Motu (language)

Motu is the language of the motu tribe living along the southern coast of Papua New Guinea , about 80 kilometers along the coast on both sides of the capital, Port Moresby . It is believed that motu settled here at least two millennia ago. Motu language belongs to the Austronesian family , the Malay-Polynesian branch.

Motu language is quite noticeable among the languages ​​of Papua New Guinea , including due to its pidgin version, hiri-motu , which for some time was the main language of interethnic communication on the island, but is now supplanted by English and other pidgin - talk-writing .

Motu people occupy many geographically separated settlements, between which live people who speak the Papuan coite language. The largest settlement in which the Motu language is spoken, Hanuabad (the “big village”), is actually an association of five smaller villages, one of which speaks the language of koit. Thus, there is a long interaction between the Motu and Coit peoples, including trade and mixed marriages. Due to such geographical remoteness of the speakers from each other, there are noticeable territorial differences in the language. The reference language is the language of the inhabitants of Hanuabad.

By the time colonization began, representatives of the Motu people were actively trading with other tribes, including those living quite far from them and speaking non-Astronesian languages. In the process of trade, linguistic interaction also took place. Representatives of the motu people spent up to three months in neighboring settlements, trying to learn the language of another tribe. Such trading expeditions in the motu language were called “hiri.” As a result, four different dialects of the motu language were formed:

• the so-called “real” or “pure” motu - the original language of the motu tribe
• dialect resulting from interaction with the languages ​​of the cinnamon group

In this case, representatives of the people Motu managed to learn most of the vocabulary of cinnamon, but they used only a simplified version of the grammar.

• dialect resulting from interaction with the languages ​​of the elem group

Probably due to significant lexical differences between the languages ​​of this group, representatives of the Motu people could not learn a sufficient amount of vocabulary and therefore the resulting language contains both lexical and grammatical components of both contact languages.

• hiri-motu (police motu)

To communicate with representatives of other peoples who came to them, representatives of the Motu people used a special simplified version of their language. She was also used in communication with Europeans. As a result, this version of the language has become the language of political and economic governance throughout British Papua New Guinea, hence the name Police Motu. The name hiri-motu comes from the name of trading expeditions, due to the misconception that they underlie the basis of this language.

Type of expression of grammatical meanings and nature of the boundary between morphemes

Motu language is a synthetic agglutinative language . The boundaries of morphemes are almost always unambiguous and morphemes carry one grammatical meaning.

• E-gwau-heni-gu-dika-dika-va.

OBJ.PRS.3SG-scold-give-SBJ.1SG-bad ~ ADV-PAST: CONT

"He dirty (lit." bad ") scolded me"

Type of marking in a noun phrase and in a predication

In the noun group

dependent

• mero sina-na,

boy mother-POSS.SG

mom boy

• boroma kwara-dia,

pig head-POSS.PL

pig heads

• The number of indicators of the miscarriage depends on the number possessed, not possessed. For example, the following construction is ambiguous:

hahine natu-na,

woman child-POSS.SG

child (or children) women

• Such a mock construction is used only for inalienable property or to indicate localization:

ruma lalo-na

house inside-POSS.SG

the inside of the house

• In other cases, possessive pronouns are used.

una tau ena ruma

that man his house

that man’s house

In Prediction

Vertex marking :

• na-ita-mu

SBJ.PRS.1Sg-see-OBJ.2PL

I can see you

Role Encoding Type

In the language of motu, a three-term type of role coding is presented. There are three excellent indicators of the verb's nuclear actants: for the transitive verb agent, for the transitive verb patient, and for the single intransitive verb nuclear actant.

• Morea ese boroma e-ala-ia

Morea ERG pig SBJ.PRS.3SG-kill-OBJ.3SG

Morea killed the pig.

• Morea e-mahuta

Morea SBJ.PRS.3SG-sleep

Morea is sleeping.

• tau na vada e-la, the man has gone;

man DEF.SG PRF SUBJ.PRS.3SG

The man is gone.

Basic Word Order

The basic word order is SOV. This word order was originally characteristic of the Papuan languages ​​from which it spread to most of the Papua New Guinea region.

• tau ese mero na buka e-hen-ia

man ERG boy DEF.SG book SUBJ.PRES.3SG-give-OBJ.3SG

the man gave the boy a book

Most motu words have as many consonants as vowels , in some consonants predominate. Since there are only five vowels, the language is relatively easy to pronounce .

There are 16 consonants: b, d, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and a voiced velar spirant , denoted by the letter ḡ . The letter “w” is used only in combination with “g” or “k” ( “gw” and “kw” ).

