Acehnese love poem
Kaca
Muka Gata nibak kaca
Syair loen tuan nyang geuthat lagak
Siat sagai ka gadoeh
Loen geu neuk peugah "iloen galak keu gata"
Another version
Na wajah Gata lam cermen
Puisi lon nyoe yang paleng indah
Tapi, bagah that gadoh
Nyoe keuh akhee Lon "Lon Cinta Gata"
→ French poem ←
Aceh language
The translation of my love poem into the Aceh language (Atjeh, Timu, Pidie, Daja, Atjehnese, Pedir, Bueng, Baruh, Achinese, Achehnese, Banda Aceh, Pase, Acehnese, Basa Acèh), the language of the Atjehs (Acehs) people from north of Sumatra.
Almost 4 million speakers, descendants of the Acehs, speak this language in Indonesia and Malaysia. Acehnese is a chamic language of Indonesia, one of nearly 700 languages of this country. The Chamic languages would have started to separate around the 1st millennium of our era.
700 languages! So there remain many to find, and all those to come, will be for me discoveries. I do not understand, why my encyclopedia in 15 volumes, knows so few!
After its separation from the other Chamic languages, the Atjeh will have been well influenced by the languages of the Mons, the Khmers and the Vietnamese.
The linguistic area of Aceh has varied over the course of the history of this people, with the expansion of the kingdom. Then the extension of pepper cultivation led, until two centuries ago, to migrations to other areas.
There are of course variations of the language, which are also linked to other ethnicities nearby.
The first mentions of the word Aceh date from the 16th century, as for the oldest manuscripts in Aceh, they date from the 17th-18th centuries.
Aceh people
The Acehs are an ethnic group of the ancient sultanate of Atjeh (Sumatra), whose language belongs to the Indonesian group.
They live on the coast and coastal plains of Sumatra and more particularly along the northern and eastern coasts in the province of Aceh, their capital is Banda Aceh.
They are farmers and fishermen and live in uxorilocale residence, in villages built on stilts. Their socio-political organization, sometimes close to a caste system, is subject to Koranic laws, whose rigor is tempered by pantheistic and shamanic practices.
The province of Aceh has a special autonomy status. Aceh territory has in its history the memory of a strong resistance to the Dutch.