Berom language
| Berom | |
|---|---|
| Birom | |
| Cèn Bèrom or Lêm Bèrom | |
| Native to | Nigeria |
| Region | Plateau State |
| Ethnicity | Berom people |
Native speakers | 1 million (2010)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bom |
| Glottolog | bero1242 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
| Berom[2] | |
|---|---|
| Person | Wòrom |
| People | Berom |
| Language | Cèn Bèrom |
Berom or Birom (Cèn Bèrom or Lêm Bèrom) is the most widely spoken Plateau language in Nigeria. The language is locally numerically important and is consistently spoken by Berom of all ages in rural areas. However, the Berom are shifting to Hausa in cities.[1] The small Cen and Nincut dialects may be separate languages. Approximately 1 million (2010) people speak in this language.[1]
Berom is spoken in a large area extending from some precolonial settlements embedded within the Jos metropolitan Metropolitan Area to the south of Jos city to Barkin Ladi and Riyom in Plateau State, Nigeria.[3] The Berom population distribution culminates at the edge of the Jos plateau in Sopp chiefdom of Riyom Local Government Area.
History
[edit | edit source]The Berom have a link to the Nok culture, a civilization that existed between 200 BCE to 1,000 CE.[4] Generally, the Berom speakers are identified to live in the core Jos Plateau and down the low plains of Kaduna State.[5]
Dialects
[edit | edit source]The Berom dialectical differences are as follows:[3]
- Gyel–Kuru–Vwang
- Du–Foron
- Fan–Ropp–Rim–Riyom–Heikpang
- Bachit
- Gashish
- Rahoss-Tahoss
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Consonants
[edit | edit source]Eastern Berom consists of twenty-four consonant phonemes:[6]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | kp | ||
| voiced | b | d | g | gb | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | (ts) | tʃ | ||||
| voiced | dʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | ||
| voiced | v | z | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Rhotic | r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
- /ts/ occurs in the Foron dialect.
- /p/ /b/, /m/ are bilabial, while /f/ and /v/ are labiodental.
- /tʃ/, /dʒ/, and /ʃ/ are palato-alveolar, while /ɲ/ and /j/ are palatal.
In Berom, approximants are found in the last position, for example, orthographic rou is /ròw/ and vei is /vèj/.
Vowels
[edit | edit source]This language consists of seven vowel phonemes:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Berom consists of three type of tones and four glide tones.[5] The glide tones are treated here as rising and falling tones. The tones are as follows:
- /tút / 'to climb' – high tone
- /shɛl/ 'small' – mid tone
- /bàsa/ 'to teach, read' – low tone
- /nepâs/ 'new' – falling tone
- /sǎn/ 'empty' – rising tone
Orthography
[edit | edit source]Berom orthography:[3]
a, b, c, d, e, ɛ, f, g, gb, h, i, j, k, kp, l, m, n, ng, o, ɔ, p, r, s, sh, t, ts, u, v, w, y, z
Notes
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c Berom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).[self-published source]
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Bouquiaux 1970.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).[self-published source]
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]
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