The Simeulue language is spoken by the Simeulue people of

Simeulue Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1,754 square kilometre (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 census ...

off the western coast of

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Names

''Simeulue'' is also called , which literally means 'Where are you going?'. Ethnologue also lists ''Long Bano'', ''Simalur'', ''Simeuloë'', ''Simolol'', and ''Simulul'' as alternate names.

Varieties

Simeulue is spoken in five of eight subdistricts (''kecamatan'') of

Simeulue Regency Simeulue Regency () is a regency in the Aceh special region of Indonesia. It occupies the whole island of Simeulue (Pulau Simeulue), 150 km off the west coast of Sumatra, which with its many small offshore islands covers a land area of . It ...

. It includes at least 4 dialects. * Devayan: spoken in the four eastern subdistricts of Teupah Selatan, Simeulue Timur, Teupah Barat, and

Teluk Dalam Teluk Dalam (also written as Telukdalam) is a town and district in the South Nias Regency, North Sumatra province, Indonesia. Following the splitting off of parts of the original district to form new districts, it is now mainly confined to the to ...

* Simolol (prestige dialect): spoken around Kampung Aie and Simeulue Tengah * Lekon: spoken in two villages in Alafan, namely Langi and Lafakha. * Haloban: spoken in two villages in Banyak Islands, namely Haloban and Asantola. Sikule, related to

Nias Nias (, Nias: ''Tanö Niha'') is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, but also includes the Batu Islands to the southeast and the small ...

, is spoken in Salang, Alafan and Simeulue Barat in northern Simeulue, while

Jamu Jamu ( Javanese: ) is a traditional medicine from Indonesia. It is predominantly a herbal medicine made from natural materials, such as roots, bark, flowers, seeds, leaves and fruits. Materials acquired from animals, such as honey, royal jell ...

(also called ''Kamano''), related to Minangkabau, is spoken in the capital city of Sinabang and has become the lingua franca of the island.

Phonology

* The phonemes /d c ɟ g j ɲ/ do not appear word-finally. * /ɲ/ also does not appear word-initially. Additionally, the following diphthongs have been observed: /au/, /ai/, /ɔi/.

Names

Varieties

Phonology

See also

References

Further reading