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Language and Culture Archives
Phonology of Berta
Susanne Neudorf
©2016, SIL International
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Phonology of Berta Susanne Neudorf, SIL International1
0. Demography
0.1. About the Language
Berta (Funj, often also spelled Bertha) is a Nilo-Saharan language isolate spoken south of the
Blue Nile, on both sides of the border between Ethiopia and Sudan. It is spoken by a people
group called Beni-Shangul (Bela-Shangul) or Berta (Barta, Burta). Other names for the people
(Wetawit, Jebelawi) are used less frequently these days.
According to the 2007 census, there are about 183,000 Berta speakers in Ethiopia, and some
estimates suggest about as many in Sudan, although without official figures.
On the Ethiopian side, the language is called Berta or ndú Berthú ‘mouth of Berta’, although
occasionally it is referred to as Rut’ana by the people themselves, which is the Arabic term
for a non-religious or non-Arabic language.
On the Sudanese side, the language is called Berta as well as Funj, which is derived from the
large Funj kingdom of the 16th to 19th century. Working briefly with Sudanese refugees in
Ethiopia who call themselves “Funj”, we could not find significant linguistic differences
between Berta-Mayu and Funj, neither structural nor lexical.
Still, the topic of dialectal and other differences of the variety spoken in Sudan deserves
further investigation.
0.2. Dialect Variants
Four main dialects of Berta have been identified so far: Mayu, Faɗashi, Undulu, and Beleje
Gonfoye. A fifth variety, Matahara, may be considered just a group within Mayu.
Mayu is the dialect where most information was collected. It seems to be the most prestigious
dialect, as all the kings and rulers of the Berta society came from this group. Mayu is spoken
in Asosa and the surrounding area, as well as towards the Nile, north of Asosa. Nowadays,
Mayu has lost many original Berta words and replaced them with Arabic loan words.
Faɗashi is spoken east of Asosa, mainly in and around Bambasi, but also extending
southward towards Tongo. It is similar to Mayu, but uses more original Berta words rather
than borrowing from Arabic. Also, some Faɗashi and Mayu words are cognates, but are pro-
nounced with slightly different vowels:
afoŋforos’ (F) – afaŋfaras’ (M) ‘lung’
as’uːnduyu (F) – as’uːndiyu (M) ‘breakfast’
ŋgo ga (F) – ŋgo gia (M) ‘you make’
1 This phonology is based on data Andreas Neudorf and I collected between 2001 and 2006, while living in Asosa and
Abramo, a village 12 km south of Asosa. I am grateful for input and advice by Andreas Joswig and Constance Kutsch-
Lojenga.
2
Consonantal variation is comparatively rare:
niŋa (F) – θiŋa (M) ‘eat’
Undulu is named after the area where it is spoken, around the town of Undulu. Like Faɗashi,
it has less Arabic influence than Mayu. Some Mayu ejective sounds may be pronounced as
plosives.
Beleje Gonfoye is the dialect of a group of Berta people who, more than 100 years ago,
moved to the Didessa valley, 250 km east of Asosa. Their language has less Arabic influence,
but sometimes borrows words from Afan Oromo or Gumuz, the languages of the people
amongst whom they live. Compared to the other three dialects, Beleje Gonfoye is rather
different, both grammatically and lexically. It is difficult, but not impossible, for speakers of
Beleje Gonfoye and of the other three dialects to understand each other. There are only about
ten villages remaining that speak this dialect in this area, but more with a very similar dialect
in the area north and west of Mendi.
Matahara. The name denotes the place where it is spoken, that is in Matahara, a settlement
about 200 km east of Addis Ababa. In the early 20th century, some Berta speakers were
uprooted and resettled in this place. Their language is so close to Mayu that it may not even
be justifiably called a separate dialect.
0.3. Previous Works on the Language
Several works have been published about the people, their history and their language: Triulzi
et al (1981) and (1976) provide a detailed history of the people group, with a brief investiga-
tion of the sound inventory of the language. Torben Andersen has written at various papers on
different aspects of Berta Grammar. Here I will refer mainly to Andersen (1993a).
1. Overview
The focus of this paper is on the Mayu dialect spoken in the area around Asosa, the main
informant being Abdu Nassir Ali from Abramo. A few additional examples are from the
Faɗashi dialect east of Asosa, and some information was given by a mixed group of speakers
from Mayu and Undulu dialects.
If not otherwise noted, the Berta examples are written phonemically. Only high tone and
falling tone are marked; low tone is usually not written unless it is important for clarification.
In the appendix section on orthography, the Berta examples are orthographic if not otherwise
noted.
1.1. Consonants
Table 1 shows an overview of the phonemes in Berta.
The distribution of the approximant phonemes is restricted to word initial position and a few
occurences between two same vowels. Phonetically, they are often present between different
vowels (see 2.3. Vowel Sequences).
The implosive alveolar /ɗ/ is the only implosive phoneme. See section 3.1.3. Miscellaneous
Notes on for other phonetic occurrences of implosives.
3
The dental fricative /θ/ does not exist in some variants in Sudan as well as in the more eastern
dialects. In those dialects it is realized as [t]. For example taŋ ‘cow’ (Andersen 1993a) in
Sudan, θaŋ in Mayu.
The glottal stop appears between two same vowels. It will be argued that it is not always
phonemic but rather predictable in its occurrence (see 2.4. Interpretation of Glottal Stop).
Table 1
labial dental alveolar palatal velar glottal
plosives b d ɟ 2 g (ʔ) implosives ɗ ejectives p t k ejective fricatives s fricatives f θ s ʃ h nasals m n ŋ lateral approximant l vibrant r approximant w j
1.2. Vowels
This table shows an overview of the vowel phonemes in Berta.
Table 2
front central back
close i u non-close e a o
Remarksː
All these vowel phonemes also have a long counterpart, which is contrastive.
Although many Nilo-Saharan languages have some kind of vowel harmony, or vowels both
with and without advanced tongue root features, Berta has neither.
1.3. Tone and Length
Berta has two tones, high (H) and low (L). In a few cases (mainly mono-syllabic words), both
are found on one syllable, thus appearing as a falling tone HL. Tone is of both lexical and
grammatical importance. On phrase level, tone as well as vowel length are used as grammati-
cal markers.
2 The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ only appears in Arabic loans as a phoneme, otherwise it is an allophone of the velar
plosive.
4
2. Syllable Structure
2.1. Berta Syllable Patterns
The Berta syllables are CV, CVː, CVC, VC, V and Vː (C standing for a consonant, V for a
vowel) as can be seen in the table below:
Table 3
gloss syllable translation
meː ra CVː.CV ‘drink!’
bele CV.CV ‘stone’
buʃ CVC ‘hair’
amːa VC.CV ‘my mother’
ir VC ‘milk’
alu ada V.CV ‘head’, ‘go’
bua CV.V ‘arm’
ɪ ː la Vː.CV ‘Play!’
Compared with Andersen (1993a, p. 41ff), this analysis includes the additional syllable pat-
tern Vː, as some sounds (glides, glottal stop) and VV-sequences are interpreted differently.
This will be described in sections 2.3. and 2.4.
Beside the interjection hi ː ŋ ‘yes’, there are hardly any other monomorphemic original Berta
words containing the syllable structure CVːC (see also Andersen 1993a, p. 41ff). It occurs
otherwise in some Arabic loan words, in the final syllable:
Table 4
gloss syllable translation
aɟaːr V.CVːC ‘neighbor’
badeː n CV.CVːC ‘later’
The phonetic syllable pattern CVːC may also be created through morpheme combinations:
Example 1
a.bu.ŋo maː.doːŋ.go gi ː .di.a?
abu-ŋo maːd-oː -ŋgo gi ːdi-a? father-your see-PAST-you yesterday-Q.PART
‘Did your father see you yesterday?’
2.2. Nasal-Stop Sequence
The nasal-stop sequence occurs morpheme initially [mb, nd, ŋg, ŋk’] as well as within a
lexeme. This nasal is a free unit, but is homorganic with the next consonant.
Example 2
(a) ndimi ː li (L.H LL.H) ‘a person’ (‘person + black’)
(b) mbagiʃu ‘evening’
(c) ŋgo ‘you (sg.)’
Some of these NCV sequences are in free variation either with a CV sequenceː
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mba-ʔa ~ ba-ʔa/ ‘yours’
rel.pro-2.sg.poss
or with a NV sequenceː
mba-ŋk’o ~ ma-ŋk’o ‘mine’
rel-1.sg.poss
or with VC.CV sequencesː
ŋgo ~ aŋgo ‘you’
ndu ~ indu ‘mouth’
The nasal has its own tone (mostly L), which suggests that it is syllabic.
ndimi ː li (L.H LL.H) ‘a person’
However, it looses its syllabic value and becomes part of the preceding syllable if suffixed to
a noun or verb (see also Andrersen 1993a, p. 44):
Example 3
(a) -ŋgunuŋ ‘other’
gi.ŋaŋ.gu.nuŋ
giŋ-a -ŋgunuŋ thing-MOD other
‘other things’
(b) ŋgo ‘2.SG.ABS’
a.fi.aŋ.go aː -fi-a-ŋgo 1.SG-hit-DNT -2.sg.ABS
‘I hit you.’
(c) mba ‘REL’
ŋɔ.nam.baŋ.gu.ŋu ŋona mba -ŋguŋ-u (L.H.H.L.H)3
smell REL. dung-GEN
‘the smell of dung’
Some nasals have a high tone and thus appear to be syllabic. These can be traced back to a
situation where an underlying vowel has disappeared:
Example 4
ne maːne -> mmaːne ‘it is’
ne k’alne -> ŋk’alne ‘and he says’
3 The L of penultimate syllable is raised in relaxed speech, as it is surrounded by H.
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2.3. Vowel Sequences
A sequence of two same vowels is written as /Vː/ if they belong to one syllable, as it is
analyzed as a long vowel, not two of the same vowels.
Some words have sequences of two different vowels, as in Example 5:
Example 5
(a) bua ‘arm’ CV.V
(b) fioŋko ‘ladle’ CV.VC.CV
(c) bia ‘cry!’ CV.V
(d) mua ‘plait!’ CV.V
In examples (a) and (b) above, both vowels belong to one morpheme, while in (c) and (d) they
are separated by morpheme boundaries (the first vowel belonging to the root, the second
being an imperative suffix). All four of these vowel sequences belong to different syllables,
and sometimes have different tones (b). I do not interpret these sequences to have a glide
intervening between the two vowels, as shown in the following transcriptions:
Example 6
(a) *buwa ‘arm’
(b) *fijoŋk’o ‘ladle’
(c) *bija ‘cry!’
(d) *muwa ‘plait!’
