Small country, many languages

When East Timor (Timor Leste/Timor Lorosae) became the first new country of this century in 2002, language was hardly at the top of its list of problems. 500 years of colonial occupation but little economic development by Portugal, followed by 24 years of oppressive rule by neighbouring Indonesia, had left the country poor, divided and isolated. Worse, when the Indonesians withdrew in 1999, their army and its supporters destroyed most of the infrastructure and killed or kidnapped thousands of people. Although finally independent, the Timorese had little choice but to turn to foreigners for help, and various UN-related organisations are to be seen everywhere dominating educational, economic and social policy. Slowly, this country on the southeast edge of Asia is getting back on its feet. But language problems are occupying more and more of the government's time.



With a population of only a million or so, Timor Leste has at least 26 local languages. One of them, Tetun Prasa, is understood quite widely, but it has never been used much for education, business, government or law. Portuguese was the main language of education for the people who fought against the Indonesians and now control the government. But less than 15% of the population understand it, and Timor is far from from other Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil, Mozambique, and Portugal. Indonesian is more easily learnt and remains widely understood not only because of the occupation but also because many teachers continue to train in Indonesia. But many government officials are reluctant to promote the language of their former enemies. And then there is English. Australia, only 90 minutes away by plane, is the most active country in the UN bodies helping to rebuild the country. Other UN and NGO workers mostly use English when they consult each other. And increasing numbers of Timorese are interested in learning the language so they can study or work overseas.



Timor's 2002 Constitution makes both Tetun and Portuguese official languages while giving a role to Indonesian and English as working languages. But can a small, poor country afford to support four languages? And what about the 25 other local languages? As in many poor countries, most people take a very pragmatic view, learning whatever language they think can best get them an education and a job, and often speaking several of them very well. Meanwhile the government is allowing Tetun to be used in the legal system and making efforts to modernise the language. Thousands of technical terms have been borrowed from Portuguese, and some from English and Indonesian. But this makes the language even more difficult for people far from the main towns to understand.

The other imperialists

English is a relative latecomer among the languages brought to Asia by European imperialists. Long before the British or Americans had any bases on the continent, Portuguese traders were active from the Middle East to Japan. By the 17th century their language had become a lingua franca for many Southeast Asian seamen. Portuguese words adopted by Asian languages include almariya (cupboard) and iskolaya (school) in Sinhala, jendela (window) and meja (table)) in Indonesian, and pan (bread) and tabako (tobacco) in Japanese. Some people believe arigato comes from obrigado.

Despite the long colonial influence, however – Macau was the first European colony in Asia (1557) and also the last, returning to Chinese control in 1999 – how many Asians today speak Portuguese? While it continues to be an official language of Macau and remains important in the legal system, Cantonese is far more widely spoken, with 93.4% using it as a first or additional language. Many people in Sri Lanka have Portuguese names, but very few can speak what was once a lingua franca there.

We see a similar situation with other European languages. The Philippines were a Spanish colony for 350 years and both Tagalog and Philippines English are full of loanwords such as fiesta and presidente; yet a mere 2,658 of the 93 million Filipinos use Spanish as a first language. The Dutch, who controlled the East Indies for 400 years, brought numerous everyday words such as hantuk (towel) and kamar (room) to the Indonesian language. We also find many Dutch words in Malay and Sinhala. But very few Indonesians, Malays or Sri Lankans speak the language.

In all the above countries, English is now much more important than European languages that preceded them. Even in Macau, which was never a British colony, over 12% of Macanese claim to speak English, compared to only 2.7% using Portuguese as a first or additional language there. The fate of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch in Asia seems to suggest that colonisation is not the main reason for the spread of languages. Military alliances and access to jobs and global trade may be more important.

In recent years, some Asian countries have re-emphasised their links with former European occupiers. In August 2007, for example, Philippine President Arroyo announced that Spanish would be reinstated as an official language. But it will be trade with Spain and Latin America rather than government policy that determines whether the language increases in importance.

There was some surprise when Timor Leste chose Portuguese as an official language when it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. Most of its 220 million speakers are in far-away Europe, Africa and South America, and few Timorese know the language as well as Indonesian or the local lingua franca, Tetum. However, Timor had been a Portuguese colony for 500 years before being invaded by Indonesia, and Portuguese had symbolic importance for groups resisting Indonesian rule. Tetum was considered too underdeveloped to be used exclusively for education and law, and Indonesian is too closely associated with the military occupation. So Portuguese and Tetum were made co-official languages. This complex situation has created a growing unofficial role for English, which many locals hope will help them get jobs with Australian and other international NGOs operating in the country.



In recent decades France has gained a reputation for resisting the global spread of English, promoting French language and culture through L’organisation internationale de la Francophonie, which now has 55 member states. It might therefore be expected that French would have fared better than Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch in former Asian colonies. But it is probably only in Lebanon, in the far west of the continent, that French is as important as English. Although neighbouring Syria was under French rule for as long as Lebanon, it has been less exposed to international business. Few Syrians know any language other than Arabic, but those who do are more likely to speak English than French.

We find similar stories in the region once ruled by France as Indochine. As late as the 1970s most private schools in Laos, and the one public lycée (secondary school) in Vientiane, taught in French, but Lao seems largely to have displaced the language in the public sector and English in the private.


The first wave of Vietnamese escaping communism tended to know French and headed for Paris, but subsequent groups were more interested in the United States and English. In Cambodia, French – and even Russian and Vietnamese – were more important than English until the 1990s, but in recent years Phnom Penh has seen protests by university students against compulsory French classes.