Languages ​​of East Timor

There are two official languages ​​in Timor Leste : Tetum and Portuguese, and two more “working languages”: Indonesian and English . “Working languages”, in accordance with article 159 of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, are used in the work of official bodies “when it is deemed necessary”. The status of “working languages” by the constitution is defined as temporary, without indicating the date of expiration of the transition period.

Most Timorese speak several languages. According to the 2010 census, about 90% of Timorese use the Tetum language in everyday life (despite the fact that it is native to only 23% of the current population of East Timor), 36% can be spoken in Portuguese to one degree or another (including 23 , 5% speak, read and write in Portuguese ^[1] ), 35% of Timorese speak fluent Indonesian, 31.4% of the population can speak English.

Tetum is the language of the largest indigenous people, which mainly lives in the region of the capital of East Timor Dili . Tetum over time has become the language of lingua franca - the language of tribal communication in East Timor, which is more or less understood by the majority of the population. The Tetum language, especially among the population living in the metropolitan area, is lexically saturated with Portuguese words, but it uses the original Tetum grammar. According to the 2010 census, the Tetum language is native to 36.6% of Timorese.

Other indigenous languages

The majority of the population (Tetums, Mambai, Tokode) also speak the native languages ​​of the Timorese branch of the Central Malaysian-Polynesian zone of the Austronesian languages . The languages ​​of the Bunaki, Makasai and some others belong to the Timor-Alorian family of the Papuan languages . After independence, integration processes intensified, and the former tribal identity was suppressed by the national. East Timorese literature is being formed in Tetum Pras and Portuguese, peculiar styles in decorative art and architecture that process tribal traditions. The symbol of East Timor is the Uma Lulik , the holy tribal house of Fataluka . According to the 2010 census, other common native languages ​​(besides tetum) are: mambai (12.5%), makasai (9.7%), tetum terik (6.0%), baikenu (5.9%), kemak (5.9%), bunak (5.3%), tocodede (3.7%) and fataluka (3.6%) ^[2] .

The Government of East Timor has made great efforts to disseminate Portuguese in the country. The Portuguese language is seen as uniting the population of East Timor and distinguishing it from the population of the rest (Indonesian) of the island of Timor. Portuguese was the language of the armed struggle against the Indonesian occupation. And now Portuguese is the language of the country's elite, a language that enables the people of East Timor to join the world of science, education, culture, Catholicism and emphasizes cultural and historical kinship with the former metropolis , as well as other Portuguese-speaking countries - Brazil , Angola , Mozambique , Guinea- Bissau , Cape Verde , Sao Tome and Principe , Macau .

Portuguese is used in East Timor in education (both school and higher), in law, in official documents. As a result of targeted actions by the country's leadership, the Portuguese-speaking population is rapidly increasing. In just 8 years between the 2002 and 2010 censuses, the percentage of the population speaking Portuguese has increased almost fivefold. The 2002 census showed that Portuguese is spoken by 5% of the country's population ^[3] . According to the 2004 census, already 13.6% of the population could speak Portuguese. According to the same census of 2004, 36% of respondents said that they can be more or less spoken in Portuguese ^[4] . According to the 2010 census, 23.5% of East Timorese spoke Portuguese. The leadership of East Timor believes that in the second decade of independence, more than half of East Timorese will speak Portuguese.

During the period of the Indonesian occupation (1976-1999), a policy of integrating the population of East Timor with the Indonesians was carried out. Widespread knowledge of the Indonesian language (at that time - the state language ). Portuguese was banned. The language of Tetum Pras was preserved as the language of communication throughout the territory, with the exception of the extreme eastern tip of the island and the Okusi enclave . Since independence from Indonesia, the Indonesian language has been expelled from schools as the language of instruction. The Indonesian government is currently seeking to strengthen the influence of the Indonesian language in East Timor by creating an Indonesian-speaking East Timor elite by providing places at universities in Indonesia to educate students from East Timor. In particular, in 2012, 7,000 students from East Timor studied at universities in Indonesia (with a population of East Timor of 1.1 million). For comparison, in the same 2012, only 5,000 students studied at the only East Timorese university in the capital Dili.

After gaining independence in 2002, Tetum Pras and Portuguese became the official languages ​​of East Timor. The latter is spoken primarily by the new social elite, who returned from exile after the 1999 referendum on independence. The Indonesian language is still widespread.

In 1976-1999, the so-called practice was practiced. transmigration - resettlement in East Timor of the predominantly Muslim population from the overpopulated islands of Western Indonesia ( Java and Madura , Bali , South Sulawesi , etc.). After independence, most Muslims returned to Indonesia. Now the number of Indonesians in East Timor, there are several thousand people. There is also a small number of Malays from Sarawak .

In Dili, there is a Muslim community of Arab origin (descendants of mid-late 19th century migrants from Hadramaut ) numbering about 1000 people.

The Chinese , mostly Hakka from southern China, there are 11 thousand people who profess mainly Catholicism.

• Portuguese in East Timor