A SURVEY OF MOTU AND POLICE MOTU

BY

RICHARD BRETT — RAYMOND BROWN RUTH BROWN — VELMA FOREMAN

SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS

PREFACE BY

REV. PERCY CHATTERTON

MOTU TRANSLATION SPECIALIST LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY UNIVERSITAS INDONESIA FAKULTAS SASTRA PERPU.STAKAAN Cuj J Ha*) u,t t(b

A SURVEY OF MOTU AND POLICE MOTU

A 7. < // ? ■

BY . ^ 6 RICHARD BRETT — RAYMOND BROWN RUTH BROWN — VELMA FOREMAN

SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS

PREFACE BY

REV. PERCY CHATTERTON

MOTU TRANSLATION SPECIALIST LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY

10725/02

PAK.VJLTA5-8AS w- This Report was compiled for the Administration of the Territory of Papua and by the Summer Institute of Linguistics on the basis of field work carried out throughout Papua in 1961.

The editors were:

Richard Brett - R aymond Brown

R u t h Brow n - V elm a F oreman

It is a companion volume to “A Dictionary of Police Motu ”, prepared by the same team.

All rights reserved by The Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, via Lae.

Printed for The Department of Information and Extension Services, , Territoryp(Papua and New Guinea. PREFACE

I have read with very much interest the Report of Motu and Police Motu prepared by members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and I am in agreement with their recommendations. I would emphasize that my “ Primer of Police Motu ” was prepared for the European “ man in the street ” with no knowledge of linguistics, and rather hazy memories of his school grammar lessons. It would be a very good thing if S.I.L. were able to carry out a more scientific analysis. While agreeing that the “ non-central ” rather than the “ central ” dialect of Police Motu should be used for the purposes the Administration has in mind, I think that it would be very desirable to prepare material also in Motu for the 21,000 Motuans and Koitapuans. If uncommon words and difficult sentence structures were avoided, this material would also be understood by many coastal non-Motuan Papuans from Cape Possession in the west to Marshall Lagoon in the east, and in many cases would be more acceptable to them than material in “ non-central ” Police Motu, which they will tend to despise for its crudity. It has been my experience over many years to be well understood, when speaking in Motu by very large numbers of Nara, Gabadi, Sinaugolo, Hula and Keapara people, though many of these, probably through fear of making mistakes, would speak to me in “ central ” Police Motu. I am inclined to think, though in this I may be wrong, that some of the non-Motuan items in the “ non-central ” Police Motu vocabulary would not be known to people east of Cape Possession. I very strongly support the contention in Section 4.2 that the word order used must be that of Police Motu and not an English word order. I think that material prepared by the Administration in Police Motu frequently suffers, sometimes to the point of unintelligibility, through being a too-literal translation from an English original. This is a very common fault when indigenes are used as translators. I would urge that Papuans and New Guineans who are going to work as translators should be required to undergo a course of instruction in translation techniques. The S.I.L. might well be asked to conduct such a course.

PERCY CHATTERTON, Port Moresby, January, 1962.

10725/6 2 .- 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

P refa ce

A R e po r t o n t h e U se o f M o t u a n d P o lic e M o t u T h r o u g h o u t P a pu a

1. Introduction 2. Motu 3. Police Motu 4. Recommendations .. A REPORT ON THE USE OF MOTU AND POLICE MOTU THROUGHOUT PAPUA

