Tetum is a member of the Timoric branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family. It is spoken in Belu Regency in West Timor in Indonesian, and also in East Timor, where it is an official language. In 2011 there were about 550,000 speakers of Tetum.
There are three dialects of Tetun: Tetun-Terik, Tetun-Belu and Nana'ek. A creolised variety of Tetum, known as Tetun-Dili or Tetun-Prasa, is spoken in Dili, the capital of East Timor, and elsewhere in East Timor as a lingua franca. It has simplified grammar and a lot of vocabulary from Portuguese, and is not mutually intelligible with Tetum.
Although Tetum has a standardised orthograph, which was established by the National Institute of Linguistics in 2004, there are many spelling variations.
Download an alphabet chart for Tetum (Excel)
Information about the Tetum alphabet and pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel
Ema hotu hotu moris hanesan ho dignidade ho direitu. Sira hotu iha hanoin, konsiensia n'e duni tenki hare malu hanesan espiritu maun-alin.
Hear a recording of the text by Francisco Tilman de Jesus Andrade (recorded by Moshe Ash)
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Tetum | Phrases | Numbers | Tower of Babel
Information about the Tetum languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetum
http://www.easttimorgovernment.com/languages.htm
Information about the Standard Orthography of the Tetum Language
http://www.asianlang.mq.edu.au/INL/orthhist.pdf (PDF, )
Tetum courses
http://www.tetundit.tl
Online Tetum phrases
http://visiteasttimor.com/good-to-know/talk-tetum-in-timor/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Tetum_phrasebook
http://www.gnu.org/software/tetum/contributors/cliffMorris-xhtml/
http://gov.east-timor.org/AboutTimorleste/tetum.htm
http://navigatedili.com/Phrases.html
Online Tetum dictionary
http://www.gnu.org/software/tetum/contributors/cliffMorris-xhtml/index.html
Amarasi, Dawan, Galoli, Helong, Tetum, Tii, Western Rote
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 04.07.24
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