Tetun Dili

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A language of East Timor

ISO 639-3
tdt
Alternate Names
Dili Tetum, Tetum, Tetum Dili, Tetum Praça, Tetum Prasa, Tetun
Population

385,000 (2009). Growing in use and importance.

Location

East Timor north coast, L1 in Dili area; L2 scattered in western part of East Timor.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (2002, Constitution, Article 13).

Classification
Creole, Tetun based
Dialects

Heavy Portuguese [por] and Mambae [mgm] influence; some Indonesian [ind] or Malay influence.

Typology

Compared to Tetun [tet]: many more Portuguese [por] loanwords; does not inflect V-initial verb roots for person or number; uses more periphrastic constructions than morphological constructions (e.g., causatives); differences in possessive constructions and negatives

Language Use

Increasing in use in urban areas. All domains. All ages. Tetun users [tet] have significant difficulty understanding it in many speech domains, and vice versa.

Language Development
Dictionary. Grammar. NT.
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Cultural rituals and themes in Tetun [tet] are not as deeply rooted in Tetun Dili. Christian.