Fataluku (also known as Dagaga, Dagoda', Dagada) is a

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...

spoken by approximately 37,000 people of Fataluku ethnicity in the eastern areas of

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

, especially around

Lospalos Lospalos (sometimes erroneously written as ''Los Palos'', assuming a nonexistent Spanish etymology) is a city in Timor-Leste, to the east of Dili, the national capital. Lospalos has a population of 17,186 (2006) and is the capital of Lautém ...

. It is a member of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family, which includes languages spoken both in East Timor and nearby regions of Indonesia. Fataluku's closest relative is Oirata, spoken on

Kisar Kisar, also known as ''Yotowawa'', is a small island in the Southwestern Moluccas in Indonesia, located to the northeast of Timor Island. The island now forms two districts ("North Kisar" and "South Kisar") within the Southwest Islands Regency o ...

island, in the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. Fataluku is given the status of a

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

under the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. Speakers of Fataluku normally have a command of

Tetum Tetum may refer to: * Tetum language, an Austronesian language ** Tetum alphabet, used to write the Tetum language * Tetum people, an ethnic group of East Timor and Indonesia {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

and/or

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

, those speakers who are educated under Portuguese rule or from younger generation educated under Portuguese-language educational system during independence speak Portuguese. It has a considerable number of

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...

loanwords, and it has borrowed elements of Sanskrit and Arabic vocabulary via Malay and elements of Portuguese. The five main Fataluku dialects are identified as follows: East Fataluku, South Fataluku, Central Fataluku, North Fataluku and Northwest Fataluku. The differences that exist between these dialects, especially beyond phonology, are unclear and require more research. Dialects differ with respect to the phonetic realization of

palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

obstruent An obstruent ( ) is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well ...

s, the presence of a glottal stop phoneme and a voicing distinction in stops, as well as aspects of the stress system.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Words and phrases

In the examples below, the letter 'c' and the letter combination 'tx' are pronounced as the 'ch' in the English word 'church'.

Rau ana kapare? / e nicha rau rau / maice ana umpe? "how are you?"
Rau "good"
Kapare "not good"
Hó "yes"
Xaparau "thank you"
Tali even xaparau "thank you very much"
nitawane "you're welcome"
Favoruni "please"
itu nae tini "excuse me"
Ó lai'i "hello"
mua toto, ia toto,purupale " take care"
Kois ta niat ali fanuhene "see you later"

Pronoun						                Possessive pronoun 						
I   :		Aniri/Ana					My: Ahani			
You :		Eri (singular), Iri (plural)			Your:  Eheni(sing), Eheniere (plur) 
We  :		Iniri (excl), Afiri (inclusive) 		Our: Inihini (exc), Afihini: (incl) 
They : 		Tawari, Márafuri				Their: Their Tavarhini, Marafurhini
He/She :	Tavai, marí, mármocoi				His/Her: Tavahini, Marmokoihini
It :		Iví						Its: Ivihini, Tavahini

Vaihoho Sung-Poems

Vaihoho is a sacred form of storytelling for the Fataluku people of Timor-Leste. Vaihoho or sung-stories has been the major form for continuing the Fataluku oral tradition. From 1999 to 2014, cultural leader Justino Valentim recorded a significant amoung of Vaihoho material. Funded by the Modern Endangered Archives Program at the UCLA Library, a team from Many Hands International, led by in partnership with the University of Melbourne, digitized 17 field notebooks of sung-songs and five Fataluku language dictionaries collected by Valentim as well as notes, poems and photos involving the practice of Vaihoho. This collection is available digitally through the UCLA library.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Fataluku Language Project

Fataluku language website
*
Fataluku wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
* Materials on Fataluku are included in the open access

Arthur Capell Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. Early life Capell was born in Newtown, New South W ...

collection.
AC2
held by Paradisec.
Songs in Fataluku
are included in the Ros Dunlop collection held by Paradisec. * The Modern Endangered Archives Progra
Fataluku Language and Culture
collection is available through the UCLA Library. {{Languages of East Timor Languages of Timor-Leste Oirata–Makasai languages