Acehnese language

Acehnese, also written as Achinese, is an Austronesian language of the Chamic branch natively spoken by the Acehnese people in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. This language is also spoken by Acehnese descendants in some parts of Malaysia like in Yan District, Kedah. Acehnese is used as the co-official language in the province of Aceh, alongside Indonesian.
Being part of the Chamic languages group, Acehnese is the only Austronesian language of the Chamic branch spoken in Indonesia, its closest relatives are the other Chamic languages, which are principally spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia.

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. 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. In Indonesian it is called Bahasa Aceh.

Classification

Acehnese belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian. Acehnese's closest relatives are the other Chamic languages, which are principally spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia. The distant relative of the Chamic family is the Malayic 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.
Linguist Paul Sidwell wrote that "Sometime during this early phase of language shift, perhaps before the beginning of Common Era, the Chamic speakers who were to become the Acehnese left the mainland on a journey that would ultimately end in northern Sumatra." Basing on Graham Thurgood's thesis, Sidwell argues that Acehnese likely had been long separated from Chamic around the first to second century BCE.

Distribution

Acehnese language is spoken primarily in coastal region of Aceh. This language is spoken in thirteen regencies and four cities in Aceh, which are:
City

North-East Coast

West-South Coast

Phonology

Acehnese's phonology inventory are as follows:

Vowels

Acehnese distinguishes between oral and nasal vowels, though not all phonemes have a nasal equivalent.

Consonants

The table below shows the Acehnese consonants range of their realizations.
Notes:

The following stop and liquid sound combinations with /h/, as /_h/; are heard as aspirated /pʰ, tʰ, cʰ, kʰ/ or murmured /bʱ, dʱ, ɟʱ, ɡʱ/; /lʱ, rʱ/.
The fricative /s/ is described by Durie as "a laminal alveo-dental fricative with a wide channel area".
The stop /t/ is slightly retroflex.
Syllable-final orthographic always represents save in certain recent loans
Arabic phonemes such as,, and /q/ are often nativised to /d/, /pʰ/, and /k/ respectively. Arabic and varies, can be realised as /c/, /cʰ/, or /s/, and can be realised as /kʰ/, /k/, or /h/.
The phoneme /pʰ/ is often articulated as the affricate /ɸ/, Acehnese speakers realise the phoneme /f/ as /ɸ/, both in Arabic and modern loans.
The nasals,,, are realized as post-oralized nasals before oral vowels and consonants. They are distinct from the nasal–plosive sequences,,,, e.g. in 'port' vs 'all'.

Grammar

Acehnese features a split ergative system. Intransitives that align with the agent of a transitive verb always show agreement by a proclitic. Meanwhile, intransitives that align with the patient of a transitive verb may optionally show agreement by an enclitic. Volitionality is the determining factor for whether an intransitive verb is Sa or Sp.

Pronouns

All Acehnese pronouns and animate, more often than not human, a demonstative is used to refer to something inanimate. As with Malay, Acehnese only distinguishes between singular and plural, though they do have a system of respect or politeness.
The table below provides the most commonly used pronouns and their respect in the Acehnese language:
Acehnese has three tiers of respect: familiar or colloquial/informal, standard or neutral, and polite or formal.

First person

Acehnese has two forms of "I": kèë and, lôn is a shortened variant of ulôn, though they're considered the same pronoun, the form lôn is seen more informal. ulôn and lôn may also be written as ulông and lông, though it's seen as non-standard. The word may be added at the end of ulôn or lôn to be more polite, translating as "your slave, O lord" in literal.

Second person

There are three distinct forms of singular "you": kah, gata, and droëneuh. droëneuh is formed through combining and the suffix. droëneuh can be used for both polite second and third person, though it's widely used to refer to the second person, to distinguish between the two, is commonly added when referring to the third person.

Third person

Alongside droëneuh nyan, there are two other forms of s/he: jih and gopnyan. The word gopnyan is formed through combining and, translating literally to "that other person". Another variant of gopnyan is götnyan through consonant assimilation of final -p and ny.

Plural forms

Acehnese pronouns, other than kèë, tanyoë, and kamoë, are ambiguous in quantity, there are various of ways to signify plurality in Acehnese:

The demonstrative may be used when adressing more than on person in the second person:
A plural quantifier, may be used with all pronouns except kèë:

Combined with demonstratives such as, the noun and contains a plural sense by its own, and only sometimes acts as singular.

