Berta language

Berta
Gebeto
Native to	Sudan, Ethiopia
Region	Benishangul-Gumuz
Ethnicity	Berta people, Wetawit
Native speakers	370,000 all Berta languages (2006–2007)[1] 80% monolingual in Ethiopia (1998 census)[2]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Berta languages Berta
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wti (all Berta languages)
Glottolog	bert1248[3]

Berta proper, AKA Gebeto, is spoken by the Berta (also Bertha, Barta, Burta) in Sudan and Ethiopia.

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.

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

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

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

References

1. Berta at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Berta language at Ethnologue (14th ed., 2000).
3. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Berta". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.