Tetum language
Tetum 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 conjugationTetum Prasa or Tetum Dili. This is the form of Tetum that developed in Dili during colonial rule as local Tetum speakers came into contact with Portuguese missionaries, traders and colonial rulers. In Timor-Leste, Tetum Dili is widely spoken fluently as a second language.
Ethnologue classifies Tetun Terik as a dialect of Tetun. However, without previous contact, Tetun Dili is not immediately mutually intelligible, 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 Timor-Leste.
Nomenclature
The English form Tetum is derived from Portuguese, rather than from modern Tetum. Consequently, some people regard Tetun as more appropriate. 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.History and dialects
According to linguist Geoffrey Hull, Tetum has four dialects:- Tetun-Dili, or Tetun-Prasa, is spoken in the capital, Dili, 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. 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. According to Ethnologue, there were 50,000 native Tetun-Dili speakers in Timor-Leste in 2004 and L2 users.
- 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.
- Tetun-Belu, or the Belunese dialect, is spoken in a central strip of the island of Timor from the Ombai Strait to the Timor Sea, and is split between Timor-Leste 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 Roman [Catholic Diocese of Atambua|Diocese] of Atambua in Roman Catholic rites.
- The Nana'ek dialect is spoken in the village of Metinaro, on the coastal road between Dili and Manatuto.
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 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 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.
Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974, Indonesia invaded East Timor, 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. After the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor took over governance in 1999, Tetun 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 spoke Portuguese and most adolescents had been educated in Indonesian. When Timor-Leste gained its independence in 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.
In addition to regional varieties of Tetum in Timor-Leste, there are variations in vocabulary and pronunciation, partly due to Portuguese and Indonesian influence. The Tetum spoken by East Timorese migrants living in Portugal and Australia are more Portuguese-influenced, as many of those speakers were not educated in Indonesian.
Vocabulary
Indigenous
The Tetum name for Timor-Leste 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:[Image:Kursu portuges 4.jpg|thumb|right|Portuguese (left) and Tetum (right). From a Portuguese course for Tetum speakers. The text says: "Our generation sometimes has difficulty distinguishing between 'j' and 'z'"]
- aas – 'high'
- aat – 'bad'
- ai – 'tree'
- ai-fuan – 'fruit'
- ai-manas – 'spice'
- bee – 'water'
- belun – 'friend'
- boot – 'big'
- di'ak – 'good'
- domin – 'love'
- ema – 'person, people'
- fatin – 'place'
- feto – 'woman'
- foho – 'mountain'
- fulan – 'moon/month'
- funu – 'war'
- hamlaha – 'hungry'
- haan – 'eat'
- hahán – 'food'
- hemu – 'drink'
- hotu – 'all'
- ida – 'one'
- kalan – 'night'
- ki'ik – 'little'
- kraik – 'low'
- labarik – 'child'
- lafaek – 'crocodile'
- lais – 'fast'
- lalenok – 'mirror'
- laran – 'inside'
- lia – 'language'
- liafuan – 'word'
- lian – 'voice', 'language'
- loos – 'true', 'tebes' also acts as a synonym.
