Acehnese phonology

Acehnese has a large vowel inventory, with ten oral monophthong vowels,[1] twelve oral diphthongs,[2] seven nasal monophthong vowels,[3] and five nasal diphthongs.[4]

Vowels

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 vowels

Oral monophthong vowels in Acehnese are shown in the table below.[6]
Close i ɯ u
Close-mid e ə o
Open-mid ɛ ʌ ɔ
Open a

Oral diphthong vowels ending with /ə/ are shown in the table below.[7]
/iə/ /ɯə/ /uə/
/ɛə/ /ʌə/ /ɔə/

Oral diphthong vowels ending with /i/ are shown in the table below.[8]
/ui/
/əi/ /oi/
/ʌi/ /ɔi/
/ai/

Nasal vowels

Nasal monophthong vowels in Acehnese are shown in the table below.[9]
Close ĩ ɯ̃ ũ
Open-mid ɛ̃ ʌ̃ ɔ̃
Open ã

Consonants

The table below shows the Acehnese consonant phonemes and the range of their realizations.[10]
Labial Labiodental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop pb td cɟ kɡ ʔ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Prenasalized consonant mb nd ɲɟ ŋɡ
Trill r
Fricative f sz ʃ h
Approximant
(Lateral)		 j w
l

Notes:

  • Syllable-final k always represents /ʔ/ save in certain recent loans
  • /f/, /z/, and /ʃ/ are borrowed sounds, and are often replaced by /ph/, /dh/, and /ch/ respectively
  • /mb/, /nd/, /ɲɟ/, and /ŋɡ/ are also known as "funny nasals"[11]

Orthography

The orthography of Achenese features 31 letters: the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet, è, é, ë, ô, and ö.

Vowels
Grapheme Phoneme
(IPA)		 Open syllable Closed syllable
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/ bè /bɛ/ ‘smell’ bèk /bɛʔ/ ‘prohibitive "don't" (e.g. bèk neupajôh boh gantang teucrôh lôn 'don't you eat my fries')'
ë /ə/ huë /huə/ ‘pull’ huëk /huəʔ/ ‘choke’
eu /ɯ/ keu /kɯ/ ‘front’ 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’ sut /sut/ ‘remove, detach’

Notes:

  • ë is used only for diphthongs ending with /ə/

Notes
  1. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1030), citing Asyik (1987:17)
  2. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1031), citing Asyik (1987:17–18)
  3. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1032), citing Asyik (1987:17)
  4. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1032), citing Asyik (1987:17)
  5. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1031), citing Asyik (1987:17–18)
  6. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1031), citing Asyik (1987:17)
  7. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1031), citing Asyik (1987:17–18)
  8. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1031), citing Asyik (1987:17–18)
  9. Pillai & Yusuf (2012:1033), citing Asyik (1987:17)
  10. Asyik (1982:3)
  11. Asyik (1982:2), citing Lawler (1977)

References
  • Pillai, Stefanie; Yusuf, Yunisrina Qismullah (2012). "An instrumental analysis of acehnese oral vowels" (PDF). Language and Linguistics. 13 (6): 1029–1050.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Asyik, Abdul Gani (1982). "The agreement system in Acehnese" (PDF). Mon–Khmer Studies. 11: 1–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Asyik, Abdul Gani (1987). A contextual grammar of Acehnese sentences (PDF) (PhD thesis). The University of Michigan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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