| 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]
- ^ 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.
