1. Family: Austronesian
  2. Genus: Central Malayo-Polynesian

Tetun

WALS coordinates: 9° S, 126° E

spoken in East Timor

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Tetun
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Tetun (Fehan),
    • Tetum,
    • Fehan
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Small
    Vowel Quality Inventories Average (5-6)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio Average
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Missing /g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Complex
    Tone No tones
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Little affixation
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural word
    Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always optional
    Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
    Indefinite Articles Indefinite word same as 'one'
    Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns Binary politeness distinction
    Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
    Distributive Numerals Marked by reduplication
    Numeral Classifiers Optional
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Identity
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes No tense-aspect inflection
    The Morphological Imperative No second-person imperatives
    The Prohibitive Normal imperative + special negative
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
    Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
    Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
    Order of Degree Word and Adjective Adjective-Degree word
    Position of Polar Question Particles Final
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
    Simple Clauses
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Mixed
    Negative Morphemes Negative particle
    Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
    Polar Questions Question particle
    Complex Sentences
    'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly