Tetun Dili
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A language of East Timor
424,000, all users. L1 users: 50,000 (Williams-van Klinken et al 2002). L2 users: 374,000 (2020).
L1 in Dili district: East Timor north coast; L2 scattered in western part of East Timor.
1 (National). Statutory national language (2002, Constitution, Article 13).
SVO; prepositions; noun heads initial, except for possessor; tense-aspect markers; 22 consonants and 5 vowels; non-tonal; stress most commonly on the penultimate syllable; inclusive/exclusive pronouns; second person singular honorific.
Increasing in use in urban areas. All domains. Used by all. Also use Tetun [tet], some bilingually, but many others have significant difficulty understanding it in many domains.
Taught in all primary schools in grades 1–6, with Portuguese [por] taught as a subject in the lower grades and gradually introduced as a language of instruction with Tetun Dili in the higher grades (2021 SIL). Grammar. NT: 2016.
Cultural rituals and themes in Tetun [tet] are not as deeply rooted in Tetun Dili. Christian.