Berta a.k.a. Gebeto, is a Berta language spoken by the Berta people (also Bertha, Barta, Burta) in Sudan and Ethiopia. As of 2006 Berta had approximately 180,000 speakers in Sudan. 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.
Contents
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].
Pronouns
The pronouns of Berta are as follows: