Galoli language

{{Short description|Timoric language spoken in East Timor}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Galoli

| nativename = Galolen

| states = East Timor, Indonesia

| region = Manatuto District, Wetar

| speakers = {{sigfig|10530|2}}Excluding 3,150 Dadu'a speakers per the census

| date = 2010 census

| ref = e18

| familycolor = Austronesian

| fam2 = Malayo-Polynesian

| fam3 = Central–Eastern

| fam4 = Timoric

| fam5 = Wetar–Galoli

| dia1 = Talur

| minority = East Timor

| iso3 = gal

| glotto = galo1243

| glottorefname = Galoli-Talur

| map = Galoli.png

| mapcaption = Distribution of Galoli mother tongue-speakers in East Timor. Galoli is also spoken on the south coast of Wetar Island in Indonesia, just off the top of the map.

| ethnicity = Galoli people

}}

The Galoli, or Galolen, are a people of East Timor with a population of about 50,000, primarily along the northern coast of the district of Manatuto. To the west lies the Mambai people. There is an old colony on the southern coast of Wetar island, the Talo, who speak the Talur dialect.

Their language, also known as Galoli, is one of the Timor–Babar group of Austronesian languages. It is one of the national languages designated by the constitution of East Timor. Because the area was used as a trading center for different cultures, there are many foreign loan words in the vocabulary, principally from Moluccan and Malay languages. Although it is not spoken by as many people as other national languages, it was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in the district of Manatuto and thus has become fixed in grammars and dictionaries.

Dadu'a is erroneously listed in some sources as a dialect of Galoli (e.g. [https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/dadu1237 Glottolog]), but actually represents a transplanted population of the Atauro dialect of Wetarese.