1. INTRODUCTION This report is the result of a survey of the Motu language of the Central District of Papua, and of Police Motu, a pidginized form of Motu, used extensively in Papua as a trade language. , , , u rnr the Administration of the Territory ot Papua and New Guinea by the Summer The survey was undertaken for me Ad Qf Linguistics> M r. c . R Brett and Mr. R. G. Brown, Institute of Linguistics. . eas while Mrs. R. G. Brown, Miss V. Foreman, and others, also of the Summer collected information from various areas, wmc i , Institute of Linguistics, organized and typed the ma eria s ga ere . . , r , v was collected from each of the districts of Papua. 118 villages were visited, and 119 Information for the urvey was col as we„ for additional information. The collection and the indigenes away from then^ home viUages w ^ ^ Januafy m 2 organization of the materials were carriea uui • „„.h ,iktrict were visited, and as many surrounding villages as time and travel allowed were The main ^ *str“ \ Z vd list of the vernacular was elicited by means of Police Motu. To check the contacted. Ineach village visited wa$ reversed) and a word nst of Police Motu was obtained by using the exact type of Police Motu used th P ^ of the community use Police Motu was gathered, also by using Police vernacular. Information astovvh a majority of viilages visited by a reading test of Iseda Sivarai, Our NewSt Motu. Literacy m Police Motu was c for ^ of papua> and the test included questions to indicate the fortnightly publication by^ the Ad Comprehension of a news broadcast in Police Motu was checked by piayin comprehension of the text of Iseda Ana questions. Much useful information was obtained, also, m a similar a tape recording of a news sessl°“ *nd \ h vlllages. These included patients and medical orderlies, teachers and manner, from indigenes away from tneir nomc v»uB students, clerks, interpreters and guistics greatly appreciated the assistance and co-operation of the The team of thc^imimer fnsUtu providing accommodations, and their helpfulness in so man Administration Officers in.nmkl"g ^ tendedt0 the many missionaries and businessmen who contributed information other ways. Much appreciation < accommodations where necessary, relevant to the survey and provided travel aim

1.1. Purpose of Survey determine the extent to which the Motu and Police Motu languages are spoken The purpose of the survey was to dete■ variations of each, and to produce a dictionary of Police Motu. and understood in Papua, to determine the dialectal variant

1.2. Differences between Motu and Police Motu ^ ^ Moresby area of the Central District of Papua. Th Motu is the language spoken b>' the>vl1 J {0 KapaKapa, east of Port Moresby. Police Motu, a sim p ly villages extend from ManuManu, west °fP°rt , trade , The differences between Motu and Poli form of the Motu language, is used extensively in r p Motu extend into (a) grammar, (b) phonology, a , , difference between Motu and Police Motu is that Motu has iuimerouc (o) Grammar.—The mam 8ran™at ^ and number, while Police Motu retains lew ol these, words and affixes md.c.ng tense,aspect n ^ but „ ,„e worJs inJicolini!.. In Motu tense;‘f ^ ays » are the only ways of showing tense. These may or may not be used; in action , and do, indi a g ‘ po)jce Motu, these forms are seldom used or understood. ,aCt’ 'V here™ " Z o ’J Z of‘continuous aspect in Motu -v.. indicating past continuous action, and indica present continuous ac.on. njjjjj. - » „e few modes retained „ Polfe