- loron – 'day'
- lokraik – 'afternoon'
- tauk – 'scared'
- mane – 'man'
- maromak – 'god'
- moris – 'life'
- rai – 'country'
- tasi – 'sea'
- tinan – 'year'
- tebes – 'very'
- teen – 'dirt', 'sediment'
- tos – 'hard'
- uluk – 'first'
- ulun – 'head'
From Portuguese
Words derived from Portuguese:- adeus – 'goodbye'
- ajuda – 'help'
- aprende – 'learn', from aprender
- arkitetura – 'architecture', from arquitetura
- arkuiris – 'rainbow', from arco-íris
- aviaun – 'airplane', from avião
- demais – 'too much'
- desizaun – 'decision', from decisão
- deskulpa – 'sorry', from desculpa
- doutor – 'doctor'
- edukasaun – 'education', from educação
- ekipamentu – 'equipment', from equipamento
- eletrisidade – 'electricity', from electricidade
- embaixada – 'embassy'
- emerjensia – 'emergency', from emergência
- enjeñaria – 'engineering', from engenharia
- entaun – 'so', 'well', from então
- envezde 'instead of', from em vez de
- eskola – 'school', from escola
- esperiénsia – 'experience', from experiência
- familia – 'family', from família
- fízika – 'physics', from física
- forsa – 'force', from força
- froñas – 'pillowcases', from fronhas
- gitarrista – 'guitarist', from guitarrista
- governu – 'government', from governo
- ideia – 'idea'
- igreja – 'church'
- imposivel – 'impossible', from impossível
- istória – 'history', from história
- jerasaun – 'generation', from geração
- kafé – 'coffee', from café
- kaisaun – 'coffin', from caixão
- keiju – 'cheese', from queijo
- kompañia – 'company', from companhia
- komprende – 'understand', from compreender
- konsulta – 'consultation', from consulta
- korrupsaun – 'corruption', from corrupção
- kuandu – 'when', from quando
- mensajen – 'message', from mensagem
- menus – 'less', from menos
- milagre – 'miracle'
- mundu – 'world', from mundo
- múzika – 'music', from música
- Natál – 'Christmas', from Natal
- obrigadu/a – 'thanks', from obrigado/a
- organizasaun – 'organization', from organização
- pasadu – 'past', from passado
- pasaporte – 'passport', from passaporte
- paun – 'bread', from pão
- pergunta – 'question'
- polísia – 'police', from polícia
- povu – 'people', from povo
- prezidente – 'president', from presidente
- profesór – 'teacher', from professor
- profisaun – 'profession', from profissão
- relijiaun – 'religion', from religião
- semana – 'week'
- serbisu – 'work', from serviço
- serveja – 'beer', from cerveja
- teknolojia – 'technology', from tecnologia
- televizaun – 'television', from televisão
- tenke – 'must', from tem que
- tendénsia – 'tendency', from tendência
- terrorizmu – 'terrorism', from terrorismo
- xefe – 'chief', from chefe
From Malay
As a result of Bazaar Malay being a regional lingua franca and of Indonesian being a working language, many words are derived from Malay, including:- atus 'hundred', from ratus
- barak 'much', from banyak
- bele 'can', from boleh
- besi 'iron', from besi
- udan 'rain', from hujan
- dalan 'way' or 'road', from jalan
- fatu 'stone', from batu
- fulan 'moon' or 'month' from bulan
- malae 'foreigner', from melayu 'Malay'
- manas 'hot', from panas
- rihun 'thousand', from ribu
- sala 'wrong', from salah
- tulun 'help', from tolong
- dapur 'kitchen', from dapur
- uma 'house', from rumah
Numerals
- ida 'one'
- rua 'two'
- tolu 'three'
- haat 'four'
- lima 'five'
- neen 'six'
- hitu 'seven'
- ualu 'eight'
- sia 'nine'
- sanulu 'ten'
- ruanulu 'twenty'
Combinations
Tetum has many hybrid words, which are combinations of indigenous and Portuguese words. These often include an indigenous Tetum verb, with a Portuguese suffix -dór. For example:- han handór – glutton
- hemu hemudór – heavy drinker
- hateten hatetendór – chatterbox, talkative person
- sisi sisidór – nag, pest
Basic phrases
- Bondia – 'Good morning' .
- Di'ak ka lae? – 'How are you?'
- Ha'u di'ak – 'I'm fine.'
- Obrigadu/Obrigada – 'Thank you', said by a male/female.
- Ita bele ko'alia Tetun? – 'Do you speak Tetum?'
- Loos – 'Right'
- Lae – 'No.'
- Ha'u' komprende – 'I understand'.
