Hiri Motu
Language · official in 1 country
Hiri is the Motu word for the trading voyages that carried goods to the Gulf of Papua, and Hiri Motu was named after them in the early 1970s, replacing the older name Police Motu. It is a simplified Motu, strictly neither pidgin nor creole, spoken around Port Moresby. Papua New Guinea gives it statutory recognition beside Tok Pisin, English and sign language.
The language on record
- Own name
- Hiri Motu
- ISO 639-1
- HO
- ISO 639-3
- HMO
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Motu-based contact language
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Hiri Motu is official
Papua New Guinea is the one record. Hiri Motu is one of its four languages with statutory recognition, beside Tok Pisin, English and Papua New Guinean Sign Language.
Official beside Hiri Motu
About Hiri Motu
Why Police Motu was renamed
The language spread as the common tongue of a police force, hence Police Motu, and it was also called Pidgin Motu. After the police forces of the territory were unified in 1946 it lost most of its police work to Pidgin. In the early 1970s a committee at a conference of the Department of Information and Extension Services proposed Hiri Motu instead. The language was older than the police name implied, and the committee wanted a name tied to everyday use and to the trading voyages of the Motu people, who live along the southern coast.
How close Hiri Motu is to Motu
The two share most of their vocabulary and a simplified Austronesian syntax, but differences of sound and grammar make them mutually unintelligible. Tok Pisin has also left a mark. Some writers describe a continuum running from Motu itself through the established varieties to a Hiri Motu based pidgin used with speakers such as the Eleman and Koriki, who had not fully learned it.
Two dialects carry misleading names, Austronesian and Papuan, after the first languages of the people who used them; both are Austronesian in grammar and words. The Papuan dialect was more widely spoken and has been the standard for official publications since around 1964. The Austronesian dialect stays closer to Motu and was regarded as more correct. Hiri Motu keeps Motu's two first-person plural pronouns, one that includes the listener and one that leaves the listener out.
Where Hiri Motu stands now
Even where it was once an established lingua franca, it has been losing ground to Tok Pisin and English for many years. In the 2011 census 4.7% of Papua New Guineans were literate in Hiri Motu, against 68.4% in Tok Pisin.
Common questions
Questions about Hiri Motu
Is Hiri Motu a pidgin?
Strictly, neither a pidgin nor a creole, although it has features of both. It is a simplified version of the Motu language and was long called Pidgin Motu or Police Motu.
Can Motu speakers understand Hiri Motu?
Not fully. The vocabulary is very similar, but differences in sound and grammar mean the two are not mutually intelligible.
How many Papua New Guineans could read Hiri Motu in 2011?
The 2011 census found 4.7% of the population literate in it. Its use has been declining in favour of Tok Pisin and English, even around Port Moresby where it was once a lingua franca.