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Tetum language

Tetum (Tetun [ˈt̪et̪un̪]; Indonesian: Bahasa Tetun; Portuguese: Tétum [ˈtɛtũ])[3] is an Austronesian language spoken on the island of Timor. It is one of the official languages of Timor-Leste and it is also spoken in Belu Regency and in Indonesian West Timor.

Tetum

500,000, mostly in Indonesia (2010–2011)[1]

  • Belunese (Tetun Belu)
  • Terik (Tetun Terik)

390,000 (2009)[1]
L2: 570,000 in East Timor[2]

  • Belunese (Tetun Belu)
  • Terik (Tetun Terik)

National Institute of Linguistics

There are two main forms of Tetum as a language:


Ethnologue classifies Tetun Terik as a dialect of Tetun.[1] However, without previous contact, Tetun Dili is not immediately mutually intelligible,[4] mainly because of the large number of Portuguese origin words used in Tetun Dili. Besides some grammatical simplification, Tetun Dili has been greatly influenced by the vocabulary and to a small extent by the grammar of Portuguese, the other official language of East Timor.

Nomenclature[edit]

The English form Tetum is derived from Portuguese, rather than from modern Tetum. Consequently, some people regard Tetun as more appropriate.[5] Although this coincides with the favoured Indonesian form, and the variant with m has a longer history in English, Tetun has also been used by some Portuguese-educated Timorese, such as José Ramos-Horta and Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.


Similar disagreements over nomenclature have emerged regarding the names of other languages, such as Swahili/Kiswahili and Punjabi/Panjabi.

Tetun-Dili, or Tetun-Prasa (literally 'city Tetum'), is spoken in the capital, , and its surroundings, in the north of the country. Because of its simpler grammar than other varieties of Tetun, extensive Portuguese loanwords, and supposed creole-like features, Ethnologue and some researchers classify it as a Tetun-based creole.[4][7][8] This position, however, is also disputed in that while Tetun-Dili may exhibit simpler grammar, this does not mean that Tetun-Dili is a creole.[10][11] According to Ethnologue, there were 50,000 native Tetun-Dili speakers in East Timor in 2004 and 370,000 L2 users.[4]

Dili

Tetun-Terik is spoken in the south and southwestern coastal regions. According to Ethnologue, there were 50,000 Tetun-Terik speakers in East Timor in 1995.

[6]

Tetun-Belu, or the Belunese dialect, is spoken in a central strip of the island of Timor from the to the Timor Sea, and is split between East Timor and West Timor, where it is considered a bahasa daerah or 'regional language', with no official status in Indonesia, although it is used by the Diocese of Atambua in Roman Catholic rites.

Ombai Strait

The Nana'ek dialect is spoken in the village of , on the coastal road between Dili and Manatuto.

Metinaro

According to linguist Geoffrey Hull, Tetum has four dialects:[6]


Tetun-Belu and Tetun-Terik are not spoken outside their home territories. Tetun-Prasa is the form of Tetum that is spoken throughout East Timor. Although Portuguese was the official language of Portuguese Timor until 1975, Tetun-Prasa has always been the predominant lingua franca in the eastern part of the island.


In the fifteenth century, before the arrival of the Portuguese, Tetum had spread through central and eastern Timor as a contact language under the aegis of the Belunese-speaking Kingdom of Wehali, at that time the most powerful kingdom in the island. The Portuguese (present in Timor from c. 1556) made most of their settlements in the west, where Dawan was spoken, and it was not until 1769, when the capital was moved from Lifau (Oecussi) to Dili that they began to promote Tetum as an inter-regional language in their colony. Timor was one of the few Portuguese colonies where a local language, and not a form of Portuguese, became the lingua franca: this is because Portuguese rule was indirect rather than direct, the Europeans governing through local kings who embraced Catholicism and became vassals of the King of Portugal.[12]


When Indonesia occupied East Timor between 1975 and 1999, declaring it "the Republic's 27th Province", the use of Portuguese was banned, and Indonesian was declared the sole official language, but the Roman Catholic Church adopted Tetum as its liturgical language, making it a focus for cultural and national identity.[13] After the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) took over governance in September 1999, Tetun (Dili) was proclaimed the country's official language, even though according to Encarta Winkler Prins it was only spoken by about 8% of the native population at the time, while the elite (consisting of 20 to 30 families) spoke Portuguese and most adolescents had been educated in Indonesian.[14] When East Timor gained its independence on 20 May 2002, Tetum and Portuguese were declared as official languages. The 2010 census found that Tetum Prasa had 385,269 native speakers on a total population of 1,053,971, meaning that the share of native Tetum Prasa/Dili speakers had increased to 36.6% during the 2000s.[15]


In addition to regional varieties of Tetum in East Timor, there are variations in vocabulary and pronunciation, partly due to Portuguese and Indonesian influence. The Tetum spoken by East Timorese migrants in Portugal and Australia is more Portuguese-influenced, as many of those speakers were not educated in Indonesian.