Grammar
Morphology
Personal pronouns
A common occurrence is to use titles such as Senhora for a woman or names rather than pronouns when addressing people.The second person singular pronoun Ó is used generally with children, friends or family, while with strangers or people of higher social status, Ita or Ita boot is used.
Nouns and pronouns
Plural
The plural is not normally marked on nouns, but the word sira 'they' can express it when necessary.However, the plural ending -s of nouns of Portuguese origin is sometimes retained.
Definiteness
Tetum has an optional indefinite article ida, used after nouns:There is no definite article, but the demonstratives ida-ne'e and ida-ne'ebá may be used to express definiteness:
In the plural, sira-ne'e or sira-ne'ebá are used:
Possessive/genitive
The particle nia forms the inalienable possessive, and can be used in a similar way to 's in English, e.g.:When the possessor is postposed, representing alienable possession, nia becomes nian:
Inclusive and exclusive ''we''
Like other Austronesian languages, Tetum has two forms of we, ami which is exclusive, e.g. "I and they", and ita, which is inclusive, e.g. "you, I, and they".Nominalization
Nouns derived from verbs or adjectives are usually formed with affixes, for example the suffix -na'in, similar to "-er" in English.The suffix -na'in can also be used with nouns, in the sense of 'owner'.
In more traditional forms of Tetum, the circumfix ma- -k is used instead of -na'in. For example, the nouns 'sinner' or 'wrongdoer' can be derived from the word sala as either maksalak, or sala-na'in. Only the prefix ma- is used when the root word ends with a consonant; for example, the noun 'cook' or 'chef' can be derived from the word te'in as makte'in as well as te'in-na'in.
The suffix -teen can be used with adjectives to form derogatory terms:
Adjectives
Derivation from nouns
To turn a noun into a nominalised adjective, the word oan is added to it.Thus, 'Timorese person' is Timor-oan, as opposed to the country of Timor, rai-Timor.
To form adjectives and actor nouns from verbs, the suffix -dór can be added:
Gender
Tetum does not have separate masculine and feminine gender, hence nia can mean either 'he', 'she' or 'it'.Different forms for the genders only occur in Portuguese-derived adjectives, hence obrigadu is used by men, and obrigada by women. The masculine and feminine forms of other adjectives derived from Portuguese are sometimes used with Portuguese loanwords, particularly by Portuguese-educated speakers of Tetum.
In some instances, the different gender forms have distinct translations into English:
In indigenous Tetum words, the suffixes -mane and -feto are sometimes used to differentiate between the genders:
Comparatives and superlatives
Superlatives can be formed from adjectives by reduplication:When making comparisons, the word liu is used after the adjective, optionally followed by duké :
To describe something as the most or least, the word hotu is added:
Adverbs
Adverbs can be formed from adjectives or nouns by reduplication:Prepositions and circumpositions
The most commonly used prepositions in Tetum are the verbs iha and baa/ba. Most prepositional concepts of English are expressed by nominal phrases formed by using iha, the object and the position,optionally with the possessive nia.Verbs
Copula and negation
There is no verb to be as such, but the word la'ós, which translates as 'not to be', is used for negation:The word maka, which roughly translates as 'who is' or 'what is', can be used with fronted phrases for focusing/ emphasis:
Interrogation
The interrogative is formed by using the words ka or ka lae.Derivation from nouns and adjectives
s are formed by adding the prefix ha- or hak- to a noun or adjective:Intransitive verbs are formed by adding the prefix na- or nak- to a noun or adjective:
Conjugations and [inflection]s (in Tetun-Terik)
In Tetun-Terik, verbs inflect when they begin with a vowel or consonant h. In this case mutation of the first consonant occurs. For example, the verb haree in Tetun-Terik would be conjugated as follows:Tenses
Past
Whenever possible, the past tense is simply inferred from the context, for example:However, it can be expressed by placing the adverb ona at the end of a sentence.
When ona is used with la this means 'no more' or 'no longer', rather than 'have not':
In order to convey that an action has not occurred, the word seidauk is used:
When relating an action that occurred in the past, the word tiha is used with the verb.
