| Berik | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Tor Atas district, Sarmi Regency |
Native speakers | (1,200 cited 1994) [1] |
Foja Range (Tor–Kwerba)
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
bkl |
| Glottolog |
beri1254 |
Berik is a Papuan language spoken in eastern Papua. Speakers are located in four village groups on the Tor River towards the northern coast of Indonesian-controlled Irian Jaya. [2]
US linguist John McWhorter cited Berik as an example of a language which puts concepts "together in ways more fascinatingly different from English than most of us are aware". [3] Illustrating this, in the phrase Kitobana (meaning "[he] gives three large objects to a male in the sunlight"), affixes indicating time of day, object number, object size, and gender of recipient are added to the verb. [3] [4] [5]
Locations
In Tor Atas District, Berik is spoken in Beu, Bora Bora, Dangken, Doronta, Kondirjan, Safrontani, Sewan, Somanente, Taminambor, Tenwer, Togonfo, and Waf villages. [1]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | (
Alveolo-) palatal |
Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m [ m] | n [ n] | ng [ ŋ] | ||
|
Plosive & affricate |
voiceless | p [ p] | t [ t] | k [ k] | |
| voiced | b [ b] | d [ d] | j [ d͡ʑ] | g [ ɡ] | |
| Fricative | f [ f] | s [ s] | |||
| Approximant | l [ l] | y [ j] | w [ w] | ||
| Tap | r [ ɾ] | ||||
Vowels
Berik has the common six vowel system (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ plus /ə/). [6]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i [ i] | u [ u] | |
| Mid | e [ e] | ə [ ə] | o [ o] |
| Open | a [ a] |
Sample
- Angtaneʻ bosna Usafe je gatas tarnap ge nuin. Tesa ga belim taban, ga jes talebowel.
- "There was once a person named Usafe who lived near the sago acreages. Whenever he finished cutting down a sago tree, he pounded it" [7]
Notes
- ^
a
b
Berik at
Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Matthews, "Berik Literacy Program", p. 109
- ^ a b McWhorter, "No Tears for Dead Tongues"
- ^ "Difficult languages--Tongue twisters--In search of the world’s hardest language" [1], Economist, New York,Dec 17th 2009.
- ^ John McWhorter,"No Tears For Dead Tongues" [2], Forbes,2/21/2008 @ 6:00PM.
- ^ Westrum, "A Grammatical Sketch of Berik," p. 137
- ^ Taken from Jones, "In Pursuit of Discourse Particles", p. 130
References
- Jones, Linda K. (1992), "In Pursuit of Discourse Particles", in Hwang, Shin Ja J.; Merrifield, William R. (eds.), Language in context: Essays for Robert E. Longacre (PDF), Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics, 107, Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington, pp. 127–36, archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-16
- Matthews, Delle P. (1990), "The Berik Literacy Program: From Illiteracy to National Language Proficiency", Irian: Bulletin of Irian Jaya, 18: 109–24
- McWhorter, John (21 March 2008), "No Tears for Dead Tongues", Forbes, retrieved 2011-05-09
- Westrum, Peter N. (1988), "A Grammatical Sketch of Berik", Irian: Bulletin of Irian Jaya, 16: 137