Berta language explained
| Berta |
| Nativename: | Gebeto |
| States: | Sudan and Ethiopia |
| Region: | Benishangul-Gumuz |
| Ethnicity: | Berta people, Wetawit |
| Speakers: | all Berta languages |
| Date: | 2006–2007 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Dia1: | Shuru |
| Dia2: | Bake |
| Dia3: | Undu |
| Dia4: | Mayu |
| Dia5: | Fadashi |
| Dia6: | Dabuso |
| Dia7: | Beleje Gonfoye |
| Script: | Latin alphabet |
| Speakers2: | monolinguals in Ethiopia |
| Familycolor: | Nilo-Saharan |
| Fam2: | Berta languages |
| Iso3: | wti |
| Iso3comment: | (all Berta languages) |
| Glotto: | bert1248 |
| Glottorefname: | Berta |
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.[1]
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
- 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
- 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].[2]
| 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 | pronounced as /àl(ì)/ | pronounced as /-lɪ́ɪ̀/ | pronounced as /-ɟì/ |
|---|
| you (sg.) | pronounced as /(à)ŋɡó/ | pronounced as /-ŋó/ | pronounced as /-ŋɡó/ |
|---|
| he, she, it | pronounced as /ɲìnè/ | pronounced as /-né/ | pronounced as /ɲìnè, -né/ |
|---|
| we | pronounced as /χàtâŋ/ | pronounced as /-ŋàa/ | pronounced as /χàtâŋ/ |
|---|
| you (pl.) | pronounced as /χàtú/ | pronounced as /χátú/ | pronounced as /χàtú/ |
|---|
| they | pronounced as /mèrée/ | pronounced as /mérée/ | pronounced as /mèrée/ | |
|---|
See also
- Berta word lists (Wiktionary)
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.
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Berta . Ethnologue . 23 September 2023.
- Book: Neudorf, Susanne. Phonology of Berta. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. 2016.
