Acehnese language

Acehnese
Bahsa/Basa Acèh
Spoken in	Indonesia, Malaysia
Region	Aceh, Sumatra
Native speakers	3.5 million  (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP Malayo-Sumbawan Chamic Acehnese
Language codes
ISO 639-2	ace
ISO 639-3	ace
Aceh province, Sumatra

Acehnese (also Achinese, Achehnese) or Aceh (formerly Atjeh) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by Acehnese people natively in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. This language also spoken in some parts in Malaysia by Acehnese descendents there, such as in Yan, Kedah.

Classification and related languages

Hikayat Prang Sabi

Acehnese belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Acehnese's closest relatives therefore include Chamic languages, Malay language family, Minangkabau language, Gayo language and Batak languages family.

Phonology

Hikayat Akhbarul Karim

The following are phonemes of Acehnese.

Acehenese Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	i	ĩ	ɨ	ɨ̃	u	ũ
Close-mid	e	ɛ̃	ə	ʌ̃	o	ɔ̃
Open-mid	ɛ		ʌ		ɔ
Open			a	ã

Vowels come mostly in oral/nasal pairs, though there are only three nasalized mid vowels while there are twice as many oral mid vowels. /ʌ/ is not strictly central, though it is shown here as such for aesthetic reasons. Similarly, /ɨ/ has also been represented as more back [ɯ].^{[citation needed]} In addition to the monophthongal vowels above, Acehnese also possesses five oral diphthongs, each with a nasal counterpart:

• /iə ɨə uə ɛə ɔə/
• /ĩə ɨ̃ə ũə ɛ̃ə ɔ̃ə/

Acehenese Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d	c ɟ	k g	ʔ
Fricative		s	ʃ		h
Approximant	w	l	j
Trill		r

/s/ is laminal alveodental. /ʃ/ is technically postalveolar but is in the palatal column for aesthetic reasons.

Writing system

Hikayat Banta Beuransah

Formerly, Acehnese language was written in Arabic script called Jawoë or Jawi in Malay language. The script is barely used nowadays. Now, Acehnese language is written in Latin script, with some additional letters. The additional letters are é, è, ë, ö and ô.

Dialects

So far there has been no complete research about dialects of the Acehnese language. However, there are at least 10 dialects in the Acehnese language. The dialects are Pasè, Peusangan, Matang, Pidië, Buëng, Banda, Daya, Meulabôh, Seunagan and Tunong.

Among the 10 dialects, the most different dialects compared to other dialects are Buëng, Banda, and Daya dialects, especially Daya dialects. Perhaps, if a complete research was performed, they would be classed as a different language.

Bibliography

• Al-Harbi, Awwad; Al-Ahmadi, Ahmad (2003), "Acehnese coda condition: An optimality-theoretic account", Umm Al-Qura University Journal of Educational and Social Sciences and Humanities 15: 9–21, http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/594-0403/594-0403-AL-HARBI-0-0 
• Asyik, Abdul Gani (1982), "The agreement system in Acehnese", Mon–Khmer Studies 11: 1–33, http://www.lc.mahidol.ac.th/Documents/Publication/MKS/11/abdul1982agreement.pdf 
• Thurgood, Graham (2007), The Historical Place of Acehnese: The Known and the Unknown, http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs%5CAceh-project%5Cfull-papers%5Caceh_fp_grahamthurgood.pdf 

Further reading

• Asyik, Abdul Gani (1987), A contextual grammar of Acehnese sentences, http://acehbooks.org/pdf/00402.pdf 
• Durie, Mark (1985), A grammar of Acehnese : on the basis of a dialect of North Aceh, http://acehbooks.org/pdf/ACEH_03107.pdf 

External links

• Acehnese language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Acehnese language in the World Atlas of Language Structures Online
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Acehnese
• (Indonesian) Blog Belajar Bahasa Aceh
• (English) (Indonesian) (Acehnese) Meurunoe blog
• (Indonesian) Tambeh blog