Molu is t S ’tltive, expressing an - if J it. Police Motu i, is used will, both singular and plural forms of a,, ^ Similarly, negative mode is retained in Police Motu by one form only, last. While Motuans regularly indicate, by suffixes on transitive verbs, the person toward whom an action is performed, most of the speakers of the most widely used dialect of Police Motu merely place a subject form of the pronoun either immediately preceding or immediately following the verb. Likewise, most speakers of Police Motu do not observe the special Motuan way of showing possession when body parts or personal relationships are concerned. They do not add the person suffixes to the noun but simply precede the noun by the possessive pronoun, similarly to the general method used by Motuans. No speakers of Police Motu observe the food versus non-food distinction which occurs in Motu. This distinction consists of replacing “ e ” by “ a ” in the second part of the possessive pronoun when food is the thing possessed. Thus, lau-egu ruma is used for “ my house ”, but lau-agu maho is used for “ my yam ” in Motu. Motu adjectives take the suffixes -na and -dia to indicate whether the nouns they modify are singular or plural in number, but most speakers of Police Motu do not maintain this distinction. Generally Motu nouns have only one form indicating either singular or plural. However, Motu has four special forms for plural number. Two of these are formed by : lau, “ man ”, becomes tatau, “ men ” , and mero, “ boy ”, becomes memero, “ boys ”. The other two are gained by a change of stress accent. Normally accent occurs on the next to the last syllable and is not indicated in writing, but in these two forms it is necessary to indicate it: hahine, “ woman”, becomes hahine, “ women”; and kekeni, “ girl ”, becomes kdkeni, “ girls ” . Relatively few speakers of Police Motu use these four forms of plural number. Other than the position of the negative, there are no significant differences in word order between Motu and Police Motu. In Motu, the negative forms precede the verb, while in Police Motu, the only negative form, Iasi, always follows the verb. 0b) Phonology.—Police Motu uses 20 sounds, while Motu, making one further distinction, uses 21 sounds. Motu employs not only “ g ”, voiced velar stop, but also “ g ”, voiced velar . This sound distinguishes pairs of words which otherwise sound alike in Motu. This distinction is recognized only by certain langauge groups surrounding the Motuan area who have a similar distinction in their own languages, or who are aware of this distinction in Motu itself. Certain Police Motu items are somewhat altered from the Motu source language variety by most speakers of Police Motu. Examples of this type of change are kwalahu, the Motu and Central dialect (see Section 3.1 for Police Motu dialects) of Police Motu forms for “ smoke ” becoming kolahu or kolau in the Non-central dialect of Police Motu, and kwarana, “ head ”, becoming korana. (c) Vocabulary.—Although Police Motu retains a core of Motu vocabulary items, many of these function somewhat differently in Police Motu from the way they function in Motu, the parent language. Because of a more limited vocabulary, particularly in the most widely spoken dialect of Police Motu, one vocabulary item in Police Motu must take the place of several vocabulary items of Motu with its more specialized forms of expression. Some Neo-Melanesian expressions have come into the most widely spoken dialect of Police Motu, replacing, at least partially, the vocabulary items used in Motu and the Central dialect of Police Motu. sikuru gabuna replaces both M otu diuna, “ elbow”, and tuina, “ knee”, as well as the names of certain other joints. In this expression, sikuru is the Neo-Melanesian word for “ joint ”, while gabuna is the Motu term for “ place ”. Numbers, particularly those beyond three, in the most widely used dialect of Police Motu approximate Neo-Melanesian form or English usage rather than the system employed in Motu.

2. MOTU 2.1. Dialects Although there are many differences in pronunication and even some completely local vocabulary items used from village to village among the Motuans, all are aware of these differences, and there is no problem of communication anywhere among the villages between ManuManu and KapaKapa. hmmg (he notable dialect ili/Terme* are flips? puim ) ty u r^uim wtotiiutioii of another sound tor Unit in the dialect used by the majority of Mbtuaris. The people oT 'I ataha village regularly substitute ** n ** w h e re " I ” OCCIITS 111 fhe speech of the other villages, helai, “ sit down ”, becomes henai; data, “ road ”, becomes dcma; lahi, “ fuc ” , b cco m cs nahi; and ladana, “ n a m e”, becomes iiadana. At. Pari and ManuManu, “ h ” is regularly omitted completely. Iwina. “ h a ir ” , bccom cs uina; hahine, “ woman ”, becomes aine; helai, " sit down ”, becomes elai; a n d hekltre “ lie dOWIl becomes ekure. ' ’ KapaKapa and ManuManu are perhaps the mosl outstanding villages for having many purely local vocabulary items. In some cases, the people of these villages change the pronunciation of the words slightly, but not more than the differences indicated above. In other cases, the vocabulary is changed completely, while a greater difference still is these people s use of specialized terminology not existing, originally, at least, in other Motuan villages 2.2. Boundaries of Language and Approximate Number of Speakers Motu is the vernacular of a dozen villages along the coast around the Port Moresby area. The largest Motuan village, Hanuabada, is within Port Moresby. The westernmost village is ManuManu. Other Motuan villages west of Moresby are Boera, LeaLea, Porebada, and Tatana. The easternmost village is KapaKapa. Other Motuan villages east of Moresby are Gaile. Barakau, Tupuseleia, Pari and Vabukori. Several villages within the Motuan area, whose vernacular is Koitabu, use Motu so fluently that it may be considered as their second vernacular. Roku, Kouderika, Baruni, Papa and Kido are the Koitabuan villages west of Moresby, and KilaKila No. 1, KilaKila No. 2, and Korobosea are the Koitabuan villages east of Moresby who use Motu in this way. There are more than 10,000 Motuans, and there are nearly 2,000 Koitabuans who speak Motu. Therefore, more than 12,000 people within the Motu area use this language.

