Acehnese language

language
name=Acehnese
nativename=Bahsa/Basa/Batö Acèh/Achèh
familycolor=Austronesian
states=Indonesia, Malaysia
region=Aceh, Sumatra
speakers=3 million
fam2=Malayo-Polynesian (MP)
fam3=Nuclear MP
fam4=Sunda-Sulawesi
fam5=Malayic
fam6=Aceh-Chamic
iso2=ace|iso3=ace

Acehnese (also Achinese, Achehnese) or Aceh (formerly Atjeh) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia and Bota, Perak, Malaysia.

Classification and related languages

Acehnese belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Acehnese's closest relatives therefore include Chamic languages, Malay language family, Minangkabau language, Gayo language and Batak languages family.

Writing system

Formerly, Acehnese language was written in Arabic script called Jawoë or Jawi in Malay language. The script is barely used nowadays. Now, Acehnese language is written in Latin script, with some additional letters. The additional letters are é, è, ë, ö and ô [http://www.bahasaaceh.wordpress.com] .

Dialect

There is no complete research about Acehnese language dialect yet. But, at least, there are 10 dialects in Acehnese language. The dialects are Pasè, Peusangan, Matang, Pidië, Buëng, Banda, Daya, Meulabôh, Seunagan and Tunong [Sulaiman, B. 1981. Kedudukan dan Fungsi Bahasa Aceh di Aceh. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa] .

Between 10 dialects among them, the most different dialects compared to other dialects are Buëng, Banda, and Daya dialects, especially Daya dialects. Perhaps, if a complete research done, they would be different language.

References

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ace Ethnologue report for Acehnese]
* [http://www.language-museum.com/a/aceh.php Writing sample]
* [http://udhrinunicode.org/d/udhr_ace.html Text sample] in Unicode