Future
The future tense is formed by placing the word sei before a verb:The negative is formed by adding la between sei and the verb:
Aspects
Perfect
The perfect aspect can be formed by using tiha ona.When negated, tiha ona indicates that an action ceased to occur:
In order to convey that a past action had not or never occurred, the word ladauk is used:
Progressive
The progressive aspect can be obtained by placing the word hela after a verb:Imperative
The imperative mood is formed using the word ba at the end of a sentence, hence:The word lai may also be used when making a request rather than a command:
When forbidding an action labele or keta are used:
Orthography and phonology
The influence of Portuguese and to a lesser extent Malay/Indonesian on the phonology of Tetun has been extensive.| Front | Central | Back | |
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In the Tetum language,, and tend to have relatively fixed sounds. However and vary according to the environment they are placed in, for instance the sound is slightly higher if the proceeding syllable is or.
All consonants appearing in parentheses are used only in loanwords.
Stops: All stops in Tetum are un-aspirated, meaning an expulsion of breath is absent. In contrast, English stops, namely 'p' 't' and 'k' are generally aspirated.
Fricatives:
is an unstable voiced labio-dental fricative and tends to alternate with or is replaced by ; e.g. – meaning 'grandparent.'
As Tetum did not have any official recognition or support under either Portuguese or Indonesian rule, it is only recently that a standardised orthography has been established by the . The standard orthography devised by the institute was declared official by Government Decree 1/2004 of 14 April 2004. However, there are still widespread variations in spelling, one example being the word bainhira or 'when', which has also been written as bain-hira, wainhira, waihira, uaihira. The use of or is a reflection of the pronunciation in some rural dialects of Tetun-Terik.
The current orthography originates from the spelling reforms undertaken by Fretilin in 1974, when it launched literacy campaigns across East Timor, and also from the system used by the Catholic Church when it adopted Tetum as its liturgical language during the Indonesian occupation. These involved the transcription of many Portuguese words that were formerly written in their original spelling, for example, educação → edukasaun 'education', and colonialismo → kolonializmu 'colonialism'.
Reforms suggested by the International Committee for the Development of East Timorese Languages in 1996 included the replacement of the digraphs [nh (digraph)|] and [lh (digraph)|] with and , respectively, to avoid confusion with the consonant clusters and, which also occur in Tetum. Thus, senhor 'sir' became sen̄ór, and trabalhador 'worker' became trabal̄adór. Later, as adopted by IACDETL and approved by the INL in 2002, and were replaced by and . Thus, sen̄ór 'sir' became señór, and trabal̄adór 'worker' became traballadór. Some linguists favoured using [ny (digraph)|] and [ly (digraph)|] for these sounds, but the latter spellings were rejected for being similar to the Indonesian system, and most speakers actually pronounce ñ and ll as and, respectively, with a semivowel which forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel, not as the palatal consonants of Portuguese and Spanish. Thus, señór, traballadór are pronounced,, and liña, kartilla are pronounced,. As a result, some writers use and instead, for example Juinu and Juilu for June and July.
As well as variations in the transliteration of Portuguese loanwords, there are also variations in the spelling of indigenous words. These include the use of double vowels and the apostrophe for the glottal stop, for example boot → bot 'large' and ki'ik → kiik 'small'.
The sound, which is not indigenous to Tetum but appears in many loanwords from Portuguese and Malay, often changed to in old Tetum and to in the speech of young speakers: for example, meja 'table' from Portuguese mesa, and kamija 'shirt' from Portuguese camisa. In the sociolect of Tetum that is still used by the generation educated during the Indonesian occupation, and may occur in free variation. For instance, the Portuguese-derived word ezemplu 'example' is pronounced by some speakers, and conversely Janeiru 'January' is pronounced. The sound, also not native to the language, often shifted to, as in serbisu 'work' from Portuguese serviço.