| Hiri Motu | |
| Also Known As: | Police Motu |
| Region: | Papua New Guinea |
| Speakers: | "Very few" (cited 1992) |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Speakers2: | L2 speakers (2021) |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Western Oceanic |
| Fam5: | Papuan Tip |
| Fam6: | Central |
| Fam7: | Sinagoro–Keapar |
| Fam8: | Motu |
| Nation: | Papua New Guinea |
| Script: | Latin script |
| Iso1: | ho |
| Iso2: | hmo |
| Iso3: | hmo |
| Glotto: | hiri1237 |
| Glottorefname: | 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 its capital city, Port Moresby.[1]
It is a simplified version of Motu, from the Austronesian language family. Although it is strictly neither a pidgin nor a creole, it possesses some features from both language types. Phonological and grammatical differences make Hiri Motu not mutually intelligible with Motu. The languages are lexically very similar, and retain a common, albeit simplified, Austronesian syntactical basis. It has also been influenced to some degree by Tok Pisin.
Even in the areas where it was once well established as a lingua franca, the use of Hiri Motu has been declining in favour of Tok Pisin and English for many years. The language has some statutory recognition.
The term hiri is the name for the traditional trade voyages that created a culture and style of living for the Motu people. Hiri Motu became a common language for a police force known as Police Motu.
The name Hiri Motu was conceptualised in the early 1970s during a conference held by the Department of Information and Extension Services. During the conference, the committee recommended the name Hiri Motu for several reasons.
The Motu people are native inhabitants of Papua New Guinea who live along the southern coastal line of their country. They typically live in dry areas, on the leeward side of the mountain, where dry seasons are harsh on the people who live there. Traditional Hiri voyages carried prized treasures to the people of the Gulf of Papua.
Hiri Motu has two dialects: "Austronesian" and "Papuan". Both dialects are Austronesian in both grammar and vocabulary due to their derivation from Motu; the dialect names refer to the first languages spoken by users of this lingua franca. The "Papuan" dialect (also called "non-central") was more widely spoken and was, at least from about 1964, used as the standard for official publications. The "Austronesian" (or "central") dialect is closer to Motu in grammar and phonology, and its vocabulary is both more extensive and closer to the original language. It was the prestige dialect, which was regarded by speakers as being more "correct".
The distinction between Motu and its "pidgin" dialects has been described as blurred. They form a continuum from the original "pure" language, through the established creoles, to what some writers have suggested constitutes a form of "Hiri Motu–based pidgin" used as a contact language with people who had not fully acquired Hiri Motu, such as the Eleman and Koriki.[2]
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Tap | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
In the Hiri Motu language, the distinction between "inclusive" and "exclusive" forms of 'we' is very important. In the former case, 'we' applies to the speaker and listener while in the latter case 'we' does not include the listener.
| Hiri Motu: Ita | Hiri Motu: Ai |
| Motu | Translation | S. | Pl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiri Motu: oi-emu | Yours | x | ||
| Hiri Motu: lau-egu | mine | |||
| Hiri Motu: umui-emui | yours | x | ||
| Hiri Motu: idia | they |
The first half of the word (Hiri Motu: lau, Hiri Motu: oi) may be taken out of the word. For example, Hiri Motu: lau-egu boroma can be shortened to Hiri Motu: egu boroma.
Hiri Motu uses postpositions. A standard postposition is Hiri Motu: ai, which can mean 'in', 'on', or 'at'. For example, Hiri Motu: maua ai means 'in the box', Hiri Motu: pata ai means 'on the table', and Hiri Motu: Konedobu ai means 'at Konedobu (a location in Papua)'.
Because Hiri Motu does not allow double vowels, Hiri Motu: ai will often fuse with the word. Some examples:
There are two word orders in Hiri Motu: subject–object–verb (SOV) and object-subject-verb (OSV), both of which can be used interchangeably (OSV is more common in Hiri Motu). These sentence structures either start with a subject which is followed by an object, or vice versa start with an object which is followed by a subject, and both end with a verb. The sentence always ends with a verb regardless of the word order.
