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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, Raymond Brown, Ruth Brown, and Velma M. Foreman. 1962. A dictionary of Police Motu.

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

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

Vernacular Publications

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