Hiri Motu Bible (HMOPNG)

Overview

The Buka Helaga is a full Bible translation in Hiri Motu, one of three constitutionally recognized national languages of Papua New Guinea. ^[1] Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, originated as a simplified trade language during pre-colonial hiri voyages between the Motu people and their neighbors along the southeast coast of New Guinea, and was later adopted by the Royal Papuan Constabulary from the 1880s onward as an administrative lingua franca in southern Papua. ^[2] The New Testament was first published in 1964 by the United Bible Societies, with revisions following in 1982 and 1994. ^[3] The London Missionary Society (LMS) played a central role in spreading literacy in the language, building on the orthography developed for the closely related Motu language by missionary William G. Lawes beginning in 1874. ^[4] Percy Chatterton, who helped transform the LMS mission into the self-governing Papua Ekalesia in 1962, was seconded to the British and Foreign Bible Society to work on Bible translation into Motu. ^[5] Today Hiri Motu has approximately 120,000 second-language speakers, with no first-language users, and has been in decline since the 1970s as Tok Pisin and English have gained dominance. ^[2]

Language and People

Hiri Motu (ISO 639-3: hmo) is spoken by approximately 120,000 people. [Glottolog: hiri1237]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Bible Society of Papua New Guinea.

References

• [1] Hiri Motu - Wikipedia. Covers history, official language status, and speaker population.
• [2] Hiri Motu language and alphabet - Omniglot. Covers language history, Police Motu origins, and decline.
• [4] Hiri Motu - Glottolog. Classification and historical development, noting missionary orthography from 1870s.
• [5] Sir Percy Chatterton - Australian Dictionary of Biography. Biography covering Bible translation secondment.
• BibleSearch - Online text, American Bible Society
• Audio Bible - Audio Bible, Faith Comes By Hearing
• Full Bible - Online text, Faith Comes By Hearing
• Buka Helaga (Hiri Motu) 1993 - Online text, Bible Society of Papua New Guinea
• Bible For Developers - DBL archive entry, Digital Bible Library
• Hiri Motu (1994) Genesis Portion - Historical archive
• Grammar and vocabulary of language spoken by Motu tribe (1888) - Internet Archive. William George Lawes, missionary grammar of the Motu language.
• find.bible entry - find.bible. Bible catalogue entry for HMOPNG.
• Global Bible Catalogue - Global Bible Catalogue entry.
• ebible.org entry - ebible.org.