Especially in (c) and (d), any phonetically audible glide cannot be considered phonemic in
these intervocalic places. It is rather a phonetic device to transition from one vowel to
another. This becomes clear at other morpheme boundaries, such as adding the polar question
particle /a/ to a phrase. After a consonant, it is [a] (a), after a front (unrounded) vowel it is
pronounced [ja] (b), and after back (rounded) vowel [wa] (c):
Example 7
(a) [ŋgo gid-i ʃiŋir-a] you have-NON.PAST donkey-Q.PART
‘Do you have a donkey?’
(b) [ŋgo p’iʃ-i bus’ik’e-ja] you be.good-NON.PAST body-Q.PART
‘Are you healthy?’
(c) [ŋgo maːd-oː begu-wa] you see-PAST eagle-Q.PART
‘Have you seen the eagle?’
(d) [ŋgo maːd-oː k’uria-ja] you see-PAST snake-Q.PART
‘Have you seen the snake?’
7
In examples (a) to (c) the glide is present as an in between step of pronunciation, while
transitioning from one vowel to another. Because both glides /w/ and /j/ – if intervocalic –
occur after the respective vowels, it is clear that they are not phonemic in this construction. In
(d), however, the presence of /j/ cannot be explained on phonetic terms. It is most likely
inserted to show that the two /a/ do not belong to the same syllable, and for a clear distinction
to the morpheme /ʔa/ ‘your (sg)’.
Example 8
meː r-a adːawa-ʔa
drink-IMP medicine.MOD-2.SG.POSS
‘Drink your medicine!’
We will look more closely at combinations of two of the same vowels in 2.4. Interpretation of
Glottal Stop.
All vowel-vowel combinations encountered so far have had a closed vowel first and a more
open vowel following. However, there are VV combinations within a lexeme as well as at
morpheme boundaries, where the first vowel is more open than the second one (Example 9).
In such cases, a glottal stop is inserted, be it within a morpheme (a) or across morpheme
boundaries (b):
Example 9
(a) [waʔu] ‘orphans’
(b) [aː-mad-i bele-ʔi] ‘I see the stone.’
As seen in the following sentences, the intransitive marker suffix [-ʔi], (as well as another
suffix [-ʔi], a verb derivation suffix, see below), sometimes have a glottal stop preceding
them. But this is not phonemic, because it only shows up when following a morpheme ending
on a vowel.
Example 10
(a) naŋ mad-i [oŋo-ʔi]?
Q know-NON.PAST giraffe-V.DER
‘What does the giraffe see?’
(b) naŋ mad-i [hiliŋ-i]?
Q know-NON.PAST giraffe-V.DER
‘What does the giraffe see?’
Example 11
(a) agorθe [guːɗoː -ʔi] θa agoŋgor alu. thief jump-PAST-INTR at fence head
The thief jumped over the fence.
(b) ŋgo gidi geedi-a? hi ː ŋ, [aː-gid-i]. 2SG have-NON.PAST children-Q.PART Yes, 1SG-have-INTR.
‘Do you have children?’ ‘Yes, I have.’
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2.4. Interpretation of Glottal Stop
In the phoneme table, the glottal stop was presented in brackets. In the preceding chapter I
have discussed one occurrence of the glottal stop /ʔ/ and noted that it is not to be considered a
phoneme in this specific situation. I will now look at other occurrences of glottal stops,
particularly between two of the same vowels. I will suggest that, in most occurrences, the
glottal stop is actually not a phoneme, but a phonetic device to separate two vowels belonging
to different syllables. It is therefore predictable and not contrastive.
There are a few examples where the glottal stop must be considered phonemic (discussed in
sections 2.4.3 and 2.4.4).
2.4.1. Behavior in Word-Initial Vowel Onset
Andersen (1993a, pp. 62ff) suggests that some nouns with initial vowel have no glottal stop
in the onset, while other vowels have. If this is the case, the glottal stop needs to be
considered a phoneme in this position. However, the data collected from Mayu does not
support this analysis. Whenever in the following text a glottal stop is shown in brackets (ʔ), this means that it is not always audible. It is up to the speaker to pronounce it more or less
clearly.
Both nouns and verbs starting with a vowel may insert a glottal stop at the onset, which is a
natural phonetic device used by most languages. Often this glottal stop is left out when the
phonetic environment allows this. In Berta, the glottal stop is always inserted before long
vowels if preceded by a morpheme with a final vowel, regardless of the vowel combination
before or after it; it is also inserted before short vowels other than /a/.
Example 12
aːgu ‘pumpkin’ [ɗaːŋa ʔaːgu] ‘size of the pumpkin’
eːʃe ‘dough’ [ŋona ʔeːʃo] ‘smell of the batter’
i ːgi ‘scorpion’ [ɗaːŋa ʔi ːgu] ‘size of the scorpion’
oŋo ‘clothes’ [ɗaːŋa ʔoŋo] ‘size of the clothes’
uŋ ‘elephant’ [ɗaːŋa ʔuŋu] ‘size of the elephant’
The lexemes that may behave differently are those that exclusively begin with a short vowel
/a/. It will be seen that these lexemes’ different behavior is explainable without assuming the
glottal stop as a phoneme.
Verbal structures
Verbs with initial short /a/ like ahaθa ‘stand up’, afiŋa ‘forgive’ and ada ‘go’ can be heard
with glottal stop onset, depending on different environments. Preceded by a noun, pronoun or
even pronominal clitic ending in a vowel, the glottal stop may often be quite audible.
9
Example 13
[aː-(ʔ)ahaθ-a-ʔi 4] 1.SG-stand.up-DNT-INTR
‘I stood up.’
The long /aː/ of the prefix is separated from the lexeme’s initial vowel by a tentative glottal
stop. That this is not a phoneme will become clear by adding the causative morpheme /a/ to
the verb. While the glottal stop can be heard between pronominal prefix and verb, it is not
inserted between the causative prefix and the verb; the /a/ of the verb will copy the high tone
of the prefix:
Example 14
(a) *a-(ʔ)ahaθ-iŋ-a
CAUS-stand.up-CAUS-IMP
‘Make him get up!’
a-ahaθ-iŋ-a5
CAUS-stand.up-CAUS-IMP
‘Make him get up!’
b) aː-(ʔ)a-ahaθ-iŋ-a
1.sg-caus-stand.up-caus-dnt
‘I made him get up!’
The speaker is more likely to pronounce a glottal stop if the tones of preceding and following
vowels differ. Also, the glottal stop seems to have the function of showing where the second
vowel is beginning, thus making sure the length of each morpheme is recognizable.
In another constellation a glottal stop is hardly ever inserted, for example after the particle
/ne/, a discourse participant marker. This marker, when preceding a verb starting with /a/, is
most likely not showing the glottal stop at all, though in slow speech a speaker may always
choose to use it.
Example 15
(a) a Musa ne (ʔ)afiŋ-a gadi DISC.PART Musa PART.REF. forgive-DNT child
‘Musa forgave the child.’
In summary, it can be seen that the glottal stop is not strongly present at a verb’s vowel onset,
especially not when preceded by the discourse particle /ne/, which actually has a close
grammatical connection with the verb.
Nominal structures
Nouns, like verbs, may have an initial glottal stop depending on the environment.
4 The glottal stop in front of the intransitive suffix /-i/ will be discussed in section 2.4.3. Glottal Stop at the Onset of
5 Phonetically it is hard to establish if the causative prefix /a/ and the word-initial vowel /a/ have melted together into one
long /a:/ or if the vowel stayed short and the H is the only evidence of the presence of the causative prefix.
10
In discourse, with the marker for continuity /a/ preceding it, the glottal stop is more likely to
be used. In this construction, the noun-initial vowel will mostly carry a high tone.
Example 16
(a) a ʔawasa bia-i. DISC.PART music.NOM cry-INTR
‘The music played.’
(b) a ʔabu-ŋo k’eː d-a-i. DISC.PART father.NOM-your laugh-DNT-INTR
‘Your father laughed.’
(c) a ʔamasiŋ muʃ-e.
DISC.PART rat.NOM die-DNT.INTR
‘The rat died.’
In constructions where the noun is an object following a verb, the glottal stop is less
pronounced, as in the previous example. As before with verbs, the insertion of the glottal
stop, and how strong it appears, is very much up to the speaker (Example 17 (a)). Also, in the
verb-object construction, the grammatical relationship is closer than in Example 16.
Example 17
(a) gis’-a (ʔ)are-ʔa.6 wash-IMP eye.MOD.-2.SG.POSS
‘Wash your face!’
(b) end-a (ʔ)anθamaŋ.
set.trap-IMP fox
‘Catch a fox with the trap./Set a trap for the fox.’
Within noun phrases, however, where the word is the possessor, i.e. in genitive case,
preceded by the possessed (head), there is no glottal stop (Example 18(a)). In this
construction, the L of the second vowel may change to a high tone, spreading from the
preceding word-final vowel (b), or the whole word-initial vowel may disappear (c).
Example 18
(a) asola ‘hill’
ɗaːŋa asol-o size.MOD hill-GEN
‘the size of the hill’
(b) amuŋ ‘nose’
ɗaːŋa amuŋ-u size.MOD nose-GEN
‘the size of the nose’
6 The glottal stop of the 2SG possessive pronoun /-ʔa/ will be discussed in section 2.4.3. Glottal Stop at the Onset of .
11
(c) aʃːi ː ba ‘pillar’
ɗaːŋa -ʃːi ː b-o size.MOD pillar-GEN
‘the size of the pillar’
While occurrences (a) and (b) are in free variation, (c) is dependent on the phonetic
environment, which is a double consonant or a cluster of two consonants following the
respective vowel. This is shown by the following phrases in Example 19:
Example 19
(a) ababa ‘grandfather’
merere ababa sheep.MOD grandfather
‘my grandfather’s sheep’
(b) abba ‘father’
ʃuli -bba house.MOD father
‘my father’s house’
(c) aŋk’omal ‘son-in-law’
oːra -ŋkomal-u cloth.PL.MOD son.in.law-GEN
‘my son-in-law’s clothes’
Andersen (1993a, p.52) also mentions this construction, though not in relation to the glottal
stop discussion.
In the following constructions in Example 20, the behavior of glottal stop and vowel is the
same as in genitive constructions: (a) the particle na which shows a part of a whole, (b)
copula ma used to make a predicative statement and (c) the relative pronoun mba:
Example 20
(a) ...ʃiŋir na abaro
...donkey PRTV tail
‘...a donkey’s tail’
(b) Aː-feɗi aː -ma agur. 1.SG-want 1.SG-be leader
‘I want to be a leader.’
(c) ŋɔna mba abeŋu
smell REL.PRON. porcupine.GEN
‘the smell of a porcupine’
Conclusion:
The appearance of a glottal stop verb- or noun-initially is influenced by two factors:
a) By grammatical structure: The glottal stop is inserted in stressed constructions where the
noun is in nominative case. Depending on the speaker, it is weakly pronounced or not audible
12
in a verb-object construction. In close grammatical constructions7, like participant reference
for verbs, or genitive, relative constructions after the relative pronoun mba, or in adjectival
constructions after the auxiliary ma it is not inserted. Of course, if a speaker talks distinctly,
he may always choose to add a glottal stop, as the word is then following a pause.
b) By phonetic environment:
- In front of vowels other than /a/, the glottal stop is more likely to be heard.
- In front of a long vowel, the glottal stop is necessary to show the syllable boundary with
respect to the preceding vowel.
[ɗaːŋa ʔaːgu] ‘size of the pumpkin’
[ɗaːŋa (ʔ)oːru] ‘size of the clothes’
- If the vowels differ, the glottal stop may be weaker than in a same-vowel environment.
- Between two different vowels, the second one being /a/, the glottal stop is not necessary, but
can be inserted if a speaker wishes to do so.
- A short vowel preceding two consonants is a weak vowel and will completely disappear if
preceded by a vowel in a close grammatical environment. This implies that any chance for a
potential glottal stop disappears with it.
Special case: body part lexemes
Some body part lexemes are used in grammaticalized forms, where their meaning has
changed. The two most common ones are: alu ‘head’ and iju ‘belly’.
Depending on their use in a sentence, these lexemes may have a distinct glottal stop with the
first vowel. In their direct meaning, the glottal stop and vowel behave like in all other nouns:
Example 21
aː-k’ol ʔalu. 1SG-eat head.NOM
‘My head hurts.’
If in their grammaticalized meaning, i.e. being employed as part of a circumfix or as part of
the verb, they can (but need not) lose their initial vowel (mostly if it is the same as the
preceding one). A glottal stop, however, is not present:
Example 22
(a) θa s’is’ia lu ~ θa s’is’ia alu PREP tree-head
‘on the tree’
(b) θa buli-ju PREP river-belly
‘in the river’
7 This behaviour could also be a sign of a phonological word.
13
(c) maːd-a ora-le-ju ŋiʃ-i-ŋo! know-IMP cloth-DEM-belly dress-NON.PAST-2SG
‘Think about the clothes you are wearing!’
2.4.2. Glottal Stop Within One Lexeme
At first glance, the glottal stop may appear phonemically in inter-vowel position, as in the
following:
Example 23
(a) [ʔoːʔo] ‘grandmother’
(b) [ʔuʔûŋ] ‘meat’
The examples have two of the same vowels in a row, separated by a glottal stop. Also, the
tones on the surrounding vowels are different. Furthermore, as in (a), one of the vowels may
be long. As seen in the preceding section, this constellation is a typical example showing a
weakly pronounced glottal stop. The two vowels belong to two different syllables. To make
the distinction between the two vowels, a glottal stop is inserted. This marks the two vowels
as two syllables, rather than belonging to one. Thus the glottal stop can here be interpreted as
a phonetic device for syllabification rather than a phoneme.
2.4.3. Glottal Stop at the Onset of Suffixes
While I have shown that neither word-initially (2.4.1. Behavior in Word-Initial Vowel Onset)
nor within a word (2.4.2. Glottal Stop Within One ) the glottal stop must be interpreted as a
phoneme, there are a few occurrences where the glottal stop behaves very much like a
phoneme: the suffixes -ʔa and -ʔaŋ.
-ʔa (2.sg. possessive pronoun) is a morpheme usually attached to a noun in MOD case, which
is the case used when a head noun is modified in any way, be it by a genitive noun, by an
adjective, by a possessive marker, a demonstrative or a relative clause. Nouns ending with a
consonant will have the ending /-a/ in modified case, while those ending in a vowel will keep
that vowel with a high tone. In this environment there is a glottal stop, but, as example 24 b)
shows, for another morpheme beginning with a vowel /a/ the separator /j/ is used. Therefore
the use of the glottal stop is not fully predictable here.
Example 24
(a) mia-ʔa
goat.MOD-2.SG.POSS
‘your goat’
(b) ŋgo ʃap’uθ-oː mia-ja
2.SG.ABS beat-PAST goat-Q.MARK
‘Have you beaten the goat?’
If /j/ is interpreted as a phoneme here, /ʔ/ can be considered a phoneme as well.
In addition to all that, there is the rare case where the morpheme is used after a consonant.
Even then, the glottal stop appears:
14
Example 25
ʃuli ‘house’
(a) ʃul Sara ‘Sara’s house’
(b) ʃul-ʔa ‘your house’
While (b) can have /i/ preceding the glottal stop, it is not obligatory.
ʔaŋ, a verbal derivational suffix, has a strong glottal stop in several environments. While it is
derived from a noun ʔaŋ ‘place’, it behaves a bit differently from other nouns, even in its ori-
ginal meaning. Also, it has an exception in its declination. As an object to a verb the glottal
stop is not heard strongly in (a) and (b) after a vowel other than /a/, while between the same
vowels in (c) it is strong and obligatory. In nominative case it is pronounced as strongly as
any other sound (d), and in modified case (e) the vowel becomes long, which is again a place
for a glottal stop. (see 2.4.1. Behavior in Word-Initial Vowel Onset).
Example 26
aŋ ‘place’
(a) As verbal objectː munsu abaɗi (ʔ)aŋ. ‘The sun is heating up the place.’
(b) aguːru amilu (ʔ)aŋ. ‘The cloud makes it dark.’
(c) As verbal object: ŋine boroŋ bak’a ʔaŋ alu. ‘He, then, left the place forever.’
(d) In nominative caseː
almóz hór ʔáŋ mílːaŋ θa alʔájna. banana is.full VPRT.NOM many at kind
‘There are very many bananas.’
(e) In modified constructionsː bik’á adiŋó ʔa:ŋámáñ. do.not GO2.SG place.MOD-some
‘Do not go anywhere!’
Also, if used as a derivational suffix for (mostly stative) verbs, the glottal stop is pronounced
and not disappearing even if following a consonant. The glottal adapts to the nasal in its place
of articulation and becomes /g/ in pronunciation.
Example 27
[amilaŋgaŋ] amilaŋ ʔaŋ ‘nighttime’ (lit: ‘the time of darkness’)
‘dark’ ‘time’
The glottal stop in /ʔaŋ/ is pronounced stronger as [g] in order to “protect” the /a/. It is weak
and in front of a nasal. This is why it occurs constantly and thus should be considered a
phoneme.
15
2.4.4. Arabic Loan Words
A further instance where the glottal behaves like a phoneme is after a consonant in Arabic
loan words, being in contrast to other consonants:
Example 28
alʔid ‘holiday’
alginzir ‘necklace’
alʔarabia ‘car’
alʔumur ‘age’
While the glottal stop appears after the article /al/, the /a/ of the article is weak and often
disappearing. It behaves like a weak /a/ in front of two consonants (see Example 18 and
Example 19). This is again an indication that the glottal stop is considered a phoneme in the
Arabic loan words.
2.4.5. Conclusion
In summary, the glottal stop shows some features that cause it to appear to be a phoneme,
while it is also used phonetically in other circumstances. As it does not fit exactly into one
category, its classification will here be left undecided. Unless in phonetic brackets it will not
be written word initially, but always between vowels, even if it may not have a phonemic
status there.
One should also keep in mind that the use of a glottal stop symbol in the orthography is
independent from considering /ʔ/ as a phoneme or not.
3. Phonemes
3.1. Consonants
3.1.0. General
Voice does not distinguish phonemes in Berta. Voiced and voiceless consonants may appear
in free variation or sometimes in complementary distribution.
There are five main places of articulation in Berta: labial, dental, alveolar, palatal and velar
with palatal allophones (see table in 1.1. Consonants).
Furthermore, there are the glottal fricative /h/ and the glottal stop /ʔ/. For comparison, I will
combine the dental sound with both the labial and the alveolar phonemes. Also, I will
compare the palatal phonemes with the alveolar and the velar ones.
16
3.1.1. Phoneme Comparison According to the Place of Articulation
Labio-dental /b/, /p’/, /f/, /θ/, /m/, /w/ Table 5
word initially word middle word final
b baːs’a
‘alcoholic drink’
abandu ‘reed’
k’aːk’ab ‘hunt’ (nom. verb) 8
p’ p’aːra ‘block’
ap’aːni ‘cotton’
alu ʃuːʃup’ ‘displacing’ (nom. verb)
f faːs’a ‘to plant’
afanfe ‘mongoose’
θuf ‘bamboo rope’
θ θaːŋi ‘cows’
ahaθa ‘stand up’
yaguθ ‘fish’
m maːda ‘to know’
amansi ‘beads’
yom ‘day’ (Arabic loan)9
w waːne ‘where?’
s’awari ‘pretty’
________
Alveolar, dental, and palatal /θ/, /d/, /ɗ/, /t’/, /s’/, /s/, /ʃ/, /j/, /ɟ/, /n/, /l/, /r/ Table 6
word initially word middle word final
d10 doŋo ‘neck’
p’aːda ‘help’
borid ‘lion’
t’ t’ora ‘wander about’
feːt’a ‘peel, sharpen’
alk’alet’ ‘mistake’ (Arabic loan)11
θ θoŋor ‘road’
maθa ‘return’
nek’eθ ‘liver’
ɗ ɗoŋoʃa ‘sit down’
haɗa ‘take away’
baraɗ ‘bushbuck’
s’ s’oro ‘urine’
k’as’i ‘bitter’
afaŋfaras’ ‘lung’
s soːso ‘lazy’
awasa ‘trad. music’
bas ‘only’
(Arabic loan)
ʃ ʃok’oŋ ‘today’
ɗaʃa ‘be cold’
gedaŋgeraʃ ‘hippopotamus’
j jom jaguθ ‘day’ (Ar) ‘fish’
naja ‘why?’
__________
8 Labial plosives are not found word finally except in a specific verb declination of one verb class, where the stem-final
consonant is the final sound.
9 The labial nasal is not found word-finally in words of pure Berta origin.
10 Alveolar plosives (/d/, /ɗ/) are the only plosives found word-finally in Berta words.
11 Alveolar ejective /t’/, fricative /s/ and nasal /n/ are not found word-finally in words of Berta origin.
17
ɟ ɟelabia ‘Muslim man’s dress’
alkaɟâm ‘trap’
alhaɟ ‘pilgrimage’
n noʃa ‘be satisfied’
bana ‘conceal’
k’alt’an ‘wrong’ (Arabic loan)
l lufa ‘to fall’
p’aː la ‘to plough’
ʃimbil ‘wealth’
r roŋa ‘wander about’
p’aːra ‘to block’
ʃimbir ‘round’
Velar and palatal /g/, /k’/, /ŋ/, /ʔ/, /h/, /ɟ/, /ʃ/, /j/ Table 7
word initially word middle word final
ɟ ɟelabia ‘Muslim man’s dress’
alkaɟam ‘iron trap’
alhaɟ ‘pilgrimage’
ʃ ʃok’oŋ ‘today’
ʃuldoːʃo ‘prison’
duluʃ ‘stomach’
j jaguθ jom ‘fish’ ‘day’
k’oloju ‘calf, lower leg’
__________
g gora ‘sew’
bogodo ‘lizard’
duːdug ‘fetching’ (verbal noun)12
k’ k’ola ‘eat’
ɗok’oθa ‘ask’
alu ʃuːʃuk’ ‘fright’(verbal noun)
ŋ ŋonʃo ‘honey’
ɗoŋoʃa ‘sit down’
amuŋ ‘nose’
ʔ ___________ -ʔa ‘your’
_______________
h hododo ‘tortoise’
θohoŋ ‘malt’
afuθah ‘brain’
The velar sounds /g/, /k’/ and /ŋ/ have palatal allophones, which are in complementary
distribution to their velar counterparts:
/ŋ/ [ɲ] in front of front vowels /i/ and /e/, for example [ɲine] ‘he/she’
[ŋ] in front of central or back vowels /a/, /u/ and /o/, for example [ŋonʃo] ‘honey’
/k’/ [c’] in front of front vowels, for example [c’iθa] ‘cut’
[k’] in front of central or back vowels, for example [k’urija] ‘snake’
/g/ [c] or [ɟ] in front of front vowels, for example [ceːdi] ~ [ɟeːdi] ‘children’
[k] or [g] in front of central or back vowels.
