Berta
Gebeto
Native toSudan and Ethiopia
RegionBenishangul-Gumuz
EthnicityBerta people, Wetawit
Native speakers
380,000 all Berta languages (2006–2007)[1]
100,000 monolinguals in Ethiopia[1]
Dialects
  • Shuru
  • Bake
  • Undu
  • Mayu
  • Fadashi
  • Dabuso
  • Beleje Gonfoye
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3wti (all Berta languages)
Glottologbert1248

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

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop voiced b d ɟ g
ejective pʼ tʼ (cʼ) kʼ (ʔ)
implosive ɗ
Fricative voiceless f θ s ʃ h
ejective sʼ
Nasal m n (ɲ) ŋ
Rhotic r
Lateral l
Approximant j w
  • 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

Front Central Back
Close i iː u uː
Mid ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː
Open a aː
  • 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]
Phoneme Allophone
/i/ [i], [ɨ~ɘ], [ɨ], [ɪ]
/a/ [a], [ə], [æ], [ɜ], [ɐ]
/u/ [u], [ʉ], [ʊ]

Pronouns

The pronouns of Berta are as follows:

Topic Postverbal subject Postverbal object
I àl(ì) -lɪ́ɪ̀ -ɟì
you (sg.) (à)ŋɡó -ŋó -ŋɡó
he, she, it ɲìnè -né ɲìnè, -né
we χàtâŋ -ŋàa χàtâŋ
you (pl.) χàtú χátú χàtú
they mèrée mérée mèrée

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Berta at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ↑ "Berta". Ethnologue. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  3. ↑ Neudorf, Susanne (2016). Phonology of Berta. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.

Bibliography

  • 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.
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