DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/parole.v14i2.%25p

The Acehnese Numerals in the Aceh Jaya District

1Department of English Education, Universitas Serambi Mekkah, JL. Unmuha, Batoh, Kec. Lueng Bata, Banda Aceh 23245, Indonesia

2Department of English Education, Universitas Iskandar Muda, Jl. Kampus Unida No.15, Surien, Kec. Meuraxa, Kota Banda Aceh, Aceh 23234, Indonesia

3Department of Indonesian Language Education, Universitas Serambi Mekkah, JL. Unmuha, Batoh, Kec. Lueng Bata, Banda Aceh 23245, Indonesia

4 Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh 23111, Indonesia

View all affiliations
Received: 9 Jan 2025; Revised: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025; Available online: 10 Oct 2025; Published: 10 Oct 2024.
Open Access Copyright (c) 2025 PAROLE: Journal of Linguistics and Education under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.

Citation Format:
Abstract

This study examines the phonological varieties of Acehnese numeral words, using primary data from ten villages in the Aceh Jaya district on the west coast of Aceh, Indonesia, and supplementing it with secondary data from Standard Acehnese, Proto-Chamic, and other relevant languages and proto-languages. The research aims to elucidate the historical relationship between the Acehnese and Chamic languages through a comparative analysis. Fifteen numeral words (one to ten, eleven, twelve, twenty, one hundred, and one thousand) were elicited from informants aged 40 to 65. The collected data were recorded, transcribed into IPA symbols, and subsequently analysed. The findings indicate that the split between the Acehnese-Chamic branch and the Malayic languages occurred during the period when the terms for 'eight' and 'nine' were still undergoing lexical stabilisation. The Acehnese language was then subgrouped from Chamic, initially as a dialect. A few centuries later, the ancestors of the Acehnese migrated from mainland Southeast Asia to Sumatra, where their numeral system was subsequently influenced by borrowing from the Malay language. The dialects spoken on the west coast of Aceh retain linguistic evidence of the presence of a language similar to Proto-Chamic and its early contact with indigenous Sumatran populations, and those from the Malay Peninsula.

Note: This article has supplementary file(s).

Fulltext View|Download |  common.other
Untitled
Subject
Type Other
  Download (284KB)    Indexing metadata
Keywords: numerals, Acehnese, historical linguistics, Chamic, Sumatra
Funding: Kemenristekdikti

Article Metrics:

