Tetun Dili

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A language of East Timor

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

385,000 (2009).

Location

L1 in Dili district: East Timor north coast; 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

None known. 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. Also use Tetun [tet], some bilingually, but many others have significant difficulty understanding it in many domains.

Language Development
Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. Bible portions: 1996–2002.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Tetun Dili
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

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

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