December 3, 2003 - Tetunisms

Tetun, the language of East Timor, is quite a simple language. Because of the lack of sophisticated vocabulary, the Timorese mix lots of Bahasa Indonesia and Portuguese in when they speak. The lack of vocabulary has also led to some words which have interesting, amusing and endearing literal translations to English. Here are my favourites…

pregnant = 'isin rua' = literal translation 'two bodies'

sugar = 'masin midar' = lit. 'sweet salt'

bed = 'fatin toba' = lit. 'sleeping place'

how are you? = 'diak ka lae?' = lit. 'good or no?'

jealous = 'laran moras' = lit. 'sick inside'

to feel down = 'laran todan' = lit. 'heavy inside'

bad = 'la diak' = lit. 'no good'

furniture = 'sasan uma' = lit. 'house things'

blind = 'matan aat' = lit. 'broken eyes'

milk = 'susuben' = lit. 'breast juice'

honey = 'banin ben = lit. 'bee juice'

mother-in-law or father-in-law = 'banin' = lit. 'bee'

sheep = 'bibi melay = lit. 'foreign goat'

give birth = 'tur ahi' = lit. 'to sit fire'

burned down = 'ahi han' = lit. 'fire eaten'

forest = 'ai laran' = lit. 'inside trees'

toes = 'ain fuan' = lit. 'leg fruit'

fingers = 'liman fuan' = lit. 'arm fruit'

fever = 'isin manas' = lit. 'hot body'

light = 'ahi oan' = lit. 'fire child'

beach = 'tasi ibun' = lit. 'ocean mouth'

'hare' = unpicked rice

'fos' = rice, picked but uncooked

'etu' = rice, cooked and ready to eat!