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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Pacific > Papua New Guinea > Motu, Hiri

Motu, Hiri

A language of Papua New Guinea

ISO 639-3: hmo

Population	Very few L1 speakers (1992 T. Dutton).
Region	Central Province, Port Moresby area; some in Oro, Central, Gulf, Milne Bay, Western provinces.
Alternate names	Hiri, Pidgin Motu, Police Motu
Dialects	Austronesian Hiri Motu, Papuan Hiri Motu. Linguistically a pidginization of Motu [meu]. Influenced by English, Tok Pisin [tpi], and Polynesian languages. Cannot understand Motu [meu] because of phonological and grammatical differences. Lexical similarity: 90% with Motu.
Classification	Pidgin, Motu based
Language use	Official language. 120,000 L2 speakers (1989 J. Holm). Papuan Hiri Motu widespread and considered the standard.
Language development	Literacy rate in L1: Below 5%. Dictionary. Bible: 1994.
Writing system	Latin script.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BRETT, Richard; BROWN, Raymond; BROWN, Ruth; FOREMAN, Velma M., authors. 1962. A dictionary of Police Motu.

CLIFTON, John M., author. 1989. Review of: Police Motu: Iena sivarai (Its story), by Tom Dutton.

HOOLEY, Bruce A., author. 1965. Review of: Police Motu: an introduction to the trade language of Papua, by Stephen A. Wurm and J. H. Harris.

VOORHOEVE, C. L., author. 2010. "A remarkable chain tale from New Guinea."  

Vernacular Publications

Getting ready to read (Pre-reader). 1975.