Dr Geoffrey Hull examines the apparently anachronistic decision by the East Timorese to select Portuguese as their national language. From an historical perspective, he explains, it is quite logical.When the Conselho Nacional da Resistência Timorense (CNRT) announced recently that the official language of independent East Timor will be Portuguese, there was a range of negative reactions in Australia, from puzzlement and incomprehension to irritation and scorn.East Timor has its own lingua …
