Talk:Motu

Motu (Moku in Hawaiian)
"In Polynesian languages, motu refers to a reef islet formed by broken coral and sand surrounding an atoll. There are countless motus scattered all over the Pacific Ocean."

No, this is the geographical acception of Motu, made up by french school geographers and based on the tahitian word.

In polynesian languages, Motu refers to islands of any size and any geological form. Actually the etymological meaning of the word is broader and some languages still have other uses of this word to mean : cut/separate(even not completely)> notch/gash. This use is also obvious in toponymy where a motu can be only a partly separated cape...

see : http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo198158.htm

BTW
 * Motu Nao, Marquesas Islands
 * Motu Nui, near Easter Island
 * Motu Oa, Marquesas Islands

are not "reef islets formed by broken coral etc."

the first is a "presqu'atoll" see : http://knol.google.com/k/stephane-jourdan/les-atolls-et-presqu-atolls-des/3dfvm2oyvur0n/55

the second and third are rocky outcrops off the main islands —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.89.19.248 (talk) 23:26, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

S. JOURDAN —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.89.19.248 (talk) 23:15, 21 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Feel free to propose improvements to the article. (And sign your contributions with ~ ; see Signatures.) -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 06:14, 22 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I've created Motu (geography), which redirects to islet for the time being, but could be expanded into its own article at some point. I've re-pointed most of the incoming links there, and moved the picture and additional information there as a comment. Nick Number (talk) 14:39, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Merge discussion
I've proposed merging Motuan here. This disambiguation page contains both links listed on Motuan, and the terms seem to be somewhat interchangeable. Consolidating into one dab will reduce maintenance. Nick Number (talk) 16:31, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * As far as I can see, the content of Motuan appears here already, so no further merge is needed. Instead, I suggest to change the page Motuan to become a REDIRECT to this page. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 07:34, 21 June 2014 (UTC)