2.3. Use of Motu Outside its Original Area Many people scattered among the language groups surrounding the Motu area and others farther west along the coast are able to speak Motu fluently. East of the Motu area, many Manugoro, Sinaugoro, and Hula people use Motu well. To the north and west of the Motu area, many Koitabu people and some Koiare people can speak Motu, while farther west along the coast, some Roro and Nara people, many Gabadis, and inland, some Doura people are fluent in Motu. The London Missionary Society uses Motu as a language for teaching in its programme of training evangelist- teachers at advanced educational institutions, such as the one at Kikori, far from the Motu area.

2.4. Motu Publications Lister-Turner, R. and Clark, J. B., A Dictionary o f the Motu Language o f Papua, Education Department of Papua-New Guinea Administration, (1931), 158 pp. (Second edition edited by Percy Chatterton of London Missionary Society.) Lister-Turner, R. and Clark, J. B., A Grammar of the Motu Language of Papua, Education Department of Papua-New Guinea Administration, (1931), 46 pp. (Second edition edited by Percy Chatterton of London Missionary Society.) Chatterton, P., A Basic Motu Dictionary, Department of Education of Territory of Papua-New Guinea, 44 pp. (Published within’the volume entitled A Grammar of the Motu Language of Papua.) Taravatu Gunana, (Selected Passages from the Old Testament in the Motu Language of Papua), Sydney, The Australia and New Zealand Committee of the London Missionary Society, (1950), 223 pp. Basileia Tauna Ena Laolao, (A translation into the Motu language of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress), Sydney, The Australia and New Zealand Committee of the London Missionary Society, (1951), 252 pp. Motu Primer, Sydney, The Australia and New Zealand Committee of the London Missionary Society, (1951), 46 pp. Motu School Reader, Sydney, The Papua District Committee of the London Missionary Society, (1956), 187 pp. Taravatu Matamata, (The New Testament in Motu), London and Sydney, The British and Foreign Bible Society, (1959), 528 pp. Ane, (Hymn Book in the Motu Language of Papua), The Australia and New Zealand Committee of the London Missionary Society, (printed by Methodist Mission Press, Rabaul), (I960), 83 pp.

