Austronesian · ISO 639-3 tet
Tetum Language
Tetum is an Austronesian language spoken by about 820,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Timor-Leste. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tetum is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tetum
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Timor-Babar
- Eastern Timor
- Central Timoric A
- Tetunic
- Tetum
Writing system
Latin script
About the Tetum language
Tetum is spoken by about 820,000 people, which makes it the 489th most spoken language in the world — just behind Ga (820,000) and ahead of Asturian (650,000). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Tetunic group within the Timor-Babar branch.
Where is Tetum spoken?
Tetum is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Timor-Leste (889,076). More than half of the population speaks it in Timor-Leste — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Tetum is an official language in 1 country: Timor-Leste.
Writing system and status
Tetum is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 tet.
Frequently asked questions about Tetum
How many people speak Tetum?
Where is Tetum spoken?
In which countries is Tetum an official language?
What language family does Tetum belong to?
Is Tetum an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.