Hikayat Aceh

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title:		Hikayat Aceh
edition:		Teuku Iskandar (ed.), De Hikajat Atjéh, ’s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1958.  Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde, deel 26.
manuscript:		Cod. Or. 1954, Leiden University Library.
dates:		text:  ±1600-1625;    manuscript:  ±1675-1700.
provenance:		text:  Aceh;    manuscript:  unknown.
words:		37933 words
references:		to the pages (tp, 1-281) and lines of the underlying manuscript.

 

Editorial notes

This old text has many unusual features, which are thoroughly treated in Iskandar's notes.  Noteworthy are:
Spelling.  The Arabic script of the manuscript has many characteristic seventeenth century traits, but these are generally disguised by Iskandar's transcription, upon which the MCP text is based.  There are also a few instances of Acehnese influence on normal Malay spelling.
Vocabulary.  The text has many words which are found rarely or not at all in other Malay sources.  Iskandar provides an extensive glossary of rare words, and copious footnotes tracing items of vocabulary to Acehnese, Persian and Arabic origins.  Many of these are based on the annotations made earlier on the manuscript by an early Dutch scholar, perhaps Leidecker (before 1701). 
Morphology.  Word formation is sometimes influenced by Acehnese in, for instance, different patterns of nasalisation, and particularly  (a) the use of mem- for memb- ;  and (b) the use of nasalisation alone in place of the meN- prefix.  Also noteworthy are the frequency of the -i verbal suffix, the occasional use of be- for ber-, and some non-standard or complex morphologies like berlihat  or sekelamaannya.

Iskandar's edition appears carefully prepared and well annotated. It is not a diplomatic edition; indeed this would have been undesirable given the difficulties the text presents.  Nevertheless, in a few places where Iskandar has emended the text, I have restored the original reading, always noting Iskandar's emendation as well.

 
Preparation 

Added:  1999 - April 2000

The text was scanned in Canberra by the MCP using Recognita™ OCR, and its spelling modernised.

The pages of the manuscript are indicated in Iskandar's edition; the lines have been imputed.