3. POLICE MOTU 3.1. Dialects Although there are considerable local variations of Police Motu and numerous differences of pronunciation this trade language may readily be classified as consisting of two dialects. One will be referred to as the Central dialect, and the other as the Non-central dialect. The Central dialect of Poliee Motu w used in the central District of Papua, but the term « central dialect '• k hat suggestive or a “ Central District dialect ” since this dialect is used Only within a small part Of the Central District. T h is dialect is confined mainly to the Motuan area and to part, at least, of the language groups surrounding the Motuan area where there are also many speakers of Motu. The Central dialect of Police Motu is considerably closer to Motu usage than the Non-central dialect but it is well to remember that it is still a long way from Motu since it retains but a minimum of grammatical markers for ten^ and mode, and no aspect markers. It shares a large percentage ot special terminology, such as the names for body narts with Motu. Numbers up to live, and in some areas up to ten, are as in Motu, while larger numbers are more readilv understood if the English forms are used Person-indicating affixes pointing out the object of the verb and those showiZ possession of body parts and of relationships follow Motu usage. Also, pronunciation is almost exactly as in Motu The Non-central dialect of Police Motu is used nearly everywhere in Papua where Police Motu is spoken at all, even by many within the area where the Central dialect is spoken. The Non-central dialect of Police Motu retains only basic Motu vocabulary, and specialized terminology is gained by lengthy descriptions or by circumlocutions. All numbers, or in some cases those beyond three, follow Neo-Melanesian or English usage. Person-idicating affixes are used sparingly, if at all. Because of a more limited vocabulary, a single term has often a wide range of meaning. Vocabulary items in this dialect of Police Motu are more likely to vary in pronunciation according to sounds used in local vernaculars. Little distinction is made between voiced and voiceless stops; thus only “ p ”, “ t ”, and “ k ” may be used where, in Motu and the Central dialect of Police Motu, both “ p ”, and “ b ”, “ t ”, and “ d ”, “ k ” and “ g ” are used. In some areas only one of the sounds, “ 1 ”, “ r ”, or “ n ”, may be spoken in place of all three sounds. Also, certain slight changes of form are quite consistent throughout this dialect. The Central dialect pronunciation of “ head ”, kwarana, becomes korana in the Non-central dialect; kwalahu, “ smoke”, becomes kolahu or even kolau; and lahi, “ fire ”, becomes lai.

3.2. Extent of Use of Police Motu Police Motu is used extensively as a trade language in all of the districts of Papua. The Southern Highlands District, although it has the largest population, has relatively few speakers of Police Motu. The Northern and Western Districts have the smallest total populations, but have a much higher percentage of their populations using Police Motu than does the Southern Highlands District. The Central District has the highest percentage of speakers of Police Motu, as indicated previously. Although the Gulf District has a high percentage of speakers of Police Motu in coastal villages and in villages around inland government centres, a fairly small percentage of the total population use Police Motu because of vast relatively uncontacted areas such as that occupied by the Kukukuku people. Similarly, the Milne Bay District has many villages in which nearly all speak Police Motu while more remote areas have very few who speak or understand it at all. Of nearly one-half million people in Papua, more than 13 percent, or approximately 65,000, speak and understand Police Motu. This does not include the 12,000 Motuans and Koitabuans who use Motu, who obviously understand Police Motu. The majority of those speaking Police Motu are men 20 to 40 years of age. They constitute 10 of the 13 percent, while women 20 to 40 years comprise another 1 percent, and boys 12 to 19 years of age form another 1 per­ cent. The groups having the smallest numbers of Police Motu speakers are girls 12 to 19 years of age, men and women over 40 years of age, and children under 12 years of age. Together they comprise only 1 percent of the 13 percent using Police Motu. Among the speakers of Police Motu, approximately 3,250 or 5 percent are able to read Police Motu. Notably literate areas are several Kerewo and Kibiri villages below Kikori in the Gulf District and several Sinaugoro villages below Kwikila in the Rigo area of the Central District. Each of these villages, though not especially large, has 10 or more people who are able to read Police Motu well. Although the number of people who speak and read Police Motu is relatively small, these people are obviously of vast importance to the Administration. The fact that they are scattered over large areas makes them the key to communication with large numbers of non-speakers and non-readers.

3.3. Police Motu Publications and Broadcasts Chatterton, P., A Primer of Police Motu, Department of Education of Territory of Papua-New Guinea (First edition 1946), 32 pp. Iseda Sivarai, (Our News), Konedobu, The Administration of the Territory of Papua-New Guinea. (A fortnightly publication of 12 or more pp.). Medical Treatment and Preventive Medicine, Sydney, Australian Military Forces and Department of Territories, (1946), 68 pp. (The text is in English, Police Motu, and Pidgin English). Let's Make Good Copra, Port Moresby, Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, 19 pp. (The text is in English and Police Motu.) Let's Grow Peanuts, Port Moresby, Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, 15 pp. (The text is in English and Police Motu). Grow Good Coconuts, Port Moresby, Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, 17 pp. (The text is in E n g lish and Police Motu). Basketball Rules, Konedobu, Welfare Officer of Department of Native Affairs, (1961), 11 pp.

