Page 5 - XTE_Ketengban_Upu_Huruf_Kaelkemna_Buku (1)

Preface

This is an Alphabet book for speakers of the Ketengban
language. Ketengban is spoken by approximately ten to
twelve thousand people living in the Star Mountains of
eastern Irian Jaya in Kecamatan Okbibap, Kabupaten
Jayawijaya, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Ketengban is a Papuan
language of the Trans--New Guinea phylum and is a member of
the Mek family of languages.

. This Alphabet Book is intended to introduce the
Ketengban alphabet to children and adults who are just
beginning to read.

In addition to this Alphabet Book, there is a series of
Pre-primers and Primers, their accompanying Teachers Guides,
and a series of graded readers.

The alphabet chosen to write the Ketengban language is
designed to conform as much as possible to that of bahasa
Indonesia so that the student is able to transfer his
reading skills to the National Language with maximum
effectiveness. The following sounds and combinations of
sounds are basically spoken as in Indonesian. They are: a,
e, i, 0, u, and all consonants appearing in Indonesian
except j, written dy, in Ketengban, and word or syllable
initial p, which represents the voiceless bilabial
fricative, and is pronounced somewhat similar to the sound
of f in English_'fathe~'. In addition there are numerous
vowel and consonant combinations in Ketengban not found in
Indonesian. Some of these are: ly, ny, kw, ngw, gw, ai,
oi, au, ou, ei.

This Alphabet Book has been developed by SIL field
workers and translators Andrew and Anne Sims, in close
consultation with Delle Matthews, SIL literacy consultant in
Irian Jaya, Indonesia, under the auspices of the UNCEN-SIL
Cooperative Program.

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