Tetun DIT header

Teacher and studentLearn Tetun!

Learn Tetun language and Timorese culture in-country through intensive courses at DIT, as well as through online and in-person lessons on campus or in your office. We offer courses all year round, teaching Tetun at all levels from absolute beginners to advanced. Join us for one week or more, as your schedule permits. For more information, click here.




New Testament translation in everyday TetunGoogle Playstore

Logo Biblia ba Ema HotuTestamentu Foun ba Ema Hotu was launched as an app in October 2021,
and is available as an app from Google Playstore.
It can also be downloaded as EPUB, PDF or HTML from here.

For more information look up "Biblia ba Ema Hotu" on Facebook.


2021 publications and international conference presentations

Ximenes Santos, Luis
    2021, Kemak dialects in Timor-Leste. 15th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics.         Download Powerpoint. View presentation.
Lucas, Olinda & Catharina Williams-van Klinken
    2021, Modern poetry in Tetun Dili (plenary). 15th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics,
    Download Powerpoint. View presentation.
Williams-van Klinken, Catharina & Olinda Lucas
   2021, Multilingualism in Timor-Leste. Multilingualism, Migration and the Multilingual City.
   Download.
Williams-van Klinken, 
    2021, Writing English for translation to Tetun. Download.
Williams-van Klinken, Catharina with Alexandre Fernandes Cham and Marta Cardoso
    2021, Tetun language learning for international scholars and students. Pre-Conference Workshop -
    Association for Asian Studies. Download.

2020 publications from the DIT Centre for Language Studies


da Conceição Soares, Adelina, & dos Santos, Francisca Cecilia X.
        2020, Code switching in university classrooms in Timor-Leste. Download.
da Silva, Justino & Cesaltina Martins
        2018, Slang in Tetun Dili. Download conference paper.

2020, Jiria: Ne'e U! Download.

Gonçalves, Norberto   
        2020, Identifying a person’s origin through their pronunciation of Tetun Dili: Who can do it?
        Download.
Williams-van Klinken, Catharina.
2020, Professorial address on register in Tetun. Tetun text, Oratio Sapientia (as recorded by STL News), English translation.
2020, Dezenvolvimentu lian Tetun tuir dalan informal. [Tetun development through informal channels]. Download.
Catharina Williams-van Klinken and Olinda Lucas
        2020, Discourse structures of Tetun Dili. Download.
      2019, Tradusaun ba lian Tetun. Download.
Silva, Martinha Rodrigues Rebelo Santos, Simões, Basília Aurélia, & dos Santos, Estela S., 2020
Será que o Inglês é mais fácil do que o Português? A perceção dos discentes Timorenses. Download.

Williams-van Klinken, Catharina, & Hajek, John.

2020. Double agent, double cross? Or how a suffix changes sides in an isolating language: dór in Tetun Dili. In Antoinette Schapper & David  Gil (Eds.), Austronesian undressed: How and why languages become Isolating. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

2018. Language contact and functional expansion in Tetun Dili: The evolution of a new press register. Multilingua. Williams-van Klinken, Catharina. (2020). 

Teacher and studentResources

Our publications include Tetun language learning materials, manuals to teach Tetun writing and academic skills to university students, and dictionaries and technical glossaries. You can also download many of our articles and conference presentations, mainly on Tetun, but also on other languages in Timor, on language teaching, and on other aspects of Timor. For details, click here.

Tetun, English and Portuguese for DIT students

Teacher and student

All Dili Institute of Technology students study three languages:

The Tetun course teaches academic skills in Tetun, using our own textbooks, available here.

The intensive English course runs for 15 hours per week in first year, and 5 hours per week in second year, by which time they are focusing on English for their own areas of study.

The Portuguese course aims at increasing students' knowledge of Portuguese, including in their areas of study. 

Tetun writing courses

When time permits we can  provide courses in Tetun writing skills for other institutions, as well as training in the use of our Tetun textbooks for teaching at tertiary level.

For futher information, contact us.

2019. Disionariu interativu Tetun-Ingles. Dili: Dili Institute of Technology. Haree iha nee.
2019 Tetun in Timor: How a local language rose to take over a country. Babel.

Hajek, John, & Williams-van Klinken, Catharina. 

2019. Language contact and gender in Tetun Dili: What happens when Austronesian meets Romance? Oceanic Linguistics, 58(1), 59-91.

DIT Language Centre's mission

DIT language staff

  • Teach, research and provide training in the languages needed for higher education in Timor-Leste.
  • Enable people from diverse cultures to be able to listen to and understand each other.
  • Teach Tetun at all levels to the international community.
  • Seek to help to develop Tetun, especially as a language of education and work.
  • Study and help develop the national languages.