Tetum language

The Tetum name for East Timor 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:

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' (from lian 'voice' and fuan 'fruit')
• lian – 'voice', 'language'
• loos – 'true'
• loron – 'day'
• lokraik – 'afternoon'
• tauk – 'sacred'
• mane – 'man'
• maromak – 'god'
• moris – 'life'
• rain – 'country'
• tasi – 'sea'
• tinan – 'year'
• tebes – 'very'
• teen – 'dirt'
• toos – 'hard'
• uluk – 'first'
• ulun – 'head'

Words derived from Portuguese:

• adeus – 'goodbye'
• ajuda – 'help'
• aprende – 'learn', from aprender
• demais – 'too much'
• desizaun – 'decision', from decisão
• edukasaun – 'education', from educação
• envezde 'instead of', from em vez de
• entaun – 'so', 'well', from então
• eskola – 'school', from escola
• governu – 'government', from governo
• igreja – 'church'
• istória – 'history', from história
• jerasaun – 'generation', from geração
• keiju – 'cheese', from queijo
• komprende – 'understand', from compreender
• menus – 'less', from menos
• obrigadu/a – 'thanks', from obrigado/a
• paun – 'bread', from pão
• povu – 'people', from povo
• profesór – 'teacher', from professor
• relijiaun – 'religion', from religião
• semana – 'week'
• serbisu – 'work', from serviço
• serveja – 'beer', from cerveja
• tenke – 'must', from tem que
• xefe – 'chief', from chefe
• ideia – 'idea'
• múzika – 'music', from música
• esperiénsia – 'experience', from experiência
• teknolojia – 'technology', from tecnologia
• forsa – 'force', from força
• eletrisidade – 'electricity', from electricidade
• terrorizmu – 'terrorism', from terrorismo
• embaixada – 'embassy'
• organizasaun – 'organization', from organização
• arkitetura – 'architecture', from arquitetura
• kafé – 'coffee', from café
• ekipamentu – 'equipment', from equipamento
• prezidente – 'president', from presidente
• froñas – 'pillowcases', from fronhas
• aviaun – 'airplane', from avião
• kompañia – 'company', from companhia
• televizaun – 'television', from televisão
• enjeñaria – 'engineering', from engenharia
• korrupsaun – 'corruption', from corrupção
• polísia – 'police', from polícia
• fízika – 'physics', from física
• profisaun – 'profession', from profissão
• imposivel – 'impossible', from impossível
• gitarrista – 'guitarist', from guitarrista
• pasaporte – 'passport', from passaporte
• mensajen – 'message', from mensagem
• Natál – 'Christmas', from Natal

Tetum (left) and Portuguese (right). From a Portuguese course for Tetum speakers. The text says: "Some people pronounce wrongly '*meja', '*uja' and '*abuja' instead of 'mesa', 'usa' and 'abusa'."

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(k) '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

In addition, as a legacy of Indonesian rule, other words of Malay origin have entered Tetum, through Indonesian.

• ida 'one'
• rua 'two'
• tolu 'three'
• haat 'four'
• lima 'five'
• neen 'six'
• hitu 'seven'
• ualu 'eight'
• sia 'nine'
• sanulu 'ten'
• ruanulu 'twenty'

However, Tetum speakers often use Malay/Indonesian or Portuguese numbers instead, such as delapan or oito 'eight' instead of ualu, especially for numbers over one thousand.

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 (similar to '-er'). For example:

• han ('to eat') handór – glutton
• hemu ('to drink') hemudór – heavy drinker
• hateten ('to say') hatetendór – chatterbox, talkative person
• sisi ('to nag, pester') sisidór – nag, pest

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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.[18]

The plural is not normally marked on nouns, but the word sira 'they' can express it when necessary.

feto 'woman/women' → feto sira 'women'

However, the plural ending -s of nouns of Portuguese origin is sometimes retained.

Estadus Unidus – United States (from Estados Unidos)

Nasoens Unidas – United Nations (from Nações Unidas)

Tetum has an optional indefinite article ida ('one'), used after nouns:

labarik ida – a child

There is no definite article, but the demonstratives ida-ne'e ('this one') and ida-ne'ebá ('that one') may be used to express definiteness:

labarik ida-ne'e – this child, the child

labarik ida-ne'ebá – that child, the child

In the plural, sira-ne'e ('these') or sira-ne'ebá ('those') are used:

labarik sira-ne'e – these children, the children

labarik sira-ne'ebá – those children, the children

The particle nia forms the inalienable possessive, and can be used in a similar way to 's in English, e.g.:

João nia uma – 'João's house'

Cristina nia livru – 'Cristina's book'

When the possessor is postposed, representing alienable possession, nia becomes nian:

povu Timór Lorosa'e nian – the people of East Timor

Like other Austronesian languages, Tetum has two forms of we, ami (equivalent to Malay kami) which is exclusive, e.g. "I and they", and ita (equivalent to Malay kita), which is inclusive, e.g. "you, I, and they".

ami-nia karreta – 'our [family's] car'

ita-nia rain – 'our country'

Nouns derived from verbs or adjectives are usually formed with affixes, for example the suffix -na'in, similar to "-er" in English.

hakerek 'write' → hakerek-na'in 'writer'

The suffix -na'in can also be used with nouns, in the sense of 'owner'.

uma 'house' → uma-na'in 'householder'

In more traditional forms of Tetum, the circumfix ma(k)- -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(k)- 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 (from the word for 'dirt' or 'excrement') can be used with adjectives to form derogatory terms:

bosok 'false' → bosok-teen 'liar'

To turn a noun into a nominalised adjective, the word oan ('person, child, associated object') is added to it.

malae 'foreigner' → malae-oan 'foreign'

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 (derived from Portuguese) can be added:

hateten 'tell' → hatetendór 'talkative'

Tetum does not have separate masculine and feminine gender, hence nia (similar to ia/dia/nya in Malay) can mean either 'he', 'she' or 'it'.