In very few circumstances, the palatal allophone /ɟ/ is found in back vowel surrounding.
Mostly, these words are loan words from Arabic, but this still needs to be investigated further.
aɟuava ‘guava’
12 The velar plosive and ejective are not found word finally except in a specific verb declination of one verb class, where
the stem-final consonant is the final sound.
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3.1.2. Phoneme Comparison According to the Manner of Articulation
Plosives /b/, /d/, /g/ All of these three sounds are in free variation between voiced [b], [d], [g] and voiceless [p], [t], [k] variants word-initially as well as word-finally, and are voiced intervocalically. Word-
initial plosive, if voiceless, may be aspirated [pʰ], [tʰ], [kʰ]. Word-final /b/ and /g/ are not
found in words other than nominalized verbs or Arabic loans. /g/ has a palatal allophone in
front of front vowels (see above).
/b/ [buli~puli] ‘river’ [ʔababa] ‘grandfather’ [kaːkab~ kaːkap] ‘hunting’
/d/ [dirʃa~tirʃa] ‘sleep!’ [ide] ‘husband’ [borid~borit] ‘lion’
/g/ [gadi~kadi] ‘child’ [gaːgu] ‘bamboo’ [duːdug~ tuːduk] ‘fetching’
Ejectives and implosive /p’/, /t’/, /k’/, /ɗ/, /s’/ The implosive /ɗ/ is the only implosive sound found in this variety of Berta (see also section
3.1.3. Miscellaneous Notes on ).
As with plosives, the labial and velar ejectives are hardly found word-finally except in Arabic
loan words or in nominalized verb forms. The adjective maɗik’ ‘foolish’ is the only exception
found so far, and it should be investigated whether this is actually borrowed from another
language.
The alveolar ejective /t’/, which is rarer than the other two ejectives, is not found word-finally
in Berta words at all. The sounds are found in the following positions:
/p’/ [p’aːla] ‘plough!’ [ʃup’uθa] ‘hit’ [ʔaluʃuːʃup’] 13 ‘displacing’ (verbal noun)
/t’/ [t’ok’olo] ‘new’ [feː t’a] ‘peel, sharpen’ [ʔalk’alet’] 14 ‘mistake’
/k’/ [k’uria] ‘snake’ [ʃeː k’e] ‘sand’ [maɗik’] 15 ‘foolish’
/ɗ/ [ɗoŋoʃa] ‘sit!’ [gaː ɗo] ‘locust’ [huŋhuɗ] ‘stump’
/s’/ [s’oro] ‘urine’ [k’os’i] ‘small’ [ʔafaŋfaras’] ‘lung’
Fricatives /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/ Fricatives do not have any voiced variants, unlike the plosives, where voiced and voiceless
are in free variation. /s/ and /θ/ may be slightly voiced [z], [ð] in vocalic or nasal
environment, but not necessarily. Also, fricatives have not been found lengthened.
/s/ interestingly does not appear word-finally except in nominalized verb forms or Arabic loan
words. In this respect is behaves like /b/, /p’/ and /g/. Voiced and voiceless variants may be in
free variation word-medially, in other places the voiceless allophone is more common.
13 not found in words other than nominalised verb forms
14 only found in loan words
15 This is the only occurrence of word final /k'/ other than in a nominalized verb. It needs investigation as to whether there
might be another word like this, or if this is a loan from some other language, as it does not seem to be Arabic.
19
The glottal sound /h/ is an approximant [h] between two vowels. Word-finally, sometimes
also word-initially, it tends to be more of a fricative [x], to make it more audible, while it can
be both approximant or fricative word-initially.
Distribution:
/f/ [fuːda] ‘money’ [muː fa] ‘catch’ [θuf] ‘bamboo rope’
/θ/ [θuf] ‘bamboo rope’ [habiθaŋ] ‘night’ [ʔaʃiriŋk’iθ] ‘shadow’
/s/ [sure] ‘mud’ [munsu~munzu] ‘sun’ [geːges] ‘sorting out’
/ʃ/ [ʃuli] ‘house’ [huːʃa] ‘to boil’ [buʃ] ‘hair’
/h/ [hala~xala] ‘tongue’ [ʔahaθa] ‘stand up’ [ʔafuθax] ‘brain’(from Arabic)
Nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ While all three nasals are found both word-initially and word-medially, /ŋ/ is the only one
found word-finally in original Berta words. Both /n/ and /m/ occur word-finally only in words
of foreign (mostly Arabic) origin. Word-initially in front of a plosive, a nasal can be a tone
bearing unit (see section 2.2. Nasal-Stop Sequence).
Like the other velar sounds in Berta, /ŋ/ has a palatal allophone [ɲ] if preceding a front vowel
/i/ or /e/. /m/ [mi ː la] ‘be black’ [gaːma] ‘lake’ [jom] ‘day’ (from Arabic)
/n/ [niɲe] ‘woman’ [bana] ‘conceal!’ [k’alt’an] ‘wrong’ (from Arabic)
/ŋ/ [ɲine] ‘he/she’ [laŋa] ‘stumble!’ [muguŋ] ‘calf’
Approximants /w/, /j/ Approximants occur as a phoneme word-initially as well as word-medially (usually after or
between /a/), where they appear in a few original Berta words, but more frequently in loans
from Arabic:
/w/ [waʔu] ‘orphan’ [s’awari] ‘pretty’ -
/j/ [jaguθ] ‘fish’ [naja] ‘why?’ [gaj] ‘frying pan’
/w/ does not occur word-finally. Within a word, it appears mainly between the same two
vowels. In the above instances, both /w/ and /j/ are phonemes. However, between two vowels
inside a word as well as in morpheme combinations, they are in complementary distribution.
[j] will show after front vowels, while [w] will be used after back vowels. In these instances,
they should not be considered a phoneme (see section 2.3. Vowel Sequences). Only Arabic
loans may show exceptions, in which cases they should be treated as phonemes again, e.g.
ʃowoja ‘a little bit’(from Arabic).
The word [iʔidigwa] ‘neighbor’ has the /w/ in a very unusual environment, right after a
consonant. It needs to be further investigated in this word if the syllable boundary is between
/g/ and /w/, if it shows rather a rounded /g/, or (and this is the most likely explanation) if there
is a reduction of a back vowel which does happen in other words as well, like: [dwoʃ] ‘baboon’, which is actually /duoʃ/ in slow speech. Also the 2.SG. pronoun ŋgo sometimes is
20
reduced to ŋgw-, if followed by a vowel, e.g. [aːmadiŋgwe] ‘I am showing to you’. (See
section 6. Observations on Relaxed Speech for a few more examples).
3.1.3. Miscellaneous Notes on Consonants
Regarding the contrast between /b/ and /p’/, as well as between /g/ and /k’/, there are several
words where the informants were not sure whether there is an ejective or a normal plosive.
For example [gagabu] ‘on the hunt’ has also been found [k’ak’ap’u] as well as [gagap’u] and
[k’ak’abu]. [p’uda] ‘open’ and [buda] have both been heard, as well as [k’amis’aro] and
[gamis’aro] ‘praying mantis’. This could point towards a process of slowly replacing
implosives and changing them into either ejectives or plosives. This is evidenced by the fact
that in a Sudanese variety of Berta there is still the implosive /ɓ/ in the above mentioned
word [ɓuda] ‘open’ (Andersen 1993a, p.56). Also, the word [ɓaː la] ‘weed’ (p.54), which is
equivalent to the Mayu word [p’aː la] ‘cultivate, plough’, and [aɓaː ne] ‘cotton’ (p.53) which is
equivalent to [ap’aː ni] in Mayu.
While the Mayu dialect around Asosa has a phoneme /θ/, many other dialects do not
(Matahara, Mendi area and some in Sudan), but rather have a phoneme /t/ instead.
[ta] [θa] ‘at’
[taŋ] [θaŋ] ‘cow’
If so, then the rule of voiced and voiceless free variation does not apply to the plosives
anymore, as can be seen in the dialect investigated by Anderson (1993a).
3.2. Vowels
There are five contrastive vowel positions in Berta, all of which appear in all possible
positions of a word, and can be both short and long:
Table 8
word initially16 word middle word final
a [aʔeθɔ] ‘boundary’
[bɐda] ‘fly’
[nɔʃa] ‘be satisfied’
e [ɛʔɛ] ‘no’
[bɛlɛ] ‘stone’
[ŋgonʃɛ] ‘fishing trap’
i [iʔidigwa] ‘neighbor’
[bilia] ‘onion’
[ʔamənzi] ‘beads’
o [ɔŋɔ] ‘monkey’
[bɔlɔ] ‘whistle’
[ŋɔnʃɔ] ‘honey’
u [uʔûŋ] ‘meat’
[buli] ‘river’
[munzu] ‘sun’
Generally, the vowels are pronounced like their phonemic symbols suggest, except for /e/ and
/o/, which are mainly pronounced as open mid vowels [ɛ] and [ɔ]. Still, they are subject to
variations depending on their phonological surrounding.
16 As all word-initial vowels have a preceding glottal stop (see 2.4. ), I do not write word-initial glottal stop, considering it
as part of the vowel-onset, and treat the vowels as the beginning of the word.
21
/i/ is realized [ɨ]~[ɘ] in the neighborhood of /r/, and [ɨ]~[i]~[ɪ] in the vicinity of a nasal.
A closed vowel causes a non-closed adjacent vowel to be pronounced more closed, like /e/ in
[ceːdi] ‘children’.
/u/ can vary from [ʉ] to [u] and [ʊ] depending on the following vowel to which it may
partially adapt in position ((b) and (c)) or in openness (a):
Example 29
ʃap’uθ- ‘to hit’
(a) [ʃɐp’ʊθ-a] hit-IMP
‘hit!’
