects resulted in a number of outputs designed to help support the Enggano language. Firstly, the team collected audio and video recordings of the language in use to help document the language. Many of these recordings are also available on the project website with transcription and translation.
In order to make these resources accessible and useable, the team collaborated with the Enggano community to develop a practical orthography for writing Enggano. We tried to adopt the conventions of Indonesian where possible, but also account for some of the unique features of Enggano, including the existence of two central vowels (/ə/ and /ɨ/) and phonemic nasal vowels. We adopted some unique symbols such as <ė> and <u̇> and <ũ> to account for these contrastive sounds.
| kėr ‘swallow’ | |
| ku̇r ‘live’ | |
| ku ‘tree’ | |
| kũ ‘count’ |
Table 1. Sample Enggano Words with recordings from Yoder (2010) Enggano Audio Recordings
Secondly, the team produced two textbooks designed to teach the Enggano language as part of the local languages and cultures school curriculum (Muatan Lokal). One textbook is aimed at primary school users, and the other is aimed at secondary school users.
Enggano School Textbooks: Kapa Dop Enggano (Primary) and Pihia’ Yic Enggano (Secondary)
Finally, the team produced a learner’s Enggano-Indonesian-English dictionary (Kamus Bahasa Enggano) which complements the teaching materials and a more comprehensive online dictionary (Kamus Digital Bahasa Enggano) that is linked to the collection of audio and video recordings that make up the primary documentation.
In January 2025, the team returned to Enggano island to deliver the project outputs to the Enggano community. Copies of the dictionary and teaching materials were presented to Community leaders and educators as part of an end-of-project celebration.
End-of-Project Celebration in Meok, Enggano Island, 17th January 2025.
The team also donated copies of the dictionary to Kantor Bahasa Provinsi Bengkulu in Bengkulu, a government organisation dedicated to language development in Bengkulu, the closest city to Enggano Island:
To the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in Jakarta, Indonesia:
And to the Taylorian Library at the University of Oxford, which houses collections on minority and endangered languages in addition to its main collections on Modern European Languages.
Dr Charlotte Hemmings donates a copy of the Enggano-Indonesian-English dictionary to Dr Johanneke Sytsema, Linguistics Librarian for the Taylor Institution Library and the Bodleian Library
The team plans to continue to support the Enggano community to preserve and revitalize their language.
Selected Bibliography
Rajeg, Gede Primahadi Wijaya, Charlotte Hemmings, Engga Zakaria Sangian, Dendi Wijaya, and I Wayan Arka. Kamus Bahasa Enggano. Zara Abadi Publisher, 2025. [Enggano-Indonesian-English dictionary]
Ethnologue. SIL International, n.d. [database]
Hemmings, Charlotte, I Wayan Arka, Engga Zakaria, Dendi Wijaya, and Mary Dalrymple. 2023. ‘Challenges in Enggano Orthography Development’. Language Documentation and Description 23(1): 4, 1–19.
Sangian, Engga Zakaria, Charlotte Hemmings, I Wayan Arka, and Arono. Pihia’ Yic Enggano: Terampil Berbahasa Enggano Kelas VII SMP MTS. [Secondary School Teaching Materials for the Enggano Language]
Wijaya, Dendi, Engga Zakaria Sangian, Charlotte Hemmings, and I Wayan Arka. Bahan Ajar: Bangga Menjadi Anak Enggano: Kapa Dop Enggano. [Primary School Teaching Materials for the Enggano Language]
Dr Charlotte Hemmings
Postdoctoral researcher
Faculty of Linguistics
Oxford