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Tetum language
| Tetum | |
|---|---|
| Portuguese: Tétum | |
| Tetun | |
| Native to | Indonesia East Timor |
Native speakers | 500,000, mostly in Indonesia (2010–2011)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |  East Timor |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | tet |
| ISO 639-3 | tet |
| Glottolog | tetu1245 |
 Distribution in East Timor of Tetum Belu (west) and Tetum Terik (southeast). The majority of Tetun speakers, who live in West Timor, are not shown. | |
| Tetun Dili | |
|---|---|
| Tetun Prasa Portuguese: Tétum Praça | |
| Tetun Dili, Tetun Prasa | |
| Native to | East Timor |
Native speakers | 390,000 (2009)[1] L2: 570,000 in East Timor[2] |
Austronesian
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin (Tetum alphabet) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | East Timor |
| Regulated by | National Institute of Linguistics |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tdt |
| Glottolog | tetu1246 |
 Distribution of Tetum Prasa mother-tongue speakers in East Timor | |
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 Malaka Regency, which form the eastern part of Indonesian West Timor adjoining Timor-Leste.
There are two main forms of Tetum as a language:
- Tetum Terik, which is a more indigenous form of Tetum marked by different word choice, less foreign influence and other characteristics such as verb conjugation
- Tetum/n Prasa ('market Tetum', from the Portuguese word praça meaning 'town square') or Tetum/n Dili (given its widespread usage in the capital Dili). This is the form of Tetum (heavily influenced by Portuguese) that developed in Dili during colonial rule as local Tetum speakers came into contact with Portuguese missionaries, traders and colonial rulers. In East Timor, Tetun Dili is widely spoken fluently as a second 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.[citation needed] 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.
- ^ a b c Tetum at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "Table 14: Second language/dialect by sex for the population over four years of age". Timor-Leste Population and Housing Census 2015. Timor-Leste Ministry of Finance.
- ^ Bauer, Laurie (2007). The Linguistics Student's Handbook. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- ^ Tetun Dili at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
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