(b) [ʃɐp’ʉθ-i-li] hit-NON.PAST-1.SG.NOM
‘I will hit him.’
(c) [ʃɐp’uθ-ɔː -ŋgɔ] hit-PAST-2.SG.ABS
‘He hit you.’
/a/ is the vowel displaying the most variation, easily influenced by its environment. Word-
initial /a/ can be reduced to [ə] if in a non-prominent syllable. Within a word, it may vary
between [a], [æ], [ɜ] and [ɐ], depending mostly on the vowel of a suffix or the surrounding
consonants (mostly nasals or liquids), and possibly on stress (see 4.0. Suprasegmentals and
Stress). However, long /aː/, as well as word final /a/, are constant in their (same)
pronunciations [a]. Distribution: Table 8 above illustrates that short vowels appear in all three word positions:
initially, medially, and finally.
Table 9: Short and Long Vowel Comparison
short vowel long vowel
i ile
‘ear’
i ː la
‘play’
e eʃo
‘ice, hail’
eːʃe
‘dough’
a hala
‘tongue’
haːla
‘hear’
o gora
‘sew, mend’
goːra
‘excel’
u fuɗa
‘dig’
fuːɗa
‘add’
Long vowels are contrastive with respect to short ones, but other than Anderson (1993a,
p.47), I have not found such a variety of long vowels word finally, only in a few morphemes
(Example 30) and morpheme combinations and assimilations (Example 31). Word final
length is difficult to discern. Both of these examples may also occur within a word, i.e.
between morphemes, and length becomes then obvious. (See also 4.2.1. Vowel ):
22
Example 30
-oː θiŋ-oː θiŋ-oː-li past tense suffix ‘he ate’ ‘I ate’
Example 31
da- + -i = daː daː-ge-i root:give non-past suffix = ‘he gives’ ‘he will give it to me’
4. Suprasegmentals
4.0. Suprasegmentals and Stress
There is no strong evidence for stress features in Berta. However, while testing vowel
qualities, it seemed that stress could be the cause for some vowel quality changes which I
could not account for otherwise (see also section 3.2. Vowels).
Example 32
ʃap’uθa ‘hit’
[ʃɐˈp’ʊθa] ~ [ʃuˈp’ʊθa] Another example is the word for ‘fast’:
Example 33
[manˈdaŋ] ~ [mɨnˈdaŋ] As can be seen, stress is not expressed through pitch differences, as the stressed syllables in
the examples have different tones. Still, this has not been investigated and is probably a field
with interesting discoveries yet to be made.
4.1. Tone
Berta is a tone language with two tones, high tone (H) and low tone (L). In a few instances
there is a falling tone, and even less often, a rising one. These contours can be explained as a
combination of high and low tone together on one tone bearing unit (TBU). While high tone
and low tone can appear in any environment, the falling tone is restricted to the last syllable,
and appears most often in Arabic loan words.
The tone differentiates lexical as well as grammatical meaning.
4.1.1. Lexical Function
Example 34
(a) daː ra ‘burn’(v)
daːra ‘remain’(v)
(b) iːs’u ‘bowl’(n)
i ːs’u ‘star’(n)
(c) guːla ‘flour’(n)
guːla ‘bark’(v)
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4.1.2. Grammatical Function
It may change the valence of a verb (examples (a)) or indicate semantic shift (examples(b)):
Example 35
(a) hurmiŋa ‘turn s.th. over’
hurmiŋa ‘turn over’ (e.g. ‘car turns over’)
(b) p’uːɗa alu ‘pour out’ (e.g. water)
p’uːɗa alu ‘soak, put in water’
Example 36
(a) daː ra alu ‘burn s.th.’
daː ra alu ‘burn’ (e.g. ‘grass burns’)
(b) p’uːɗa alu ‘pour out’ (e.g. water)
p’uːɗa alu ‘spill’ (ITR.)
In Example 36, the tone change is linked in its construction with case marking as the word alu is derived from a noun meaning ‘head’. It is used as a detached particle to derive verbs from
verbs, having lost its lexical meaning. But it still can take on the tonal case marking of the
noun. So alu is absolutive case, while alu is nominative case17 (denoting a post verbal
subject).
Tone can be used to mark the subject (case marking):
Example 37
(a) aː-ʃap’uθ-oː bele
1.SG.ABS-hit-PAST stone.ABS
‘I hit a stone.’
(b) aː-ʃup’uθ-oː bele
1.SG.ABS-hit-PAST stone.NOM
‘A stone hit me.’
Tone is used to mark tense in some verb classes:
Example 38
(a) daː -li-ŋgo-i give.DNT-1.SG.NOM-2.SG.ABS-it
‘I gave it (once) to you.’
(b) daː-li-ŋgo-i give.NON.PAST-1.SG.NOM-2.SG.ABS-it
‘I will give it to you.’
17 Case naming terms are taken from Andersen 1992, “Absolutive and Nominative in Berta”
24
4.1.3. Tone Patterns on Lexemes
Tone melody
Table 10: 1-Syllabic Nouns
tone pattern open syllable closed syllable tone melody
L hu ‘foot’
ʃor θaŋ ‘sky’. ‘cow’
L
H _____ θuf baŋ
‘rope’ ‘herding stick’
H
HL
(Falling Tone)
mû rô ‘fire’ ‘rain’
_____ HL
The basic tone melodies found on Berta 1-syllabic lexemes are made up of a combination of
H and L.
While L can be found in closed and open syllables in one-syllabic words, there seems to be a
complementary distribution between closed syllables with high tone and open syllables with
contour tones. Only in Arabic loan words can a contour tone be found in closed syllables (see
section Falling tone below).
Table 11: 2-Syllabic Nouns
tone pattern lexeme gloss tone melody
L.L mia ‘goat’ L
borid ‘lion’
ʃimbil ‘wealth’
H.H more ‘termite’ H
jamuθ ‘mosquito’
ɗi ːŋi ‘rope’ L.H
L.H θaba ‘hand’
ŋonʃo ‘honey’
abeŋ ‘porcupine’
H.L ʃiu ‘needle’ H.L
ʃuli ‘house’
buluŋ ‘horn’
L.HL uʔûŋ ‘meat’ L.HL
haθâŋ ‘we’
Table 12: 3-Syllabic Nouns
tone pattern lexeme gloss tone melody
L.L.L k’uria ‘snake’ L
amansi ‘bead’
H.H.H habiθaŋ ‘night’ H
p’i ːp’io ‘chicken’
L.L.H aberbed ‘spider’ L.H
gurgudu ‘pigeon’
amoːso ‘dry season’
25
L.H.H meʃergeŋ ‘guinea fowl’
k’udede ‘woodworm’
mogire ‘sand flea’
H.H.L k’ark’us’i ‘cockroach’ H.L
H.L.L agorθa18 ‘theft’
L.H.L ŋindigi ‘sleep’ L.H.L
halali ‘python’
hodia ‘stick’
H.L.H hododo ‘tortoise’ H.L.H
marhaha ‘algae’
mbagiʃu19 ‘nighttime’
Table 13: 4-Syllabic Nouns
tone pattern lexeme gloss tone melody
L.L.L.L aɗihiri ‘shorts’ L
abobone ‘caterpillar’
gedaŋgeraʃ ‘hippopotamus’
ziriŋziriŋ ‘dragonfly’
L.H.H.H hus’uŋguluŋ ‘ghost’ L.H
mas’ark’eɗi ‘bat’
L.H.L.H amududu ‘sister-in-law’ L.H
alufinʃo ‘chameleon’
H.L.H.L huruŋhuruŋ ‘night’ H.L
L.H.H.L aburbudu ‘butterfly’ L.H.L
aʃerbige ‘pullover’
aliliaŋ ‘hyena’
Four-syllabic lexemes may appear to be mono-morphemic, but they must have been
compounds at one point in time. Looking at their syllable structure as well as their tone
melodies, one can presume that they most often have originated by compounding (alufinʃo ‘chameleon’), reduplication (huruŋhuruŋ ‘night’, ziriŋziriŋ ‘dragonfly’) or other processes.
Also, there is no H melody on 4-syllabic words.
Falling tone
There are very few nouns ending in a HL-contour, most of which are loan words from Arabic.
While the few original Berta words with contour tone do not have more than two syllables,
the Arabic loans can have more syllables:
Berta words:
1-syl. HL rɔ ‘rain’ HL
mû ‘fire’
18 This is the only word found with this tone pattern. It has derived from agorθe 'thief' or/and agora 'steal'. In either case, it is
not a monomorphemic word.
19 The etymology of this word is not clear, so it is also not sure if this is a monomorphemic word or not.
26
2-syl L.HL uʔûŋ ‘meat’ L.HL
haθâŋ ‘we’
There are two more words where L.L and L.HL are in free variationː
marû ~ maru ‘cat’
sigî ~ sigi ‘moon’
Loan words
1-syl. HL sûk ‘market’
2-syl L.HL kajâm ‘trap’
3-syl L.L.HL maharûg ‘hip’
As can be seen, a word with a final contour tone is only preceded by low tones, regardless of
the number of syllables.
Morphemes with two syllables have falling tone on both open and closed syllables.
Interestingly, in both words with open final syllable marû ‘cat’ and sigî ‘moon’, the falling
tone is in free variation with a low tone, while uʔûŋ ‘meat’ and haθâŋ ‘we’ always have HL in
isolated form.
Any falling tone will change into high tone as soon as another morpheme is added to the
noun. Probably the L of the falling tone is either assimilated to the H tone by the rule of L-
raising (see Andersen 1993a p.71ff), if a morpheme with H is added (Example 39), or it
attaches to the L of the following morpheme (Example 40):
Example 39
aː-mad-i uʔuŋ-i 1.SG-see-NON.PAST meat-V.DER.
‘I see the meat.’
Example 40
ŋgo θin-oː uʔuŋ-a? 2.SG eat-PAST meat-Q.MARK
‘Have you eaten the meat?’
More on phonological tone rules can be found in Andersen 1993a.
4.2. Length
4.2.1. Vowel Length
Function of length in verb declinations
As mentioned in section 3.2. Vowels, vowels can be short or long, although true minimal
pairs like haːla ‘listen’ and hala ‘tongue’ are rather exceptional.
However, some long vowels are not lexical, but the result of morphological processes. For
example, verbs with a long vowel in their roots will always have a short vowel in the present
tense declination. Thus the minimal pair p’ali ‘he is ploughing’ and p’aːli ‘a hoe’ is actually
27
not a lexical one, because the short /a/ is an allomorph of the long /aː/ in the root of the verb
p’aːl- ‘plough’. p’aːli ‘a hoe’ is a noun derived from the verbal root.
