The Sikule language (also called Sibigo, Sigulai, Ageumeui, or Wali Banuah) is an
Austronesian language spoken on
Simeulue
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 censu ...
island off the western coast of
Sumatra in
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 ...
. It belongs to the
Malayo-Polynesian
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...
branch of the Austronesian languages. Sikule is one of
Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands languages
The Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands languages (also Barrier Islands–Batak languages) are a group of Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken by the Batak and related peoples in the interior of North Sumatra and by the Nias, Mentawai people, and ...
, which are a sub-group of
Western Malayo-Polynesian.
Sikule is spoken in
Salang,
Alafan and
Simeulue Barat
Simeulue Barat is a district of the Simeulue Regency on Simeulue in the Indonesian province of Aceh
Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is locate ...
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
, on the northern of
Simeulue
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 censu ...
island. It is apparently related to the
Nias language.
Ethnologue lists ''Lekon'' and ''Tapah'' as dialects.
[
]Simeulue
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 censu ...
is spoken in the rest of Simeulue outside of Alafan, while Jamu (also called ''Kamano''), related to Minangkabau, is spoken in the capital city of Sinabang.
Phonology
The vowel and consonant phonemes of Sikule are shown in the tables below.[Nothofer, 1986, p. 96]
See also
* Simeulue language
References
Sources
* Adelaar, Alexander, ''The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar: A Historical Perspective'', The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar, pp. 1-42, Routledge Language Family Series, London, Routledge, 2005,
* Nothofer, Bernd, ''The Barrier Island Languages in the Austronesian Language Family'', Focal II: Papers From the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, pp. 87-109, Pacific Linguistics, Series C 94, Canberra, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 1986.
*
*
{{Languages of Indonesia
Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands languages
Languages of Indonesia
Languages of Aceh