Tetun Dili, an Austronesian language spoken in East Timor, was until 1999 primarily an oral language of intercultural communication. Since the 1999 vote on independence from Indonesia, Tetun Dili has become the dominant language of public life, including the government, education and the media, as well as becoming an official language alongside…

This article focuses on a detailed description of patterns of address in Dili Tetum today. It outlines the complexities of the address system and points to considerable variation in its evolving present-day use. We find, amongst other things, that a speaker may use a range of address strategies even to the same addressee, and that the use of…

As an official language of newly-independent East Timor, the public role of Tetun has increased markedly since 1999. Its use is, however, hampered by a shortage of agreed, well-understood, technical terminology. This paper reports on a project by the Independent Electoral Commission and the United Nations Development Programme to develop a…