Article Info
Section: Research Article
Language : EN
Recent articles
Exploring Indonesian Celebrity Controversial Issues and Hate Speech in Social Media Integrating Minority Women’s Narratives into EFL: A Curriculum for Language and Cultural Competence “Alah Ka Nggoh!” Language Attitudes of Multilingual Speakers in Kluet Raya Districts More recent articles
Most cited articles
Back Cover Backmatter The Effect of Study Abroad on Grammatical Accuracy of Indonesian Students’ Oral and Written Performance Back Matter Interpersonal Metadiscourse pada Tagline Iklan Poster World Wildlife Fund (WWF) More cited articles
  1. Acehnese Phonetics by Asyik. (n.d.)
  2. Adelaar, K. A. (1992). Proto Malayic:The Reconstruction of its Phonology and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Pacific Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.15144/PL-C119.cover
  3. Asyik, A. G. (1987). A contextual grammar of Acehnese sentences
  4. Blench, R. (2010). Was there an Austroasiatic presence in Island Southeast Asia prior to the Austronesian expansion? Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 30, 133–144
  5. Blust, R. (1994). The Austronesian Settlement of Mainland Southeast Asia. In K. A. & T. H. (eds.) (Ed.), Papers from the Second Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 1992 (pp. 25–83). Tempe Arizona, Arizona State University
  6. Blust, R. (1995). Sibilant assimilation in Formosan languages and the Proto-Austronesian word for’nine’: A discourse on method. Oceanic Linguistics, 443–453
  7. Blust, R. A. ., & Smith, A. D. . (2014). A bibliography of the languages of Borneo (and Madagascar). Borneo Research Council, Inc
  8. Blust, R., Trussel, S., & Smith, A. D. (2023). CLDF dataset derived from Blust’s “Austronesian Comparative Dictionary.” Austronesian Comparative Dictionary. https://doi.org/(v1.2) [Data set]. Zenodo.
  9. Brunelle, M., Linguistique, D. De, & Ottawa, U. (2007). Revisiting the expansion of the Chamic language family. 1–26
  10. Campbell, L. (2021). An Introduction
  11. Coedes, G. (1975). The indianized states of Southeast Asia. University of Hawaii Press
  12. Cowan, H. K. J. (1991). Achenese Dialects in Connection with Chamic Migration. In R. Harlow (Ed.), Western Austronesian and Contact Languages. Linguistic Society of New Zealand Auckland New Zealand
  13. Crowley, T., & Bowern, C. (2010). An introduction to historical linguistics. Oxford University Press
  14. Daud, B., & Durie, M. (1999). Acehnese-Indonesian-English Thesaurus. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The …
  15. Durie, M. (1985). A grammar of Acehnese: on the basis of a dialect of North Aceh. Foris Publications Holland
  16. Dyen, I. (1971). The Chamic languages. Current Trends in Linguistics. Mouton: The Hague, 8, 200–210
  17. Effendy, M. (2021). Champa: Territories and Networks of a Southeast Asian Kingdom, by Arlo Griffiths, Andrew Hardy, Geoff Wade (eds). Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land-En Volkenkunde/Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 177(1), 144–146
  18. Grant, A., & Sidwell, P. (2005). Chamic and beyond: studies in mainland Austronesian languages. Pacific Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.15144/PL-569.cover
  19. Howe, P. (2021). Central Malagasy. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 51(1), 103–136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100319000100
  20. Ifrah, G. (2000). The universal history of numbers. Harvill London
  21. Irnanda, S. (2024a). Acehnese: The Dating of Into-Sumatra Migration. Jol.r, 3–4
  22. Irnanda, S. (2024b). Aslian Substratum in Acehnese (Was the Contact Direct or Malay-Mediated?)
  23. Lee, E. W. (1998). THE CONTRIBUTION OF CAT GIA ROGLAI TO CHAMIC. In D. Thomas (Ed.), Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 15: Chamic Studies (Issue 15, pp. 31–54). Pasific Linguistics, The Australian National University. https://doi.org/10.15144/PL-A89.31
  24. Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (2006). The Oxford introduction to proto-Indo-European and the proto-Indo-European world. Oxford University Press
  25. Matisoff, J. A. (2003). Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: system and philosophy of Sino-Tibetan reconstruction. Univ of California Press
  26. Saxena, A., & Borin, L. (2022). And then there was one: Kanashi numerals from borrowed superdiversity to borrowed uniformity
  27. Sidwell, P. (2005). Acehnese and the Aceh-Chamic language family. In Chamic and beyond: Studies in mainland Austronesian languages. (pp. 211–245). Pasific Linguistics
  28. Sidwell, P. (2006a). Dating the separation of Acehnese and Chamic by etymological analysis of the Aceh-Chamic lexicon. MONKHMER STUDIES, 36, 187
  29. Sidwell, P. (2006b). Dating the separation of AcSidwell, P. (2006). Dating the separation of Acehnese and Chamic by etymological analysis of the Aceh-Chamic lexicon. MonKhmer Studies.ehnese and Chamic by etymological analysis of the Aceh-Chamic lexicon. MonKhmer Studies
  30. Smith, A. D. (2017). The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem. In Oceanic Linguistics (Vol. 56, Issue 2)
  31. Suzuki, T. (2019). The History of Srivijaya, Angkor and Champa. Mekon
  32. Thurgood, G. (1999). From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two thousands years of language contact and change. In Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications (Vol. 28). University of Hawai’i Press. University of Hawaii Press
  33. Thurgood, G. (2007). The historical place of Acehnese : the known and the unknown (A Working Paper). First International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies
  34. Tudmor, U. (2007). Borrowed elements in the Malay-Indonesian numeral system. The Eleventh International Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics

Last update:

No citation recorded.

Last update: 2025-10-10 13:34:53

No citation recorded.