A Short Grammar of Tetun Dili (Languages of the World Materials, 388)

Book is written for English speakers learning the grammar and other language usage rules of Tetun Dili, one of the varieties of Tetun, the national language of East Timor. Tetun has been selected as the national language for the emerging nation of East Timor. It has two main varieties, known within East Timor as Tetun Dili and Tetun Terik. While the latter is a relatively conservative Austronesian language, Tetun Dili shows strong Portuguese influence after centuries of contact. On the one hand, Tetun Dili has in many respects been simplified relative to Tetun Terik, for instance in having less productive derivational morphology, no subject marking on verbs, and a loss of Tetun consonant clusters such as /kt/. On the other hand the large influx of vocabulary from Portuguese has resulted in new phonological patterns and new models of word formation, while Portuguese influence has also resulted in new possibilities for a number of grammatical constructions, including complementation. There is large variation within Tetun Dili, in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The present sketch notes such variation, commenting where possible on the conditions under which each option is preferred, and illustrating this variability in brief texts. The sketch overviews Tetun phonology and morphology before presenting the major grammatical constructions used. Emphasis is on the language as it is spoken in East Timor's capital Dili; nevertheless where constructions used in speech are avoided in writing, this is noted. Cover......Page 0 Title......Page 1 Contents......Page 2 1. Introduction......Page 4 2. Phonology......Page 6 3. Major grammatical patterns......Page 8 4. Words and word classes......Page 9 5. Noun phrases......Page 13 6. Possessive and existential constructions......Page 15 7. Prepositions......Page 16 8. Clauses......Page 18 9. Serial verbs......Page 22 11. Sentences......Page 23 12. Word list......Page 26 13. Comparison with Tetun Terik......Page 28 14. Texts......Page 30 15. References......Page 32 Index......Page 33 Catharina Williams-van Klinken, John Hajek & Rachel Nordlinger. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 60-61) And Index.