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Berta language

Berta proper, a.k.a. Gebeto, is spoken by the Berta (also Bertha, Barta, Burta) in Sudan and Ethiopia. As of 2006 Berta had approximately 180,000 speakers in Sudan.^[2]

The three Berta languages, Gebeto, Fadashi and Undu, are often considered dialects of a single language. Berta proper includes the dialects Bake, Dabuso, Gebeto, Mayu, and Shuru; the dialect name Gebeto may be extended to all of Berta proper.

Phonology[edit]

Consonants[edit]

• Voiced plosives /b, d, ɡ/ may be heard as voiceless [p, t, k] in free variation, word-initially or word-finally.
• A glottal stop [ʔ] mainly occurs between vowels, and may also be heard before word-initial vowel sounds.
• Nasal-stop sequences may occur morpheme-initially as [mb, nd, ŋɡ, ŋkʼ].
• /ŋ/ is heard as [ɲ] when preceding a front vowel /i/ or /e/.
• /kʼ/ is heard as a palatal [cʼ] when before front vowels.
• /ɡ/ can be heard as voiced palatal [ɟ] or as a voiceless palatal [c] when before front vowels.
• /h/ in word-final position can be heard as a fricative [x].
• /s, θ/ may sometimes occur as slightly voiced [z, ð] in vocalic or nasal environments.

Vowels[edit]

• If a non-closed vowel sound, /ɛ/ or /ɔ/, are adjacent to a closed vowel sound like /i/ or /u/ within vowel harmony, they are then heard as more closed [e, o].^[3]

Pronouns[edit]

The pronouns of Berta are as follows:

See also[edit]

• Berta word lists (Wiktionary)

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Torben Andersen. "Aspects of Berta phonology". Afrika und Übersee 76: pp. 41–80.
• Torben Andersen. "Absolutive and Nominative in Berta". ed. Nicolai & Rottland, Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium. Nice, 24–29 August 1992. Proceedings. (Nilo-Saharan 10). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. 1995. pp. 36–49.
• M. Lionel Bender. "Berta Lexicon". In Bender (ed.), Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics (Nilo-Saharan 3), pp. 271–304. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag 1989.
• E. Cerulli. "Three Berta dialects in western Ethiopia", Africa, 1947.
• Susanne Neudorf & Andreas Neudorf: Bertha - English - Amharic Dictionary. Addis Ababa: Benishangul-Gumuz Language Development Project 2007.
• A. N. Tucker & M. A. Bryan. Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. London: Oxford University Press 1966.
• A. Triulzi, A. A. Dafallah, and M. L. Bender. "Berta". In Bender (ed.), The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. East Lansing, Michigan: African Studies Center, Michigan State University 1976, pp. 513–532.

External links[edit]

• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Berta
• Website maintained by the language community, including published literature and an online dictionary