A group of linguists from Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanity has developed a new system of written language for the Stieng ethnic minority group.

The new Stieng written language has 38 letters, including 15 vowels and 23 consonants while the old one has 29 consonants, 17 vowels and two semi-vowels.

The linguists, headed by Dr Le Khac Cuong, have also compiled and translated the language into commonly-used Vietnamese, with the Stieng-Vietnamese dictionary featuring close to 5,000 words and the Vietnamese-Stieng dictionary boasting 6,500 words.

There are close to 75,000 Stieng people living in Binh Phuoc province alone. (VNA)