Acehnese language
The Acehnese language is an Austronesian language natively spoken by the Acehnese people in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. This language is also spoken by Acehnese descendants in some parts of Malaysia like Yan, in Kedah.
Name
As of 1988, "Acehnese" is the modern English name spelling and the bibliographical standard, and Acehnese people use the spelling "Acehnese" when writing in English. "Achinese" is an antiquated spelling of the English language tradition. "Atjehnese" is the Dutch spelling and an outdated Indonesian one. The spelling "Achehnese" originates from a 1906 English translation of the Dutch language Studien over atjesche klank- en schriftleer. Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 35.346-442 by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, 1892. In Acehnese the language is called Basa/Bahsa Acèh. In Indonesian it is called Bahasa Aceh.Classification and related languages
Acehnese belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian. Acehnese's closest relatives are the other Chamic languages, which are principally spoken in Vietnam. The closest relative of the Chamic family is the Malay language family, which includes languages also spoken in Sumatra such as Minangkabau as well as the national language, Indonesian.Paul Sidwell notes that Acehnese likely has an Austroasiatic substratum.
Distribution
Acehnese language is spoken primarily in coastal region of Aceh. This language is spoken in 13 regencies and 4 cities in Aceh, those are:City
North-East Coast
West-South Coast
- Aceh Jaya
- West Aceh
- Nagan Raya
- Southwest Aceh
- South Aceh
Phonology
In addition to the modern 26 letter basic Latin alphabet, Acehnese uses the supplementary letters è, é, ë, ô, and ö, making a total of 31 letters in its orthography.
The table below shows the Acehnese consonant phonemes and the range of their realizations.
Notes:
- Syllable-final orthographic always represents save in certain recent loans
- /f/, /z/, and /ʃ/ are borrowed sounds, and are often replaced by ph, dh, and ch respectively
- The post-stopped nasals have been called "funny nasals". They are distinct from the nasal-stop sequences, e.g. in 'port' vs 'all'.
Grammar
Writing system
Formerly, the Acehnese language was written in an Arabic script called Jawoë or Jawi in the Malay language. The script is less common nowadays. Since colonization by the Dutch, the Acehnese language has been written in the Latin script, with the addition of supplementary letters. The additional letters are é, è, ë, ö and ô. The sound /ɨ/ is represented by 'eu' and the sound /ʌ/ is represented by 'ö', respectively. The letter 'ë' is used exclusively to represent the schwa sound which forms the second part of diphthongs. The letters f, q, v, x, and z are only used in loanwords.| Grapheme | Phoneme | Open syllable | Closed syllable |
| a | /a/ | ba /ba/ ‘carry’ | bak /baʔ/ ‘at, tree’ |
| e | /ə/ | le /lə/ ‘many’ | let /lət/ ‘pull out’ |
| é | /e/ | baté /bate/ ‘cup, betel tray’ | baték /bateʔ/ ‘batik’ |
| è | /ɛ/ | bè /bɛ/ ‘smell’ | bèk /bɛʔ/ ‘prohibitive "don't" ' |
| ë | /ə/ | huë /huə/ ‘pull’ | huëk /huəʔ/ ‘choke’ |
| eu | /ɯ/ | keu /kɯ/ ‘front’ | keuh /kɯh/ ‘so, pronominal affix for second person ’ |
| i | /i/ | di /di/ 'in, from' | dit /dit/ 'few, small amount' |
| o | /ɔ/ | yo /jɔ/ ‘afraid’ | yok /jɔʔ/ ‘shake’ |
| ô | /o/ | rô /ro/ ‘spill’ | rôh /roh/ ‘enter’ |
| ö | /ʌ/ | pö /pʌ/ ‘fly’ | pöt /pʌt/ ‘pluck, pick’ |
| u | /u/ | su /su/ ‘sound, voice’ | sut /sut/ ‘remove, detach’ |
| Grapheme | Phoneme | Extra notes |
| b | /b/ | |
| c | /c/ | |
| d | /d/ | |
| f | /f/ | Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with p. |
| g | /g/ | |
| h | /h/ | |
| j | /ɟ/ | |
| k | /k/, /ʔ/ at the end of a syllable. | |
| l | /l/ | |
| m | /m/ | |
| mb | /mb/ | |
| n | /n/ | |
| nd | /nd/ | |
| ng | /ŋ/ | |
| ngg | /ŋg/ | |
| nj | /ɲɟ/ | |
| ny | /ɲ/ | |
| p | /p/ | |
| q | /q, k/ | Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with k. |
| r | /r/ | |
| s | /s/ | |
| sy | /ʃ/ | |
| t | /t/ | |
| v | /v/ | Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with b. |
| w | /w/ | |
| x | /ks/ | Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with ks. |
| y | /j/ | |
| z | /z/ | Used in foreign words. |