WIA LANGUAGES PROJECT

[Day 8/221]

Jedek

Jedek | Jdɛk

Table of Contents

“The wisdom of 280 people living by sharing, not owning”

A quiet revolution, 221 languages’ digital archive • We’re not saving languages. We’re saving humanity.

🎵 Language Where Sharing Is Life

“tabək”

[tah-buk]
“to share, to exchange, to be together”

In Jedek, there are no words for ‘steal’, ‘borrow’, ‘buy’, or ‘sell’. Yet remarkably, there exists an extraordinarily rich vocabulary for sharing and exchanging. This is not merely a linguistic feature. It represents another possibility for humanity, created by 280 people.

In 2017, linguists from Lund University in Sweden made an astonishing discovery in a small village in Kelantan state, Malaysia. In this village that anthropologists had already studied, linguists discovered a completely new language. This language was filled with a philosophy of sharing, lacking the concept of ‘ownership’ that we take for granted.

📖 Songs of Lost Time

Jedek speakers were originally Semang people who lived as hunter-gatherers roaming the middle reaches of the Pergau River. In the 1970s, through the Malaysian government’s resettlement program, they settled in the current Sungai Rual area.

The language of these people, who have lived with the tropical rainforest for thousands of years, perfectly embodies the spirit of harmony with nature, equality, and sharing. The wisdom of a community that chose cooperation over competition, sharing over ownership, and peace over violence is inscribed directly in their language.

Amazingly, this language had been hiding in a village that anthropologists had studied for decades. “As linguists, we had different questions and found something the anthropologists missed,” says Professor Niclas Burenhult.

[Image: Traditional village surrounded by Malaysian jungle in Kelantan state, peaceful landscape of Sungai Rual area where Jedek speakers live]

🌏 Between Hope and Despair

Language Status

Category	Information
🏷️ Language Family	Austroasiatic > Aslian
🗺️ Region	Jeli area, Kelantan state, Malaysia
👥 Speakers	Approximately 280 (as of 2024)
📚 Writing System	Oral language (no script)
🏛️ Current Status	Endangered language (used by all generations)

The positive news is that Jedek is still actively used across all age groups. The number of speakers has actually increased since the 1970s, and children are naturally learning the language. However, the Malaysian government does not officially recognize the existence of this language, simply classifying the area as a Jahai-speaking region.

💎 Untranslatable Beauty

The most remarkable feature of Jedek is the absence of many concepts we take for granted:

Words That Don’t Exist

• steal
• buy
• sell
• borrow
• occupation names
• legal terminology

Rich Vocabulary of Sharing

“tabək” – to share
“bʔbɨl” – to be together
“ɲiʔ” – to give
Dozens more
nuanced expressions for
exchange and sharing

This language reflects a society with perfect gender equality, a community with almost no interpersonal violence, and a culture that doesn’t teach children to compete. All members learn the same skills necessary for hunting and gathering, with no specific professions or classes.

🌟 WIA’s Promise – Records Made by Technology

“We don’t simply translate.
We preserve records digitally.”

WIA is building a digital archive of Jedek’s audio materials. In collaboration with Lund University’s ‘Tongues of the Semang’ project, we are converting this unique language’s grammatical structure, phonological system, and above all, its vocabulary embodying the philosophy of sharing into permanently preservable forms.

Particularly, the alternative way of life that Jedek demonstrates – a society without ownership, education without competition, community without violence – is precious wisdom that humanity must not lose. We are placing this language’s philosophy and worldview in a digital time capsule for future generations to learn from.

[Image: Jedek voice data visualized as digital waveforms, words meaning sharing and exchange connected in a glowing network]

🎭 Why It Must Not Disappear

Jedek asks us: “What if we could be prosperous without ownership?” “What if we could progress without competition?” “What if we could be peaceful without laws?”

This language shows us another path that humanity could have taken but chose not to. The wisdom preserved by this small community of 280 people for thousands of years can inspire solutions to the problems of inequality, violence, and alienation that modern society faces.

🚀 The Tomorrow We’ll Create

After 221 days, when all languages are digitally recorded, we will finally have a complete record of humanity. The philosophy of sharing that Jedek demonstrates will serve as evidence to future generations that ‘different ways of life’ are possible.

This quietly begun journey touches millions of hearts and creates eternal change. The Jedek word “tabək” (to share) that we record today will tomorrow inspire people worldwide to imagine new ways of living.

“hãʔ klɨc”

[hah-kleek]
“we together”

“May the whispers of these languages resonate in your soul”
“And echo across time and space”
“With WIA, every voice is eternal”

Started by one, completed by all
Be a witness to this history

Visit WIA Languages Visit WIA Tools Experience WIA Go

📅 Tomorrow’s Miracle

Day 9/221: Cornish
The last Celtic voice dreaming of resurrection in Cornwall, England

📰 Language Revolution with The Korean Today

The Korean Today, maintaining neutrality for 12 years,
shares this journey with the world in 48 languages.

Today’s articles become tomorrow’s history.
Media and technology unite to save languages.

Visit The Korean Today Global →

WIA Languages Project

Connecting the world through 221 languages
A quiet revolution, humanity’s digital archive

📚 WIA Languages: wialanguages.com
🌐 WIA Tools: wia.tools | 🔗 WIA Go: wiago.link
📰 The Korean Today: thekorean.today | 🌍 The Korean Today Global: thekoreantoday.com

Day 8/221: Jedek
“Quietly, unwaveringly, one step at a time”