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Tetum, also known as Tetun, is a creole language spoken in East Timor. It is the national language of East Timor and is also spoken in Indonesia and Australia. Tetum is a member of the Austronesian family of languages and is closely related to Indonesian and Malay. Tetum has been heavily influenced by Portuguese, the colonial language of East Timor. As a result, Tetum has a significant number of loanwords from Portuguese. However, the grammar and vocabulary of Tetum are largely derived from Malay. Tetum is written using a Latin-based alphabet. The language has two main dialects: Tetum Terik and Tetum Belu. Tetum Terik is spoken in the capital, Dili, and Tetum Belu is spoken in the western part of the country. Tetum is a relatively simple language to learn. However, its close similarity to Indonesian and Malay can make it difficult for speakers of those languages to understand.

Language group

Central Malayo-Polynesian languages

Language locales, regions and scripts

Tetum
tet
Tetum, Timor-Leste, Latin
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Tetum, Latin
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Tetum, Timor-Leste
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