Writing system

Historically, Acehnese was written in an Arabic script called, a modified variant of Jawi, since Dutch colonization, Acehnese has been written in the Latin script, and has largely fallen out of use.
The current Latin spelling system is based on the Indonesian spelling system, Ejaan yang Disempurnakan, while its diacritics are based on the spelling system used by Snouck Hurgronje to write Acehnese, which is why the spelling system is also called the Snouck's Spelling System. Another popular spelling system, Husaini's Spelling is also used, popular amongst Free Aceh Movement members, pro-independence members, and Acehnese people abroad. EBAYD and Husaini are almost the exact same, with the only difference being how they spell the palatal sounds, Husaini uses tj, dj, nj, j, and sj where EBAYD would use c, j, ny, y, and sy respectively.
Below is a comparison table of letter usage between previous Acehnese spellings in the Latin Script.
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. Acehnese also features vowel nasalization, which is marked with an apostrophe preceding the vowel. The basic Latin letters currently used are as follows:
Alongside the letters above, Acehnese also has 3 digraphs: eu, ng, and ny. The grapheme additionally represents at the end of a syllable.
The letters f, q, v, x, z, and digraphs kh and sy are officially not a part of the Acehnese alphabet, though these letters still can be seen in both colloquial and formal texts, the phonemes f and sy can also be seen in dialectal speech and writing. Loanwords are often nativised into Acehnese phonology, their changes are as follows:

Grapheme	Phoneme	Open syllable	Closed syllable
a		'carry'	'at, tree'
e		'many'	'pull out'
é		'cup, betel tray'	'batik'
è		'smell'	prohibitive 'don't'
ë		'pull'	'choke'
eu		'front'	'so, pronominal affix for second person '
i		'in, from'	'few, small amount'
o		'afraid'	'shake'
ô		'spill'	'enter'
ö		'fly'	'pluck, pick'
u		'sound, voice'	'remove, detach'

Grapheme	Phoneme	Extra notes
b
c
d
f		Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with p.
g
h
j
k	, at the end of a syllable.
l
m
mb
n
nd
ng
ngg
nj
ny
p
q		Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with k.
r
s
sy
t
v		Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with b.
w
x		Used in foreign words. Usually replaced with ks.
y
z		Used in foreign words.

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.
Before the Dutch colonial period, almost all Acehnese literature was in the form of poetry, either as hikayat or nazam. Very few works were in prose, one of which was Kitab Bakeu Meunan, a translation of the book Qawaa'id al-Islaam. After the arrival of the Dutch, Acehnese prose works began to emerge in the 1930s, such as Lhee Saboh Nang, written by Aboe Bakar and De Vries. Following that, more prose works appeared, although poetry in the form of hikayat continued to dominate.
The first encyclopedia in Acehnese, the Acehnese Wikipedia, was launched on August 12, 2009. A prose translation of the Quran in Acehnese was published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs on December 13, 2018. As of now, there is no newspaper published in Acehnese. In 2020, the first Acehnese-language magazine, Majalah Neurôk, was launched, initiated by an Acehnese cultural figure, Ayah Panton. Google Translate added the Acehnese language translation feature on June 27, 2024.

Dialects

At least ten Acehnese dialects exist: Pasè, Peusangan, Matang, Pidië, Buëng, Banda, Daya, Meulabôh, Seunagan, and Tunong.
At least three major dialects exist: Baet Lambuot, Mesjid Punteut and Panthe Ketapang. Baet Lambuot dialect spoken in Aceh Besar regency. Mesjid Punteut dialect spoken in Simpang Ulim district, East Aceh regency. Panthe Ketapang dialect spoken in Jaya district, Aceh Jaya regency.
Geographical dialects: Aceh Besar, Pidie, Peusangan, Pasai, East Aceh and West Aceh, North Aceh, Bireun, Aceh Jaya
West coast dialects : Tunong, Seunagan, Meulabôh, Daya.

Sample text

The following texts are excerpts from the official translations of article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Acehnese, along with the original declaration in English.Acehnese text sample:

'''The original English version of the text:'''