As word order can be arbitrarily chosen, ambiguity may arise in some cases.
For example, Hiri Motu: Inai mero boroma badana ia alaia can either mean 'This boy killed a big pig' or 'A big pig killed this boy'. To solve this, a subject marker can be used. In Hiri Motu, the subject marker is Hiri Motu: ese, which is placed immediately after the subject of the sentence.
With it, the sentence reads: Hiri Motu: Inai mero ese boroma badana ia alaia (literally, 'This boy
The subject marker should only be used in cases where ambiguity occurs. Subject markers are never used in sentences with intransitive verbs.
| Hiri Motu: Daika? | Who? Whom? | |
| Hiri Motu: Dahaka? | What? | |
| Hiri Motu: Daika ena? | Whose? | |
| Hiri Motu: Dahaka dainai?/Badina dahaka? | Why? | |
| Hiri Motu: Edeheto?/Edana bamona? | How? | |
| Hiri Motu: Hida? | How many? | |
| Hiri Motu: Edeseni?/Edeseni ai? | Where? | |
| Hiri Motu: Edana negai? | When? |
Hiri Motu: Hida always follows the noun it is referring to, while Hiri Motu: edana always follows it.
Questions should be asked affirmatively, as otherwise some of the answers received can be confusing.
For example, receiving the reply Hiri Motu: oibe ('yes') to the question Hiri Motu: la mai lasi? ('hasn't he come?') can mean 'Yes, he hasn't come yet'. If the person has arrived, the answer would be: Hiri Motu: Lasi, ia mai ('No, he has come').
| Hiri Motu: eiava | or | |
| Hiri Motu: bona | and | |
| Hiri Motu: bema | if | |
| Hiri Motu: bena, Hiri Motu: vadaeni | then | |
| Hiri Motu: a, Hiri Motu: to | but | |
| Hiri Motu: badina | because |
Examples:
When 'to be' is used as a connecting word, the particles Hiri Motu: na and Hiri Motu: be can be used and are interchangeable.
For example: Hiri Motu: Ia be mero namona or Hiri Motu: la na mero namona both mean 'he is a good boy'.
There is no Hiri Motu verb form of 'to have' in the sense of possession. In true Hiri Motu, a local would express that they have a dog with the phrase Hiri Motu: Lau na mai egu sisia for 'I have a dog', (literally, 'I with my dog'.) There are no standards for these expressions in Hiri Motu.
The numbers 1–5 in Hiri Motu are, respectively, Hiri Motu: ta, Hiri Motu: rua, Hiri Motu: toi, Hiri Motu: hani, Hiri Motu: ima. The number system in Hiri Motu goes up to 100,000. Many of the numbers in Hiri Motu are polysyllabic. For example, 99 in Hiri Motu is Hiri Motu: taurahanita ahui taurahanita. Most Papuans know the English number system and use that instead.
The language has a history pre-dating European contact; it developed among members of the Hiri trade cycle (mainly in sago and clay pots) between the Motu people and their neighbours on the southeast coast of the island of New Guinea. In early European colonial days, the use of Hiri Motu was spread due to its adoption by the Royal Papuan Constabulary (hence the name Police Motu). By the early 1960s, Hiri Motu was the lingua franca of a large part of the country. It was the first language for many people whose parents came from different language groups (typically the children of policemen and other public servants).
Since the early 1970s, if not earlier, the use of Hiri Motu as a day-to-day lingua franca in its old "range" has been gradually declining in favour of English and Tok Pisin. Today its speakers tend to be elderly and concentrated in Central and Gulf provinces. Younger speakers of the "parent language" (Motu proper) tend to be unfamiliar with Hiri Motu, and few of them understand or speak it well.