Table 14
imperative past non-past gloss
p’aːl-a p’aːl-oː20 p’al-i ‘plough’
maːd-a maːd-oː mad-i ‘know’
li ːd-a li ː d-oː lid-i ‘close’
Function in noun phrases
Vowel length may mark the grammatical category of a stative verb. Some stative verbs like
p’iʃi ‘it is good’ or ʃuni ‘it is bad’ or k’as’i ‘it is bitter’ will have a short vowel in its
predicative non-past form, but a long vowel when used as a modifier in an noun phrase. This
will only happen when the stem of the verb also has a long vowel, as the three verbs
mentioned above have.
Example 41
(a) aːgu k’as’-i pumpkin be.bitter.3.SG-NON.PAST
‘The pumpkin is bitter.’
(b) aːgu k’aːs’i feʃ-e
pumpkin bitter be.broken-DNT
‘The bitter pumpkin (=gourd) is broken.’
Example 42
(a) gal ʃun-i dog be.vicious.3.SG-NON.PAST
‘The dog is vicious./A dog is vicious.’
(b) gal ʃuːni dirʃ-i dog.MOD vicious sleep.3.SG-NON.PAST
‘The vicious dog is sleeping.’
Length resulting from the combination of two vowels
As mentioned in 3.2. Vowels, long vowels can be the result of two morphemes combined
(coalescence). This can happen in compound nouns (Example 43 a) or in words with a suffix
starting with a vowel (44 b).
Example 43
(a) k’olo + are = k’olaːre
‘lower leg’ + ‘face’ = ‘shin’
20 According to Andersen (1993a), Berta neutralizes vowel length in pre-pausal positions. Thus, word-final length can only
be found out by lengthening the phonological word. In the case shown here, the verb is often extended by other suffixes,
so this length is well recognizable.
28
(b) ahap’u-ne + -aθa = ahap’unaː θa
friend-3SG.POSS + PL.POSSD = ‘her friends’
Often, coalescence happens word finally. Therefore, the following Example 44 should be
expected to have long vowels, but in spoken language a particularly long duration cannot be
measured.21
Example 44
-e (DAB suffix) ŋine + -e = *ŋineː 22
3.sg + DAB = ‘to him’
ŋgo + e(->o) = *ŋgoː 2.sg + DAB = ‘to you’
4.2.2. Consonant Length
Consonant length does occur in original Berta words, although not very often and not
contrastive. Only liquids are found long within one morpheme.
Example 45
k’ilːiŋ ‘all’
milːaŋ ‘many’
gulːu ‘all, whole’
k’orːo ‘raven’
Most other long consonants are either found in Arabic loan words (Example 46) or, as in
Example 47, are either a result of relaxed speech in different dialects or individuals ((a) and
(b)), or a result of consonant assimilation across morpheme boundaries ((c) to (e)).
Example 46
marːa ‘once’ wosːala ‘arrive’ ʃidːa ‘problem’
Example 47
(a) abulːu (Belej.) ‘navel’ from: abuldu (Mayu)
(b) amulːe ‘maize’ from: amuhule
(c) firːo ‘the water’ from: fir-lo (water-DEM)
(d) θilːi ‘I am eating’ from: θiŋ-li (eat-1.SG)
(e) agudinːe ‘he is my brother’ from: agudi maːne (my.brother-he is)
A few cases of consonant length at morpheme boundaries are responsible for differences in
meaning.
21 Also, these words are often at end of a phrase, so mostly pre-pausal, and length cannot really be established.
22 *means that the vowel length is phonetically not testified
29
Example 48
(a) agudine ‘his brother’
agudi-ne
brother.MOD-3.SG.POSS
(b) agudinːe ‘He is my brother’
agudi-n-ne
brother-be-3.SG
5. Miscellaneous Observations
5.1. Sonorant Hierarchy / Neutral Nasal in Morpheme Final Position
Assimilation of consonants happens mostly between /r/, /l/, /ŋ/ and other nasals.
/ŋ/ in morpheme final position acts like a neutral nasal that adapts its place of articulation to
the succeeding consonant. If a vowel follows, or other non-influential consonants, it does not
change. See the following paradigm of θiŋ- ‘eat’ in non-past tenseː
Table 15
θiŋ- ‘eat’ phonetic realization morphophonemic
representation
1.sg I eat [θilːi] θiŋ-li 2.sg you [θiŋːo] θiŋ-ŋo 3.sg he/she [θinːe] θiŋ-ne 1.pl we [θiŋːa] θiŋ-ŋa 2.pl you [θiŋha] θiŋ-ha 3.pl they [θimːere] θiŋ-mere
The assimilation happens always regressively in the above case.
In contrast to this, the phoneme /m/ does not adapt the same wayː
Table 16
θam- ‘put’
phonetic
realization
morphophonemic
representation
1.sg I put [θamli] θam-li 2.sg you [θaməŋo] θam-ŋo 3.sg he [θaməne] θam-ne 1.pl we [θaməŋa] θam-ŋa 2.pl you [θamha] θam-ha 3.pl they [θammere] θam-mere
/m/ does not assimilate, but a weak vowel is sometimes inserted to make pronunciation
easier.
All this reveals /ŋ/ to be a consonant with a low position in the hierarchy; it even adapts to
other nasals (see 3.sg and 3.pl).
30
Observing other assimilations, it can be seen that the next lowest consonant in the hierarchy is
/l/. Example 49
[anːoːba] al-noːba drums (from Arabic)
In regressive assimilation, /l/ adapts to the nasal /n/. In Example 50, the assimilation is
happening in the opposite direction, so that /l/ adapts to the preceding consonant.
Example 50
firi ‘water’
(a) fir-lo ‘the water’
[firːo] but: (b) fir-θi ‘that water over there’
[firθi] Therefore, in the hierarchy of consonants, the nasal /ŋ/ is the weakest: it even adapts to other
nasals. Then /l/ is the second weakest, which submits to /n/ and /r/ and other alveolar
consonants.
/ŋ/ > /l/ > /n/ > /r/ (and others)
5.2. Final /-i/ Deletion
The non-past suffix /-i/ (only with low tone), as well as in some nouns the ending [-i] (ʃuli ‘house’, firi ‘water’, gali ‘dog’) may be deleted in certain circumstances word-finally:
Non-past suffix /-i/: Example 51
(a) aː-mer-i ʃaj 1.SG-drink-NON.PAST tea
‘I am drinking tea.’
(b) aː-mer-ø ʃaj 1.SG-drink-NON.PAST tea
‘I am drinking tea.’
According to Andersen (1993a, p.46ff), only the /i/ after a sonorant may be omitted. This
explains why Example 52(b) is ungrammatical, as /d/ is not a sonorant:
Example 52
(a) aː-lid-i handuŋ
1.SG-close-NON.PAST door
‘I am closing the door.’
(b) *aː-lid-ø handuŋ
1.SG-drink-NON.PAST door
‘I am closing the door.’
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Noun-final /-i/: For nouns, the word-final /-i/ is deleted in genitive constructions like the following example
gali ‘dog’:
Example 53
(a) gal_ Saː ra
dog.MOD Sara.NOM
‘Sara’s dog’
and also if connected with demonstrative:
(b) gal-θi ‘that dog’
(c) gal-le ‘this dog’
The same is true for other nouns ending in L-tone /-i/: Example 54
(a) firi ’water’
fir-ro
water.MOD-DEM
‘this/the water’
(b) ʃuli ‘house’
ʃul_ Saː ra
house.MOD Sara.NOM
‘Sara’s house’
ʃul-le ‘this house’
house.MOD-DEM
Again, it is the /i/ after a sonorant that may be deleted, not an /i/ after an obstruent.
Example 55
gadi ‘child’
gadi Saː ra
child.MOD Sara.NOM
‘Sara’s child’
But with the circumfix θa -le ‘with (instrumental)’, the /i/ does not disappear:
Example 56
maːba ada-i θa gali-le θa k’aːk’ap’u man go-INTR. PREP dog-POSTP to the hunt.
‘A man went hunting with his dog.’
It seems that /i/-deletion on nouns cannot be explained only by its phonological environment.
One might conclude that these nouns in MOD case generally have no /i/, so the deletion
would just be part of the inflection. However, this would not account for the following
Example 57 (repetition of Example 42 above), where /i/ is deleted in the absolutive case:
32
Example 57
(a) gal ʃun-i. dog.ABS be.vicious.3.SG-NON.PAST
‘The dog is vicious./A dog is vicious.’
(b) gal ʃuːni dirʃ-i dog.MOD vicious sleep.3.SG-NON.PAST
‘The vicious dog is sleeping.’
The exact causes of the noun-final /i/-deletion in these examples can therefore not be
established, as it cannot be satisfactorily attributed to neither grammatical nor phonological
reasons. Within the domain of the word, it is a result of the grammatical relationship, rather
than phonologically caused.
If followed by a weak vowel (i.e. a vowel followed by two consonants, mainly found in words
starting with /a/) the /i/ will replace the other (weak) vowel (e.g. with abba ‘my father’) (see
also 2.4. Interpretation of Glottal Stop):
Example 58
(a) gali -bba
dog my.father’s
‘My father’s dog’
(b) firi -ŋsak’ala
water -rainy season.GEN
‘the water of rainy season’
(c) firi -ssam-o
water sky-GEN
‘The water from the sky’
Note that in Example 58 the noun-final /i/ is now the H carrier (H being the case marking),
while in the previous examples the H attached to the first stem vowel in the word, as the /i/ has been deleted.
5.3. Alternating Vowel Length (Compensatory Vowel Lengthening)
Example 59 shows words where the first vowel gets deleted, but where the next vowel is
lengthened instead. In some cases, this happens at morpheme boundaries (a); in other cases
the lengthened and not lengthened variations are in free variation. No factors can be
established that cause preference of one variation over the other ((b)-(d)).
Example 59
(a) θa + θaba θaː ba (*θaθaba) ‘with/at the hand / by hand’
PREP +hand
(b) afufur ~ fuːfur ‘rabbit’
(c) ahap’u ~ haːp’u ‘friend’
(d) aʃet’an ~ ʃeːt’an ‘devil’
33
Example (a) is different from the others. The preposition seems absorbed into the noun. The
length and high tone of the /a/ is evidence for the preposition’s presence. The consonant /θ/, however, is not lengthened.
6. Observations on Relaxed Speech
A few variations in speech have been observed that are basically due to the speaker and the
speed of speech.
(a) The circumfix ma__ale ‘while’ in combination with a personal pronoun, usually with ali ‘I’, is mostly found as [malale] (from: ma ali ale). Both pronunciations are correct and
accepted by speakers.
(b) The discourse participant reference for 3.sg /ne/ is often reduced to /ŋ/, /n/ or /m/, depending on the speaker; maybe some dialects prefer one variety over the other.
ne k’alne ~ ŋk’alne nasal with high tone
ne maːne ~ mmaːne Example 60
(a) ne k’al-ne ~ [ŋk’alne] PART.REF say-3.SG
‘...he said’
(b) amːa ne maː-ne ~ [amːa mːaːne] my.mother part.ref be.NON.PAST-3.SG
‘This is my mother.’