Emphasis is usually not predicted by the phonetic composition of the word and in some cases serves to distinguish between the plural and singular nouns, for example: kekéni 'girl' kékeni 'girls'.

In the motu language, only open syllables are permissible. In spoken language, if a word ending in -a is followed by a word starting with e- or a-, then the first a is omitted. This rule does not apply to the final -a in the verb indicators of a person and number. In this case, the two vowels are connected by the sound -v-.

Verb

The verb stem does not change. Most verb categories (gender, number, mood , deixis , negativity) are expressed through the form of a subject indicator. Moreover, subjective indicators in the present and past tense do not differ. In addition, the suffix -va indicates continued action in the past, and -mu indicates continued action in the present. The prefix he- translates the verb into a passive voice . The vada particle stands for perfection. The subject indicator is before the verb, the object is after, the indicator of continued action is after the adverb of the mode of action, if any. The passive measure is closer to the verb than the subjective measure.

• e-raka-haraga-mu

SUBJ.PRS.3SG-walk-quickly-PRS.CONT

He is walking fast.

• b-asi-na-kara-ia

FUT-NEG-SBJ.1SG-do-OBJ.3SG

I will not do it.

• e-he-duru he-heni

SUBJ.PRS.3SG-PASS-help PASS-give

they helped each other

• vada e-he-kara

PRF SBJ.PRS.3SG-PASS-do

that was done

Noun and Adjective

The noun has very few grammatical categories of its own. In some nouns, a number is indicated by doubling the first syllable, transferring stress or suppletivism, but in most cases the number is indicated on the verb or through a definite article.

• mero boy

memero boys

• haneulato, teenage girl

ulato, teenage girls

For adjectives, on the contrary, a number is required. The plural of indefinite adjectives is formed by doubling the first syllable. For certain adjectives, the index of the number is the definite article.

• au dika-dia

tree bad-DEF.PL

the bad trees

• tau namo-na

man good-DEF.SG

the good man

• au di ~ dika,

tree PL ~ bad

bad trees

Doubling the entire basis of a noun carries either a diminutive or generalizing meaning. Doubling the base of an adjective means either enhancing or decreasing the presence of the attribute.

• kekeni girl

kekeni-kekeni, little girl

• hua, one banana

huahua, generally fruit

• goeva clean

goevagoeva, very clean

• metau heavy

metau-metau, not very heavy

Numeral

When counting people, special forms of numbers from two to eight are used. When recounting fish, pigs and wallaby kangaroos, special forms of numbers from ten to twenty-nine are used. When recalculating coconuts, the varo quantifier (rope) is used.

• varo-ta niu

string-one coconut

ten coconuts

When recounting long objects, such as trees, houses, spears, canoes, the au quantifier (tree) is used.

• auhitu vagani

tree-seven canoe

seven canoes

Derivation

Words in motu easily enough pass from one part of speech to another. So, some verbs without any form change go into nouns, and adjectives into adverbs and abstract nouns.

• haraga

fast fast

• goada

strong, strength

• doko

finish end

Such a transition can also occur through various affixes or reduplication of the framework.

• nari-a

care

henari

care

• tore-a

write

toretore

writing process

The written language of motu is based on the Latin alphabet. For writing in the Motu language, an alphabet of 19 letters is used: a, e, i, o, u, b, d, g, g, h, k, 1, m, n, p, r. s, t, v. In addition, two digraphs are used : kw and gw. In general, this is a phonetic alphabet, but the letter g denotes both the sound g and the sound ɣ.

• Dutton, Tom (1985). Police Motu: Iena Sivarai (its story) . Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea: University of Papua New Guinea Press.
• Lister-Turner, R and Clark, JB (1931), A Dictionary of the Motu Language of Papua , 2nd Edition (P. Chatterton, ed). Sydney, New South Wales: Government Printer.
• Lister-Turner, R and Clark, JB (1931), A Grammar of the Motu Language of Papua , 2nd Edition (P. Chatterton, ed). Sydney, New South Wales: Government Printer.
• Brett, Richard; Brown, Raymond; Brown, Ruth and Foreman, Velma. (1962), A Survey of Motu and Police Motu . Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• William A. Foley (1986), "The Papuan Languages ​​of New Guinea" Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• John Lynch (1998), Pacific Languages: An Introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
• John Lynch, Malcolm Ross and Terry Crowley (2002), “The Oceanic Languages,” Richmond, Surrey: Curzon.
• Brij V. Lal, Kate Fortune (editors), The Pacific Islands: an encyclopedia, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press (2000).

• Motu at Ethnologue
• Motu on the WALS website