There are about 5^ hours of broadcast in Police Motu weekly. These consist of news, women’s sessions a d u lt iBtormation, and sports programmes. " 4. RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING THE USE OF MOTU AND POLICE MOTU 4.1. Motn Although there are no major dialect differences in Motu, the speech of Hanuabada village in Port Moresby is most readily recognized by all Motuans. This dialect may be considered as standard for publications and broadcasts.

4.2. Police Motu The Non-central dialect of Police Motu is understood everywhere that Police Motu is understood, while the Central dialect is limited to a small part of the Central District, as previously indicated, and will probably not greatly exceed its present number of speakers. The Non-central dialect, therefore, can be used in broadcasts to reach all speakers of Police Motu, whereas the Central dialect is suitable for less than 20 percent, of Police Motu speakers. Many have expressed the feeling that Police Motu is merely a corruption of the Motu language and that its use is not to be encouraged. Those who hold this view, either because of being fluent in Motu or because of disapproving of pidginized forms of language, especially do not approve of the Non-central dialect with its extremely simplified grammar. The validity of their viewpoint is not to be decided here. For effective communication to a maximum of the Papuans who speak Police Motu, the Non-central dialect must be utilized. Eventually, the large relatively uncontacted areas of Papua, such as the Kukukuku area o f the Gulf District, will be opened and brought into general contact by Government, missions, and businesses. It is likely that Police Motu will be introduced into these areas, and the dialect used will most certainly be the Non-central one. The type of Police Motu used in the Western District is intelligible to all Police Motu speakers. It may be considered as the norm of the Non-central dialect and a guide to the type of Police Motu needed for publications and broadcasts. All materials should be prepared under the guidance of a person from the Western District. As a result of testing by means of Iseda Sivarai, a publication in Police Motu, and by means of tape recordings of news broadcasts in Police Motu, some methods of improving the value of these as mediums of communication follow. The orthography commonly employed in writing Police Motu is quite acceptable. However, some publications have been using inconsistent spelling for the same word, interchanging such letters as “ p ” and “ b ”, “ kw ” and “ gw ” at random. This is certainly to be avoided since it creates confusion. An excessive number of English words should be avoided, and explanations should be freely used when it is necessary to use English. Transliterate, using Police Motu spelling for English words, and place English spellings in parentheses after the transliterated forms when it might be helpful. When it is felt that English spelling must be retained, it should be underlined to distinguish it as being English rather than Police Motu. Foreign culture items and numbers need to be in English usually, but if foreign culture items can be expressed by descriptions, then intelligibility is increased. Retain Police Motu word order rather than that of English. In Police Motu word order is considerably different from that of English. Thus a noun object precedes a pronoun subject and follows a noun subject, and a verb ordinarily occurs as near to the end of a sentence as possible. If a noun object follows a verb in Police Motu translations this leads to much confusion and decreases comprehension. Use Police Motu vocabulary in preference to Motu vocabulary. This will guarantee intelligibility to all who use the Non-central dialect of Police Motu. Employ a short, simple type of sentence construction. Long and complex sentences are not typical Police Motu speech and therefore are not readily understood. The authors agree with Rev. Percy Chatterton of the London Missionary Society in his suggestion that Papuans and New Guineans who are going to work as translators should be required to undergo a course of instruction in translation techniques. Chatterton advocates that this type of training is the only way of ensuring that the Police Motu used will be an effective means of disseminating information.

J perpustakaan Ul

Perpustakaan FIB UI