Berik language

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]

Berik
Native toIndonesia
RegionTor Atas district, Sarmi Regency
Native speakers
(1,200 cited 1994)[1]
Foja Range (Tor–Kwerba)
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3bkl
Glottologberi1254

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
  1. Berik at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Matthews, "Berik Literacy Program", p. 109
  3. McWhorter, "No Tears for Dead Tongues"
  4. "Difficult languages--Tongue twisters--In search of the world’s hardest language", Economist, New York,Dec 17th 2009.
  5. John McWhorter,"No Tears For Dead Tongues", Forbes,2/21/2008 @ 6:00PM.
  6. Westrum, "A Grammatical Sketch of Berik," p. 137
  7. 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
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