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.[1] In 1994 it was estimated to have around 1200 speakers.[2] It is regarded as one of the Tor–Kwerba languages.[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]
- 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" [4]
Notes
References
- Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009), "Berik", Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16th online ed.), Dallas: SIL International, http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bkl, retrieved 2011-05-09
- Jones, Linda K. (1992), "In Pursuit of Discourse Particles", in Hwang, Shin Ja J.; Merrifield, Willaim R., Language in context: Essays for Robert E. Longacre, 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, http://www.sil.org/acpub/repository/31853.pdf
- 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, http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/21/language-death-english-tech-cx_jm_language_sp08_0221death.html, retrieved 2011-05-09