Different forms for the genders only occur in Portuguese-derived adjectives, hence obrigadu ('thank you') 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.

governu demokrátiku – 'democratic government' (from governo democrático, masculine)

nasaun demokrátika – 'democratic nation' (from nação democrática, feminine)

In some instances, the different gender forms have distinct translations into English:

bonitu – 'handsome'

bonita – 'pretty'

In indigenous Tetum words, the suffixes -mane ('male') and -feto ('female') are sometimes used to differentiate between the genders:

oan-mane 'son' → oan-feto 'daughter'

Superlatives can be formed from adjectives by reduplication:

barak 'much, many' → babarak 'very much, many'

boot 'big, great' → boboot 'huge, enormous'

di'ak 'good' → didi'ak 'very good'

ikus 'last' → ikuikus 'the very last, final'

moos 'clean, clear' → momoos 'spotless, immaculate'

When making comparisons, the word liu ('more') is used after the adjective, optionally followed by duké ('than' from Portuguese do que):

Maria tuan liu (duké) Ana — Maria is older than Ana.

To describe something as the most or least, the word hotu ('all') is added:

Maria tuan liu hotu — Maria is the oldest.

Adverbs can be formed from adjectives or nouns by reduplication:

di'ak 'good' → didi'ak 'well'

foun 'new, recent' → foufoun 'newly, recently'

kalan 'night' → kalakalan 'nightly'

lais 'quick' → lailais 'quickly'

loron 'day' → loroloron 'daily'

The most commonly used prepositions in Tetum are the verbs iha ('have', 'possess', 'specific locative') and baa/ba ('go', 'to', 'for'). Most prepostional concepts of English are expressed by nominal phrases formed by using iha, the object and the position (expressed by a noun),optionally with the possessive nia.

iha uma (nia) laran — ' inside the house'

iha foho (nia) tutun — ' on top of the mountain'

iha meza leten — ' on the table'

iha kadeira okos — ' under the chair'

iha rai li'ur — ' outside the country'

iha ema (nia) leet — ' between the people'

There is no verb to be as such, but the word la'ós, which translates as 'not to be', is used for negation:

Timor-oan sira la'ós Indonézia-oan. — 'The Timorese are not Indonesians.'

The word maka, which roughly translates as 'who is' or 'what is', can be used with fronted phrases for focusing/ emphasis:

João maka gosta serveja. — 'It's John who likes beer.'

The interrogative is formed by using the words ka ('or') or ka lae ('or not').

O bulak ka? — 'Are you crazy?'

O gosta ha'u ka lae? — 'Do you like me?'

Transitive verbs are formed by adding the prefix ha- or hak- to a noun or adjective:

been 'liquid' → habeen 'to liquify, to melt'

bulak 'mad' → habulak 'to drive mad'

klibur 'union' → haklibur 'to unite'

mahon 'shade' → hamahon 'to shade, to cover'

manas 'hot' → hamanas 'to heat up'

Intransitive verbs are formed by adding the prefix na- or nak- to a noun or adjective:

nabeen — '(to be) liquified, melted'

nabulak — '(to be) driven mad'

naklibur — '(to be) united'

namahon — '(to be) shaded, covered'

namanas — '(to become) heated up'

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 ('see') in Tetun-Terik would be conjugated as follows:

ha'u karee — 'I see'

ó maree — 'you (sing.) see'

nia naree — 'he/she/it sees'

ami haree — 'we see'

imi haree — 'you (pl.) see'

sira raree — 'they see'

Whenever possible, the past tense is simply inferred from the context, for example:

Horisehik ha'u han etu – 'Yesterday I ate rice.'

However, it can be expressed by placing the adverb ona ('already') at the end of a sentence.

Ha'u han etu ona – 'I've (already) eaten rice.'

When ona is used with la ('not') this means 'no more' or 'no longer', rather than 'have not':

Ha'u la han etu ona – 'I don't eat rice anymore.'

In order to convey that an action has not occurred, the word seidauk ('not yet') is used:

Ha'u seidauk han etu – 'I haven't eaten rice (yet).'

When relating an action that occurred in the past, the word tiha ('finally' or 'well and truly') is used with the verb.

Ha'u han tiha etu – 'I ate rice.'

The future tense is formed by placing the word sei ('will') before a verb:

Ha'u sei fó hahán ba sira – 'I will give them food.'

The negative is formed by adding la ('not') between sei and the verb:

Ha'u sei la fó hahán ba sira – 'I will not give them food.'

The perfect aspect can be formed by using tiha ona.

Ha'u han etu tiha ona – 'I have eaten rice / I ate rice.'

When negated, tiha ona indicates that an action ceased to occur:

Ha'u la han etu tiha ona – 'I didn't eat rice anymore.'

In order to convey that a past action had not or never occurred, the word ladauk ('not yet' or 'never') is used:

Ha'u ladauk han etu – 'I didn't eat rice / I hadn't eaten rice.'

The progressive aspect can be obtained by placing the word hela ('stay') after a verb:

Sira serbisu hela. – 'They're (still) working.'

The imperative mood is formed using the word ba ('go') at the end of a sentence, hence:

Lee surat ba! – 'Read the letter!'

The word lai ('just' or 'a bit') may also be used when making a request rather than a command:

Lee surat lai – 'Just read the letter.'

When forbidding an action labele ('cannot') or keta ('do not') are used:

Labele fuma iha ne'e! – 'Don't smoke here!'

Keta oho sira! – 'Don't kill them!'