Tetun Dili and Creoles: Another Look

Abstract

This paper revisits the linguistic classification of Tetun Dili, an Austronesian language spoken in and around the city of Dili, East Timor. Since at least the late 1990s several writers have claimed that this variant of the more widely-spoken Tetun language is a creole. However, close examination of the relevant data for the Dili dialect in relation both to the more conservative Tetun Fehan, and to Portuguese, shows little or no supporting evidence for the creole hypothesis. It is concluded that Tetun Dili is simply an Austronesian language with fairly numerous loanwords from Portuguese, particularly in semantic domains that reflect the nature of the contact situation during the colonial period.