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Acehnese

About Me and My Language

Picture of Hendri

Orthography   Morphology   Story/Song   Word List   Syntax    Language Use     Dictionary

I am Hendri Yuzal. My families usually called me Hendri. Both my father and my mother are Acehnese. As Acehnese, we use the Acehnese language when we speak with the whole familiy member. Not only at home, but also as community member we speak this language with each other in our neighborhood. Currently, I am a master student at Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa.  

Your name (first, last)
 Hendri Yuzal
Contact Email hendri@hawaii.edu
Preferred name(s) of your language Aceh
Alternative names Acehnese
Language classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Chamic, Acehnese
Geographical areas where spoken Aceh Province, Indonesia
Approximate number of monolingual speakers Approximately 50% of population
Other languages spoken in the area/country Bahasa Indonesia, Gayonese, Simeuleu, Javanese
Official language(s) in your country Bahasa Indonesia
Does your language have a widely accepted writing system?
 Yes
If yes, what materials are written?
 School books, novel, poetry
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Background of the Language

Aceh is a special region of Indonesia which located at the northern end of Sumatra with Banda Aceh as the capital city. It is close to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India and separated from them by the Andaman Sea. The population is approximately 4,500,000. Aceh is thought to have been the place where the Spread of Islam in Indonesia started, and was a key part of the Spread of Islam in Southeast Asia. In the early seventeenth century the Sultanate of Aceh was the most wealthy, powerful and cultivated state in the Malacca Straits region. Aceh has a history of political independence and fierce resistance to control by outsiders, including the former Dutch colonists and the Indonesian government. Aceh was the closest point of land to the epicenter of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, and tsunami, which devastated much of the western coast of the province. Approximately 170,000 Indonesians were killed or went missing in the disaster. The disaster helped reach the peace agreement between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Aceh was first known as Aceh Darussalam (1511–1959) and then later as the Daerah Istimewa Aceh (1959–2001), Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam (2001–2009) and Aceh (2009–present). Past spellings of Aceh include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin.

Acehnese language (Achinese) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by Acehnese people natively in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. This language also spoken in some parts in Malaysia by Acehnese descendents there, such as in Yan, Kedah. Based on its linguistic evidences found by Thurgood (2007), Acehnese is included in the Chamic languages but lexical evidences of Acehnese relate to the Malayic languages because of the long term, close contact between Acehnese and the Malayic languages. According to Thurgood (2007), the Chamic languages that are linguistically related to Acehnese are a subgroup that includes the mainland Chamic languages Phan Rang Cham (Eastern Cham), Haroi, Jarai, Rade, Chru, and Roglai found in central Vietnam, Hainan Cham (Tsat) found near Sanya on the southern part of Hainan Island, and Western Cham found in parts of Cambodia and Thailand. On the other hand, Acehnese also has close contact with the Malayic languages (e.g. Malay and Minangkabau) because they are spoken in one region. (www.wikipedia.com)

Source Reported number of speakersVitality Assessment            
www.ethnologue.com3.5 MillionN/A
www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap.comN/AN/A
www.endangeredlanguages.comN/AN/A
www.wikipedia.com3.5 MillionN/A
(other source)

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