Tetum , also
Tetun, is an
Austronesian language spoken on the island of
Timor. It is spoken in
Belu Regency in
Indonesian West Timor, and across the border in
East Timor, where it is one of the two
official languages. In East Timor a
creolized form,
Tetun Dili, is widely spoken fluently as a second language; without previous contact, Tetum and Tetun Dili are not mutually intelligible. Besides the grammatical simplification involved in creolization, Tetun Dili has been greatly influenced by the vocabulary of
Portuguese, the other official language of East Timor.