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. References (1968) Percy Chatterton, A Grammar Of The Motu Language of Papua. (1976) Dictionary Working Committee on Hiri Motu, The Dictionary and Grammar of Hiri Motu. Notes Bibliography Lister-Turner, R and Clark, J.B. (1931), A Dictionary 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. External links Paradisec has a number of collections with Hiri Motu language materials Pidgins and creoles Languages of Papua New Guinea Law enforcement in Papua New Guinea