Documentation and Archiving of Endangered
Languages and Oral Tradition:
Researches and Interdisciplinary Approaches

May 19-20, 2011

　　Archiving What Seems Lost But is Hidden: Documenting Oral Traditions in a Secrecy and Sacredness in Tutuala (East-timor)

　　Aone van Engelenhoven

　　Lautem is the 13th District of the Republic of East-Timor, which became independent from Indonesia in 2001. It is the home of the Fataluku speech community that considers its language to be the only ‘correct language’ (Fata Luku) in the region. Local folklore has it that after ages of warfare the Latuloho clan imposed its language on to the ethnolinguistically different clans in the region.

　　Tutuala is the home of the Makuva language, only Austronesian language in the region, which in local folklore is considered to be either moribund or even extinct. Until the sixties of the 20th century this language managed to survive in the remote Tutuala sub district under the protection of the Cailoro clan. However, after the construction of the road between Tutuala village and the capital Lospalos further west, the Makuva language came under severe threat of the Fataluku language.

　　In order to maintain their own language and culture as long as possible, the Makuva-speaking community in the Tutuala sub district decided to conceal its own language and culture.

　　This paper discusses the grassroots attempts among the clans in Tutuala sub district at documenting and archiving their oral traditions.
　　

Source:IEL