Tetum

Tetum is the national language of East Timor. It is basically Austronesian with a mixture of Portuguese.

• loro - sun
• loron - day
• lorosae - sunrise

Thus the Tetum name for East Timor is Timor Lorosa'e.

Tetum (or Tetun) arose as a contact language in the 16th century after colonization by Portugal. It is also called Lia-Tetun, language of the plains, and the main dialect, that of the capital Dili, is called Tetun-Prasa.

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