(c) The 2.sg. pronoun ŋgo sometimes is reduced to ŋgw-, if followed by a suffixed vowel, e.g.
Example 61
(a) aː-madiŋ-ŋgw-e
1.SG-show-2.SG.-DAB
‘I am showing (it) to you’.
(b) daː-li-ŋgw-e
give.NON.PAST-1.SG.NOM-2.SG-DAB
‘I give (it) to you.’
(c) ŋine ʃap’uθoː-ŋgw-a?
3.SG hit-2.SG-Q.PART
‘Did he hit you?’
The reduced forms are not obligatory but are produced at the discretion of the speaker.
7. Appendices
7.1. Orthography
In 2004, a conference was held in Asosa, the regional capital of the area where the Berta
people in Ethiopia live. There, three possible scripts for this language were discussed, Arabic,
Amharic and Latin. As both Arabic and Amharic are based on Semitic languages, where
34
vowels and length play a smaller part and tone not at all, Latin script was found to be the most
convenient for showing length and tone on vowels.
The symbols used for plosives and the alveolar fricative are the same as the voiced plosives
for languages that distinguish voice. This was chosen in order to help the new reader to
distinguish between the plosives/fricatives and their ejective counterparts, which are
symbolized with the voiceless sign plus he letter q.
7.1.1. Orthographic Symbols, Alphabetic Order
Table 17 (adapted from “Bertha-English-Amharic Dictionary”)
symbol examples phoneme
A, a abadqí, maré /a/ B, b ababa, buli /b/ D, d duudu, addáwa /d/ Dq, dq dquutha, fédqa /ɗ/ E, e esho, fédqa, mééra /e/ F, f fuudqa, mufa, thúf /f/ G, g gadi, gia, nagútha /g/ H, h hofi, ahátha, afutháh /h/ I, i bia, ir, ile, ííla /i/ J, j 23 jelabia, alkajam /ɟ/ K, k 24 kataba, alkajam /g/ Kq, kq 25 kqisqa, shukqa /k’/ L, l lúúba, ali /l/ M, m maaba, amma /m/ N, n nooba, abune /n/ Ñ, ñ ñine, ñonshó, abeñ /ŋ/ O, o ooqó, hódodó /o/ Pq, pq pqípqíó /p’/ see footnote on kq
q shiñíráqa, alqarabia /ʔ/ see also Table 18 R, r rô, fir, ñeera /r/ S, s wánasa, assána /s/ see footnote on k Sq, sq sqarí, kqosqí /s’/ Sh, sh shafa, kqosh /ʃ/ T, t attukqush, talata /d/ see footnote on k Tq, tq tqukqa, féétqa /t’/
23 This letter is an over-differentiation, as the phoneme is actually covered by the letter {g}. But the palatal allophone [ɟ] is
a phoneme in Arabic, and thus occurs in more environments than the allophone of Berta. So this letter is needed for
Arabic loan words.
24 This letter is an over-differentiation, as the phoneme is actually covered by the letter {g}. But because Arabic makes a
distinction between voiced and voiceless plosives, for a [k] in Arabic, the letter {k} is chosen.
25 There are words in Mayu Berta where /k’/ and /g/, or /b/ and /p'/ seem to be in free variation (see section 3.1.3.
Miscellaneous Notes on ), and the speakers themselves are not sure which one is correct. As Berta is still a newly written
language, both letter choices are considered to be correct, until the standard is fully developed.
35
Th, th thúf, ashatha /θ/ U, u uqûñ, marú /u/ W, w waqu, sqawarí /w/ Y, y yamuth, íyá /j/ Z, z zozo, almoz /s/
Table 18. In this second table, all additional characters of the Berta orthography are shown.
symbol name examples comment
aa double
vowel
maaba
aaqápquula
Two vowels are usually pronounced like one longer
vowel. In word-initial position or at morpheme boun-
daries, the two-vowel combination may have derived
from two morphemes and is pronounced more dis-
tinctly as two sounds, sometimes with a glottal stop in
between, especially if there are different tones on the
two vowels.
tt, rr double
consonant
fírro
agudinne
wólla
wóssala
Double consonants occur mostly at morpheme boun-
daries through assimilation (fír-lo, agudin-né), and ap-
pear in words of Arabic origin (wólla).
á, é m high tone thíña
mmaané
A character with acute accent signifies a high tone. No
tone marking signifies low tone.
â, î, ô falling tone uqûñ, Imâm A circumflex shows a falling tone
q syllable
boundary
marker,
pronounced
[ʔ]
uqûñ, ooqo
maadaqi
[ʔ] is not written word initially before vowels. It is
used to distinguish a sequence of two short vowels
from a long vowel, thus marking a syllable boundary.
While some suffixes are written with the glottal stop
if post verbally, they are written without it if the suffix
precedes the verb:
maadaqi ‘see’ but: imaada ‘seeing’
7.1.2. Orthographic Rules Across Morpheme Boundaries
Berta writing rules were created first in 2005 and revised in 2010, based on the experience of
several people, some of whom have been teaching the writing of Berta and gained experience
on which rules were helpful. Others have been working on the language on the linguistic level
or have good mother tongue intuition without further training.
On compounds of lexemes
(a) Lexical words are written separately.
(b) Compound nouns (made up of noun + noun, noun + verb or noun + adjective
combinations) are generally written separately as two words:
maaba + ágarraña = maabá ágarraña
‘man’ + ‘make.study’ = ‘teacher’
shúli + ñeera = shúli ñeera (spoken [ʃul ɲera])
‘house’ + ‘grass’ = ‘grasshouse’
36
gaagú + fiilí = gaagú fiilí
‘bamboo’ +‘root’ = ‘bamboo roots’
(c) When an entirely new meaning results from two compounded words, it will be written as
one word.
ndu + fudí = ndúfudí
‘mouth’ + ‘white’ = ‘tooth’
iyú + kqaasqí = iyúkqaasqí
‘belly’ + ‘be.bitter’ = ‘intestines’
(d) Genitive constructions are written as two separate words:
misqé + bush = misqá buushú
‘bird’ + ‘hair’ = ‘feather’
ir +niñé = irá niño
‘milk’ + ‘woman’ = ‘breast’
(e) In accordance with the previous rule, compounds involving gíñ ‘thing’ will be written
together, since often it results in a new meaning entirely. This applies even when the
compound is made out of a genitive construction:
gíñ + bush = gíñbuushú (spoken [ɟimbuːʃu]) ‘thing’ + ‘hair’ = ‘animal’
On lexemes and their affixes
(a) Modifiers and possessive pronouns are attached as affixes to the noun:
possessives: mia + -kqedqe = miákqedqe
goat + 3.SG.POSS = his/her goat
mia + -máre = miámáre
goat + 3.PL.POSS = their goat
mia + -qa = miáqa
goat + 2.SG.POSS = your goat
modifiers: shúli + -ñgúnuñ = shúlíñgúnung
house + other = other houses
shúli + -máñ = shúlímáñ
house + some = some house/ a house
(b) In a noun phrase construction involving the preposition thá ‘at’ and a word deriving from
a body part word (‘body part lexeme’), all components are written separately:
thá sqisqía alú
at tree head
‘on the tree’ (at the treetop)
(c) The suffix -yú is an exception to this rule. It is derived from the body part lexeme iyú
‘belly’, and means ‘inside’. Because it does not represent the full word iyú anymore, it is
considered an affix and thus written together with the noun.
37
thá sqisqíayú
at tree.belly
‘in the tree’
(d) Personal pronouns in their full lexical forms are always written separately.
(e) A shortened pronoun form derived from the full pronoun may be used instead of the full
pronoun. This shortened form is always attached to the verb. Also, any other pronoun form is
considered a suffix and attached to the verb.
Example 62
(a) ali adí thá súúgú.
I go at market.GEN
‘I am going to the market.’
(b) aashibilóó mia.
I-bought goat
‘I bought a goat.’
(f) The plural particle gú and the polite particle me are attached to the preceding word.
(g) Body part lexemes modifying a verb’s grammatical valence or lexical meaning are written
separately (except the above mentioned -yú).
Example 63
haala ndu ‘hear, listen’
hear mouth
aahaalóó misqé shoorú ndu.
I-heard chicken.MOD sky.GEN mouth
‘I heard the birds.’
On morphophonemic or phonemic spelling
(a) Words with reduplicated syllables, like in derived verbs, will maintain the letters of the
root, even though assimilation may occur in pronounciation:
bana ‘hide’ - banbaniña [bambaniŋa] ‘used to hide’.
Writing should not adapt the nasals to the succeeding letter: *bambaniña
(b) Similarly, but across morpheme or word borders: nasals often adapt to the succeeding
consonant in spoken language, but this will not be reflected in writing. Examples are the
question word náñ ‘what’, the noun gíñ ‘thing’ and the verb thiñ ‘eat’.
náñ: náñ kqalñó? [naŋk’alŋo] ‘What are you saying?’
náñ mufané? [namːufane] ‘What did he catch?’
náñ daané? [nandaːne] ‘What is he giving?’
náñ giiñó? [naɲɟiːŋo] ‘What are you doing?’
gíñ: gíñmáñ [ɟím:áŋ] ‘something’
gíñbuushú [ɟímbu:ʃu] ‘animal’ (lit.ːthing of hair)
38
thiñ-: thiñli [θilːi] ‘I am eating.’
thiññó [θiŋːo] ‘You are eating.’
thiñné [θinːe] ‘He is eating.’
Some specific cases
(a) The circumfix ma__álé ‘while’, although morphologically just a two-part affix, will be
written as two words surrounding the noun or pronoun, even if the pronoun is 3.sg ø.:
ma ali álé [malále] ‘while I’
ma ø álé [má:le] ‘while he’
ma hatháñ álé ‘while we’
(b) Conjunctions like sha áné ‘in order to’, thá áné ‘so that’ min mbá ‘after’ will be written as
two words, so their morphological origin is preserved.
Loan words and foreign words
The borderline between foreign words (still seen as words borrowed and belonging to
different languages) and loan words (of foreign origin, but integrated into the language, also
following the native language’s rules) is not clear cut, as it is an ongoing process.
In Berta orthography, many foreign words show a few different letters, which are exclusively
used for them. This applies mainly to plosives and fricatives. While Berta does not
distinguish between voiced and voiceless sounds, Arabic and many other languages do. So it
is not convenient, for example, to use the Berta letter /d/ for a voiceless dental plosive in a
word borrowed from Arabic. Thus, the letter /t/ is added to the alphabet. Similar to this, there
are the letters /s/, /p/ and /k/. The sound of the letter /j/ [ɟ] is not found in Berta by itself, but
only as an allophone of /g/ in front of non-back vowels. So, in words like alkajâm ‘a trap’ this
letter needs to be used to ensure the right pronunciation.
