Tetum love poem

The love poem translated into timorese, (Tetum Dili ((Dili is the capital of East Timor)), Teto, Tettum, Tetung, Tetu, Tetun, Belo, Belu, Fehan, Foho, Hill Tetun, Lakluta, Lia Fehan, Lia Foho, Natarbora, North Belu, Northern Tetun, Plain Tetun, Plains Tetun, Belu Selatan, Belu Utara, Eastern Tetun, Soibada, South Belu, South Tetun, Southern Tetun, Tasi Feto, Tasi Mane, Tetun Belu, Tetun Loos, Tetun Los, Tetun Terik, Tetun Therik), the official language of East Timor.

In East Timor, a country of less than two million inhabitants, about twenty languages are spoken, which are Austronesian and Papuan (makalero, fataluku and makasae), except Portuguese ... most of them being Austronesian (tetum, tokodede, kairui, mambae, baikeno, galolen, naueti, kemak, midiki).

Tetun is an Austronesian language used as a lingua franca in East Timor (except in the far east), and in neighboring areas of West Timor. If there are 500,000 people who have it as their native language, many more speak it as a second language.

This Malayo-Polynesian, used as a lingua franca in East Timor (except in the far east), and in neighboring areas of West Timor language has several dialects, Dili (prasa), Terik (north-west), Loos (center-south), Fehan (south), Belu (south-west) ... Tetum borrowed many words from Portuguese, Malay and Chinese. 1,3 million people will be able to look at themselves in a mirror, in readind this Tetum translation. Our Latin alphabet suits her very well.

Since 2002 Tetun has been the official language of Leste (East) Timor with Portuguese, and very quickly afterwards, a national language institute sought to standardize it in order to be able to write and teach it better. Today this normative desire is not yet fully effective.

The Tetun of the cities (dili, prasa) is sometimes classified among the creoles, pidgin, or hybrid languages, for others it would have especially a strong Portuguese influence in its vocabulary, especially if we compares it with other forms of the Tetum.

Until the 19th century, Timorese literary culture was only oral, it was poetry, or stories often versified on a whole bunch of subjects, that the katuas (the elders) recited for hours. It was also for them a way to teach on to the youngest, knowledge, history of their clan, life, and behaviors to adopt.

This Malayo-Polynesian language has several dialects, Dili, Terik, Belu ... Because of the history the Tetum borrowed many words from Portuguese. 1.3 million people will be able to watch themselves, in a mirror, with my verses, translated into Tetum. Our Latin alphabet suits it very well.

Timor is split into two parts: the West, which is Indonesian, and the East, which is independent. The western part was Dutch and the eastern part Portuguese.