Vocabulary[edit]

Indigenous[edit]

The Tetum name for East Timor is Timór Lorosa'e, which means 'Timor of the rising sun', or, less poetically, 'East Timor'; lorosa'e comes from loro 'sun' and sa'e 'to rise, to go up'. The noun for 'word' is liafuan, from lia 'voice' and fuan 'fruit'. Some more words in Tetum:

Bondia – 'Good morning' (from Portuguese Bom dia).

Di'ak ka lae? – 'How are you?' (literally 'Are you well or not?')

Ha'u di'ak – 'I'm fine.'

Obrigadu/Obrigada – 'Thank you', said by a male/female (from Portuguese Obrigado/Obrigada).

Ita bele ko'alia Tetun? – 'Do you speak Tetum?'

Loos – 'Right'

Lae – 'No.'

Ha'u' [la] komprende – 'I [do not] understand' (from Portuguese compreender).

Languages of East Timor

at Wikisource

The Lord's Prayer in Tetum

includes several bilingual Tetum dictionaries, and articles about Tetum

National Institute of Linguistics, National University of East Timor (Archived)

Hull, Geoffrey, Standard Tetum-English Dictionary 2nd Ed, Allen & Unwin Publishers  978-1-86508-599-9

ISBN

Official Web Gateway to the Government of Timor-Leste – Religion & Language

(PDF)

The standard orthography of the Tetum language

- Tetum Spelling Guide

Matadalan Ortografiku ba Lia-Tetun

(PDF)

Damien LEIRIS - Personal approach of the Tetum language

Colonization, Decolonization and Integration: Language Policies in East Timor, Indonesia, by Nancy Melissa Lutz

Current Language Issues in East Timor (Dr. Geoffrey Hull)

Van Klinken, Catharina (1999). (PDF). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. doi:10.15144/PL-C155. ISBN 0858835142.

A grammar of the Fehan dialect of Tetun, an Austronesian language of West Timor

Hull, Geoffrey (1998). . Estudos de Linguas e Culturas de Timor Leste (Studies in Languages and Cultures of East Timor). 1: 1–38.

"The Languages of Timor 1772-1997: A Literature Review"

Ross, Melody A. (2017). (PDF) (phd thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. hdl:10125/62504.

Attitudes toward Tetun Dili, A Language of East Timor

Peace Corps East Timor Tetun Language Manual (; 2015, 3rd edition)

2011, 2nd edition

Intensive Tetun language courses at Dili Institute of Technology

using Tetum, published in the East Timorese newspaper Lia Foun in Díli (from Wikimedia Commons)

Pictures from a Portuguese language course

website with sound files

Tetun

an interview with some information on the history of Tetum

Teach yourself Tetum...

and other publications available from Dili

Wordfinder (Tetun/English minidictionary)

(PDF)

Damien LEIRIS - Personal approach of the Tetum language

Tetun dictionary

Tetum illustrated dictionary

Institute of Technology website

Dili Institute of Technology

includes some information on grammar, based on the Tetun-Terik dialect

A Traveller's Dictionary in Tetun-English and English-Tetun

Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project for the Protection and Promotion of East Timorese Languages

Suara Timor Lorosae Daily newspaper in Tetum and Indonesian

Jornal Nacional Semanário Tetum page

Archived 2008-02-01 at the Wayback Machine

Tetum dictionaries

Tetun writing courses for East Timorese university students, by Catharina Williams-van Klinken, Dili Institute of Technology

Tetun 1, Tetun 2

VisitEastTimor.com Travel Guide help you to talk in East Timor

Talk Tetum in Timor

's field notes on Tetun are archived with Kaipuleohone

Robert Blust

Kroon, Sjaak; Kurvers, Jeanne (2020). . Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 41 (5): 444–456. doi:10.1080/01434632.2019.1657872. S2CID 203062214.

"Language use, language attitudes and identity in the East Timorese diaspora in the Netherlands"