East Timor

The two official languages of East Timor are Portuguese and Tetum. The latter of which is the most widely spoken nowadays and is part of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages. However, before the nation became a sovereign country, Indonesian was the main language on the island.

Presently, English and Indonesian are defined as “working languages” and mainly used by the government. Due to Chinese immigration some communities also speak Mandarin, Cantonese and specially Hakka.

Although the island is quite small it has 31 national languages (with great influence of Mambae, Kemak, Fataluku, Bunak, Galoli and Makasae), most of them coming from the Austronesian family as well as the Malyo-Polynesian family, with some of them having Papuan roots.