Tetum

Tetum (Tetun; ISO 639-3: tet) is an Austronesian language and, under Timor-Leste’s 2002 Constitution, one of the country’s two official languages alongside Portuguese. Tetun Dili, also called Tetun Prasa, is the principal national lingua franca and the basis of Official Tetum; centuries of contact have given it extensive Portuguese vocabulary. Tetun Terik comprises more conservative regional varieties and retains grammatical features reduced or lost in Tetun Dili. Tetum generally has subject–verb–object order and is largely analytic, expressing many grammatical relationships through word order, particles, and function words rather than extensive inflection; its pronouns distinguish inclusive and exclusive first-person plural. Government Decree 1/2004 adopted the Latin-based Standard Orthography of Official Tetum developed by the National Institute of Linguistics for use in state administration, education, and public communication.