The World in Words 86: An American family, an Indonesian tribe, an oral language and its first book

In 1973 Sue and Peter Westrum and their baby went to live among an indigenous tribe, the Berik, in Indonesian New Guinea. Their aim was to learn the oral Berik language, develop a script for it, and then translate the Bible into Berik. They spent more than 20 years there. It was a time of great transformation for the Berik people, their beliefs and their language.<img id="pri-insights" src=" http://api.pri.org/insights/?story=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pri.org%2Fstories%2F... />

From PRI's The World ©2016 PRI