// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the Pakpak language say to its friend? Pak be back.

Pakpak
Kata Pakpak
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Sumatra (northern)
Ethnicity	Pakpak, Singkil
Native speakers	(1.2 million cited 1991)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands Batak Northern Pakpak
Writing system	Batak
Language codes
ISO 639-3	btd
Glottolog	bata1294

Pakpak, or Batak Dairi, is an Austronesian language of Sumatra. It is spoken in Dairi Regency, Pakpak Bharat Regency, Pakkat, Parlilitan, and Tarabintang districts in Humbang Hasundutan Regency, Manduamas district in Central Tapanuli Regency, Subulussalam City, and Aceh Singkil Regency.

Dairi Batak syllables in Batak script.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s			h
Trill			r
Lateral			l
Semivowel		w		j

• A word-final /k/ can also be heard as a glottal stop [ʔ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e ⟨é⟩, ɛ ⟨è⟩	ə ⟨e⟩	o
Open		a

• Vowels /i, u, e, o/ can have shortened allophones of [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ].
• To differentiate between the three e sounds, [ə, e, ɛ], Manik used ⟨é⟩ for [e], ⟨è⟩ for [ɛ], and ⟨e⟩ for [ə].

Further reading

• Manik, Tindi Radja (1977). Kamus bahasa Dairi Pakpak - Indonesia (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa.
• Sembiring, Matius C.A.; Aiyub, T.; Amillah, R.; Perangin-angin, P. (1993). Morfologi dan Sintaksis Bahasa Pakpak Dairi [Morphology and Syntax of the Pakpak Dairi Language] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. ISBN 979-459-293-5 – via repositori.kemdikbud.go.id.
• Basaria, Ida (2002). Analisis Morfologi Verba Bahasa Pakpak Dairi [Morphological Analysis of Pakpak Dairi Language Verbs] (Thesis) (in Indonesian). Universitas Sumatera Utara.
• Kudadiri, Amhar (2010). Morfologi Nomina Bahasa Pakpak [Noun Morphology of the Pakpak Language] (Thesis) (in Indonesian). Universitas Sumatera Utara.
• Brakel-Papenhuijzen, Clara (2014). Dairi Stories and Pakpak Storytelling. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004261730. ISBN 978-90-04-26173-0.
• Pangaribuan, Mintauli (2017). Analisis Morfologi Verba Transitif Bahasa Pakpak Dairi [Morphological Analysis of Transitive Verbs in the Pakpak Dairi Language] (Thesis) (in Indonesian). Universitas Sumatera Utara.