East Timor has two official languages. These are Portuguese and Tetum. These belong to the Austronesian family of languages and are spoken throughout southeast Asia. The predominant form of Tetum is known by the name of Tetun-Dili.
This had grown out of the dialect used mostly by colonizers at Dili. Thus it also had considerable Portuguese influence. Apart from Tetun-Dili, other dialects of Tetum are also widely used int he country of East Timor. This includes a dialect named Tetun-Terik. This is mainly spoken along the southwestern coast of east Timor. According to the constitution of east timor, Indonesian and English are also defined as working languages. This information is as per the Final and Translational provisions. No final date has been set in this context. There are about a fifteen more indigenous languages spoken throughout east timor. These include languages like Bekais, Bunak, Dawan, Fatalaku, Galoli, Habun, Idalaka, Kawaimina, Kemak, Lovaia, Makalero, Makasai, Tokodede and Wetarese.
During the brutal and oppressive rule of the Indonesians, the use of Portuguese as a communicative language was banned. But it was used, especially by the clandestine resistance. This was majorly done in order to communicate with the outside world. Alonf with Tetum, this language also gained a lot of importance. It became a symbol of resistance against oppression and torture. It became an icon for freedom. It was then adopted as one of the two official languages. It served as a major link between east timor and other nations of the world. In order to spread the importance of the language and to preach it to a wide section of people, it is now being taught with the help of brazil, protugal abd the latin union. However, this noble attempt has also met with a negative resistance from a few Indonesian youth.
Fewer than five percent of the Timorese population can speak fluent Portuguese. Though there are other local languages, Tetum remains the most commonly spoken language for communication purposes. Common Timorese people prefer using Tetum over any other local language due to its widespread usage and simplicity. It is used in the Timorese media, education sector (schools and colleges) and many other places. Tetum is partially derived from Portuguese. Thus there is a lot of resemblance between the two languages. It also has many words derived from malay and Indonesian. This is obviously because of the past history of east timor and its cultural evolution.
The nation of east timor is a member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). It is also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth. It is also a member of the Latin union. East timor happens to be the only independent state in asia which has Portuguese as its official language.
