Motu (sometimes called Pure Motu or True Motu to distinguish it from

Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of Motu, from the Austronesian l ...

) is a Central Papuan Tip language that is spoken by the Motuans, an indigenous ethnic group of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It is commonly used today in the region, particularly around the capital,

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. A simplified form of Motu developed as a trade language in the Papuan region, in the southeast of the main island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

, originally known as Police Motu, and today known as

. After

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, Hiri Motu was at the time of independence the third most commonly spoken of the more than 800

languages of Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, a sovereign state in Oceania, is the most linguistically diverse country in the world. According to Ethnologue, there are 839 living languages spoken in the country. In 2006, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare st ...

, although its use has been declining for some years, mainly in favour of Tok Pisin. Motu is classified as one of the

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeas ...

and bears some linguistic similarities to Polynesian and

Micronesian languages The twenty Micronesian languages form a family of Oceanic languages. Micronesian languages are known for their lack of plain labial consonants; they have instead two series, palatalized and labio-velarized labials. Languages According to Jack ...

Phonology

Motu is a typical Austronesian language in that it is heavily vowel-based. Every Motu syllable ends in a vowel sound — this may be preceded by a single consonant (there are no "consonant clusters"). Vowel sounds may be either

monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...

s (consisting of a single basic sound) or diphthongs (consisting of more than one basic sound). There are only five vowel sounds ; Motu diphthongs are written and pronounced as combinations of two vowels. The sounds ''oi'' and ''oe'', ''ai'' and ''ae'', ''au'' and ''ao'' (approximately like English "boy, high, cow"), and ''r'' and ''l'' are distinguished in Motu but not in Hiri Motu. There is no letter ''f''; when it occurs in loan words, it is usually represented as ''p''. Motu

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...

has the usual letter assignments apart from ḡ, which is .Unesco reports the language as simply "Motu", but ''Ethnologue'' 17 only notes braille usage for Hiri Motu. However, Hiri Motu does not have the letter ḡ.

References

* Dutton, Tom (1985). ''Police Motu: Iena Sivarai (its story)''. Port Moresby,

: University of Papua New Guinea Press. * Taylor, Andrew J. (1970). ''Syntax and phonology of Motu: a transformational approach.'' * Lister-Turner, R and Clark, J.B. (1931), ''A Dictionary of the Motu Language of Papua'', Second Edition (P. Chatterton, ed). Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

: Government Printer. * Brett, Richard; Brown, Raymond; Brown, Ruth and Foreman, Velma. (1962), ''A Survey of Motu and Police Motu''. Ukarumpa,

: SIL International. *Wurm, S.A. and Harris, J.B., ''Police Motu'', Canberra: SIL International, 1963 * External links * William George Lawes, ''Grammar and vocabulary of language spoken by Motu tribe (New Guinea)'' *
first edition
Sydney: Thomas Richards, 1885. *
second and revised edition
Sydney: Charles Potter, 1888. *
third and enlarged edition
Sydney: Charles Potter, 1896. *

Paradisec The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) is a cross-institutional project that supports work on endangered languages and cultures of the Pacific and the region around Australia. They digitise reel- ...

ha
a number of collections that include materials on Motu languages
{{Oceania topic, Languages of Central Papuan Tip languages Languages of Central Province (Papua New Guinea)