Acehnese or Achinese (
Jawi: بهسا اچيه) is an
Austronesian language natively spoken by the
Acehnese people in
Aceh
Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...
,
Sumatra,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. This language is also spoken by Acehnese descendants in some parts of
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
like
Yan, in
Kedah
Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman and historically as Queda, is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km2, and it consists of the mainla ...
.
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Dutch spelling and an outdated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
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesia ...
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
Austronesian may refer to:
*The Austronesian languages
*The historical Austronesian peoples
The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...
. Acehnese's closest relatives are the other
Chamic languages, which are principally spoken in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
and
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...
. The closest relative of the Chamic family is the
Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines ...
family, which includes languages also spoken in
Sumatra such as
Minangkabau as well as the national language,
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesia ...
.
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
#
Sabang
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Banda Aceh
#
Lhokseumawe
#
Langsa
North-East Coast
#
Aceh Besar
#
Pidie
#
Pidie Jaya
#
Bireuen
#
North Aceh
North Aceh Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Utara) is a regency in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh Special District), in Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 3,236.86 square kilometres and had a population ...
#
East Aceh
East Aceh Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Timur) is a regency in eastern Aceh Special Region (''Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam'') of Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 6,040.60 square kilometres and had a pop ...
(except in 3 districts, Serba Jadi, Peunaron and Simpang Jernih where the
Gayo language is spoken)
#
Aceh Tamiang (Mostly Manyak Payet and Kuala Simpang District, the rest of the Regency speaks a variety of the
Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines ...
)
West-South Coast
#
Aceh Jaya
Aceh Jaya Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Jaya) is a regency of Aceh Special Region, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 3,814 square kilometres and had a population of 76,782 people at the 2010 census B ...
#
West Aceh
#
Nagan Raya
Nagan Raya Regency ( id, Kabupaten Nagan Raya) is a regency in the Aceh special region of Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The seat of the regency government is at Suka Makmue. The regency covers an area of 3,544.90 square kilome ...
#
Southwest Aceh (except in Susoh District where the
Aneuk Jamee language is spoken)
#
South Aceh (mixed with
Kluet language and Aneuk Jamee language)
Phonology
Oral monophthong vowels in Acehnese are shown in the table below.
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
*, , and are borrowed sounds, and are often replaced by and the clusters and , respectively
*The nasals , , , are realized as
post-stopped nasals (also called "funny nasals") before oral vowels and consonants. They are distinct from the nasal-stop sequences , , , , e.g. in 'port' vs 'all'.
Grammar
Acehnese features a
split ergative system. Intransitives that align with the agent of a transitive verb (Sa) always show agreement by a proclitic (1). Meanwhile, intransitives that align with the patient of a transitive verb (Sp) may optionally show agreement by an enclitic (2).
Volitionality is the determining factor for whether an intransitive verb is Sa or Sp.
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
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...
, with the addition of supplementary letters. The diacritical letters are é, è, ë, ö and ô. The sound is represented by 'eu' and the sound is represented by 'ö', respectively. The letter 'ë' is used exclusively to represent the
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English ...
sound which forms the second part of diphthongs. The letters f, q, v, x, and z are only used in loanwords.
Literature
Acehnese language is rich with literature. The oldest manuscript written in Acehnese is Hikayat Seumau'un from 1658 CE. Most Acehnese literatures consist of poetic works, very little written in prose form.
Dialects
At least ten Achehnese dialects exist: Pasè, Peusangan, Matang, Pidië, Buëng, Banda, Daya, Meulabôh, Seunagan and Tunong.
Vocabulary
Pronouns
Numerals
Interrogative words
Gallery
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Handgeschreven boek in Acehs schrift TMnr 2454-1.jpg, Hikayat Akhbarul Karim
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Handgeschreven boek in Acehs schrift TMnr 2454-2.jpg, Hikayat Banta Beuransah
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
Learning Acehnese in IndonesianLearning Acehnese in English and Indonesian
Acehnese literature resources*
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*
PARADISEC archive of Ache language includes three collections
MD4MD5 an
MD6 These collections focus on different varieties of Achenese.
Listen to a sample of Achinese from Global Recordings Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acehnese Language
Languages of Indonesia
Languages of Aceh
Chamic languages