pronounced as /notice/Acehnese, the language spoken by the Acehnese people of Aceh, Indonesia, has a large vowel inventory compared to Indonesian, with ten oral monophthong vowels,[1] twelve oral diphthongs,[2] seven nasal monophthong vowels,[3] and five nasal diphthongs.[4]
Native-speaking linguists divide vowels in Acehnese into several categories: oral monophthongs, oral diphthongs (which are further divided into the ones ending with /ə/ and with /i/), nasal monophthongs, and nasal diphthongs.[5]
Oral monophthong vowels in Acehnese are shown in the table below.[6]
| + | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | width=30px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=30px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=30px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ |
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
Oral diphthong vowels ending with /ə/ are shown in the table below.[7]
| + | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=40px style="border-right: 0;" | /iə/ | width=40px style="border-right: 0;" | /ɯə/ | width=40px style="border-right: 0;" | /uə/ |
| /ɛə/ | /ʌə/ | /ɔə/ |
Oral diphthong vowels ending with /i/ are shown in the table below.[8]
| + | |||
| Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| width=40px colspan=1 | width=40px style="border-right: 0;" | /ui/ | |
| /əi/ | /oi/ | ||
| /ʌi/ | /ɔi/ | ||
| /ai/ |
Nasal monophthong vowels in Acehnese are shown in the table below.[9]
| + | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | width=30px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=30px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=30px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | ʌ̃ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
The table below shows the Acehnese consonant phonemes and the range of their realizations.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Notes:
The orthography of Achenese features 31 letters: the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet, è, é, ë, ô, and ö.
| a | /a/ | ba /ba/ ‘carry’ | bak /baʔ/ ‘at, tree’ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| e | /ə/ | le /lə/ ‘many’ | let /lət/ ‘pull out’ | |
| é | /e/ | baté /bate/ ‘cup, betel tray’ | baték /bateʔ/ ‘batik’ | |
| è | /ɛ/ | bèe /bɛə/ ‘smell’ | bèk /bɛʔ/ ‘prohibitive "don't" (e.g. bèk neupajôh boh gantang teucrôh lôn 'don't you eat my fries')' | |
| eu | /ɯ/ | keu /kɯ/ ‘for’ | keuh /kɯh/ ‘so (e.g. nyan keuh), pronominal affix for second person (e.g. droe-keuh)’ | |
| i | /i/ | di /di/ 'in, from' | dit /dit/ 'few, small amount' | |
| o | /ɔ/ | yo /jɔ/ ‘afraid’ | yok /jɔʔ/ ‘shake’ | |
| ô | /o/ | rô /ro/ ‘spill’ | rôh /roh/ ‘enter’ | |
| ö | /ʌ/ | pö /pʌ/ ‘fly’ | pöt /pʌt/ ‘pluck, pick’ | |
| u | /u/ | su /su/ ‘sound, voice’ | cut /cut/ ‘small’ |