Galoli is an ethnic group in East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

 with a population of about 50,000, primarily along the northern coast of the district of Manatuto. To the west lies the Mambai

Mambai

The Mambai are the second largest ethnic group in East Timor. Their language is also called Mambai and has ISO 639-3 code mgm.-People:...

 ethnic group. There is an old colony on the southern coast of Wetar

Wetar

The tropical island of Wetar belongs to the Indonesian province of Maluku and is the largest island of the Barat Daya Islands . It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, which include nearby Alor and Timor, but it is politically part of the Maluku Islands...

 island, the Talo, who speak a mutually intelligible language.

Their language is also known as Galoli, is one of the Timor–Babar group of Austronesian languages

Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...

. It is one of the national language

National language

A national language is a language which has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a people and perhaps by extension the territory they occupy. The term is used variously. A national language may for instance represent the national identity of a nation or country...

s designated by the constitution of East Timor. Because the area was used as a trading center for different cultures, there are a large number of foreign loan words in the vocabulary, principally from Moluccan and Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

 languages. Although it is not spoken by as many people as other national languages, it was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 in the district of Manatuto and thus has become fixed in grammars and dictionaries.