Another problem with loan words, mainly from Arabic and Amharic, is the tone. Originally,
these words do not have a tone pattern. So, the more integrated into the language, the more
likely it is that these words will be given a specific tone pattern and behave according to all
other grammatical Berta rules. Thus the decision was made to have tone marking written on
Arabic loan words, as they are very likely to behave like Berta words in that respect. This
decision is disputable. Many speakers might not know the origin of a specific word, rather
assuming it is one of Berta origin. So the question is, how much the original language
pronunciation should be shown in writing, especially if neither rendering would make a
difference in meaning.
The final decision lies with the people, and in order to make the transition from Berta mother
tongue to Arabic easier, the decision was made to keep the consonant spelling somewhat
close to the Arabic, so that voiced and voiceless sound symbols will be equivalent in both
languages. Writing Arabic loan words with tone is not a problem for readers; on the other
hand, tone is necessary to show possible case changes.
39
Tone written in whole sentences
While grammatical tone is important to write, it is disputable whether all processes should be
written in a text to make it easier for the reader. If instead of all changing surface tones, only
lexical tone is written, the meaning of a text unit will probably be conveyed much more
easily.
Glottal stop in the orthography
The glottal stop is not written word initially, as it is naturally assumed to appear in a vowel
onset. Within a word, however, it is written even if it can be deducted by rule.
Example 64
badqi añ ‘be hot’ añbabádq ‘heat’ alqíd ‘holiday’
Aamadí miaqi. ‘I see the goat.’ imaada ‘seeing’ miáqa ‘your goat’
7.1.3. Text Example
Munzú máré bubani ‘The Sun and the Wind’
1. Múnzúmáñ, munzú huluo aregú máré bubaní, mbá adoqí mín tha alshimal.
‘One day, the sun and the cold wind from the east were meeting.’
2. Mín mbálo baró, máré na kqashu tha ndá bádqiqí mbá gor ahapqúné.
‘While they were meeting, they argued who of them would be stronger than the other.’
3. Ma álé zííqígú thá rotha alú, á mámanañ baró né ádó mbá húrmiñi tha shál.
‘While they were arguing, someone came walking by wrapped up in a cloak.’
4. Máré baró dafagu tha mbálo alú sha maabá shúthí maabálé orthi ñinéñ gorí.
‘They agreed that the one who would take that man’s cloak off would be the stronger.’
5. Bubani baró ádóqí tha shíddá kqedqele mbá gídíné.
‘The wind, then, came with all the force that he had.’
6. Lakin gádur mbá gii búbaní mílláñ, gádur mbá shíñ fíá máába orá kqedqeyú.
‘But the more wind there was, the more the man held on to his cloth.’
7. Munzú shíñ baró ádoqí thá gurúéqí, shambá badqané maaba baró badqaga áñ.
‘The sun, then, came into the game, he was shining, and the man became warm.’
8. Shambá gudá máába baalá shúgo maaba adaqí ma rákqas iñ oriyú.
‘After the man stayed a while, the man became melting hot in his clothes.’
9. Ñine mathí gúdé baalá shúgo, áné baró shuthá or alú.
‘He waited again a while, then he took of his cloak.’
10. Bubani baró ámánáqí gorá múnzuyú.
‘Then the wind admitted that the sun was the stronger.’
40
7.2. Abbreviations
ABS absolutive case
C consonant
CAUS causative clitic
DAB dative / allative / benefactive case
DISC.PART discourse particle, continuing the flow of a story
DEM demonstrative
DNT default narrative tense, with an imperfective aspect,
is used as the default tense in telling a story.
FUT future tense
GEN genitive case
H high tone
HL falling tone
IMP imperative
INTR Intransitive marker
L low tone
MOD modified case, used in nouns that are head of a noun phrase
(for example modified by an adjective, a genitive noun or relative clause)
Andersen (1992, 1993a) calls this case AG (anti genitive).
N noun
NOM nominative case
NOMIN. VERB nominalized verb, i.e. a verb that is not inflected for person or tense and
can take the function of a noun in a phrase; could be infinitive or gerund.
NON.PAST non-past tense
PART.REF participant reference in discourse
PRTV partitive, part of the whole
PAST past tense
PL plural
POSS possessive
POSSD possessed
POSTP postposition
PREP preposition
PRO pronoun
Q question word
Q.PART question particle
REL.PRO relative pronoun
SG. singular
tr. transitive
V vowel
V.DER verb derivation suffix
1.SG 1st person singular
2.PL 2nd person plural
41
7.3. Numbered Wordlist with Orthographic and Phonological Transcription and
Glosses
Table 19
gloss orthographic phonemic
1 all kqíllíñ k’ilːiŋ 2 and u u 3 animal gíñbuushú gimbuːʃu 4 ashes bubuda bubuda 5 at thá θa 6 back gundi gundi 7 bad shúní ʃuni 8 bark faashu faːʃu 9 because ashan aʃan 10 belly iyú iju 11 big dqáñi ɗaŋi 12 bird misqé shoorú mis’e ʃoːru 13 bite (v.) pqiidqa p’iːɗa 14 black milí mili 15 blood kqáfa k’afa 16 blow (by mouth) fulá fula 17 bone kqaara k’aːra 18 breathe shóóra ʃoːra 19a burn, shine dúúda duːda 19b burn (force) dáára -qi daː ra -i 20 child gadi gadi 21 cloud agúúru aguːru 22 cold dqashí ɗaʃi 23a come (sg) adô adô 23b come (pl) zaô saô 23c come (fut.) pqeriñí p’eriŋi 24 count (numbers) ídda (Arabic) idːa 25 cut off kqithá k’iθa 26 day (not night) munzúyú munsuju 27 die músha muʃa 28a dig (animal) pqeera p’eːra 28b dig (person) fúdqa fuɗa 28c dig (with hand) uutha uːθa 29 dirty didqí diɗi 30 dog gali gali 31 drink mééra meː ra 32 dry up (intr.) dqethá ɗeθa 33 dull (knife) sharí ndu ʃari ndu 34 dust ambudúr ambudur 35 ear ile ile
42
gloss orthographic phonemic
36 earth (soil) sqakqa s’ak’a 37a to eat (general) thiña θiŋa 38 egg húúhúlú huːhulu 39 eye are are 40 fall (drop) sqikqá s’ik’a 41 far squriñi añ s’uriŋi aŋ 42 fat (person) márshí marʃi 43a father abbá abːa 43b your father abúñó abuŋo 44 fear hibá hiba 45 feather misqé bush mis’e buʃ 46 few baalá shúgo baːla ʃugo 47 fight bashú baʃu 48 fire mû mû 49 fish yaguth yaguθ 50 five hámsa hamsa 51 flea bísqoñ bis’oŋ 52 flour guula guːla 53 flower amudqa amuɗa 54 fly (v.) badá bada 55 fly (n.) horóñ horoŋ 56 foot hu hu 57 four arba arba 58 fox anthamañ anθamaŋ 59 fruit are are 60 to give daa daː 61 good pqishí p’iʃi 62 grass ñeera ŋera 63 green galazí galasi 64 guts iyúkqaasqí iyuk’aːs’i 65 hair bush buʃ 66 hand thaba θaba 67 he ñine ŋine 68 head alú alu 69 hear, obey haala ndu haːla ndu 70 heart bishi biʃi 71 heavy ñésqí ŋes’i 72 here thálé θale 73 hit shapqútha ʃap’uθa 74 hold (in hand) damá dama 75 how shaíné ʃaine 76 hunt (game) kqapqá k’ap’a 77 husband idé ide 78 I ali ali
43
gloss orthographic phonemic
79 ice esho eʃo 80 if ma ma 81 in -yú -yu 82 to kill fia fia 83 know (facts) maada maːda 84 lake gaama gaːma 85 laugh kqééda k’eː da 86 leaf duudu ile duːdu ile 87 left (hand) gambí gambi 88 leg hu hu 89 lie (on side) tháma alú thíri θama alu θiri 90 live gúda guda 91 liver nekqéth nek’eθ 92 long squriñí s’uriŋi 93 louse dqííñí ɗi ːŋi 94 man (male) maaba idelé maːba idele 95 many míllañ milːaŋ 96 meat (flesh) uqûñ uʔûŋ 97 moon zigi sigi 98a mother ammá amːa 98b your mother didíñó didiŋo 99 mountain asola asola 100 mouth ndu ndu 101 name hu hu 102 narrow kqosqiyú k’os’iyu 103 near ithiga iθiga 104 neck doño doŋo 105 new tqokqoló t’ok’olo 106 night habítháñ habiθaŋ 107 nose amúñ amuŋ 108 not walá wala 109 old, worn (thing) adurgáñ adurgaŋ 110 one dqukqúnúñ ɗuk’unuŋ 111 other -ñgúnuñ -ŋgunuŋ 112 person maaba maːba 113 play ííla i ː la 114 pull gúúra guːra 115 push dqelá ɗela 116 rain (v.) bidí bidi 117 red beñení beŋeni 118 right (correct) pqishí p’iʃi 119 right (hand) pqishí p’iʃi 120 river buli buli 121 road thoñor θoŋor
44
gloss orthographic phonemic
122 root fiili fiːli 123 rope diiñí diːŋi 124 rotten (log) squí s’ui 125 rub (massage) himá hima 126 salt kqorí k’ori 127 sand shéékqe ʃeː k’e 128 say kqala k’ala 129 scratch (itch) kqoñkqoña k’oŋk’oŋa 130 sea (wide river) déélí deː li 131 see maada -qi maːda -i 132 seed arisqa aris’a 133 sew gorá gora 134 sharp (knife) pqílí ndu p’ili ndu 135 short dqúgurí ɗuguri 136 sing háára haː ra 137 sit dqoñósha ɗoŋoʃa 138 skin (person) shafa ʃafa 139 sky shor ʃor 140 sleep dírsha dirʃa 141 small (young) kqosqí k’os’i 142 smell (tr.) áñona aŋona 143 smoke dquutha ɗuːθa 144 smooth rigisqí rigis’i 145 snake kquria k’uria 146 snore bambariña bambariŋa 147 some -máñ -maŋ 148 spit busqá alú bus’a alu 149 split sqééra s’eː ra 150 squeeze pqaratha p’araθa 151 stab (or stick) shúúkqa ʃuːk’a 152 stand shúriña ʃuriŋa 153 star íísqu i ːs’u 154 stick (of wood) basqaro bas’aro 155 stone bele bele 156 straight namúqí namu?i 157 suck squnthiña s’unθiŋa 158 sun munzú munsu 159 swell horboba horboba 160 swim abua abua 161 tail abaro abaro 162 that (pronoun) mbálo mbalo 163 there thaño θaŋo 164 they maré mare 165 thick (soup) guruthí guruθi
45
gloss orthographic phonemic
166 thin shúdqí ʃuɗi 167 to think zañzaña saŋsaŋa 168 this mbálé mbale 169 thou/you ñgó ŋgo 170a three (Mayu) taláta (Arab.) talata (Arab.) 170b three (other dialects) mohothe mohoθe 171 throw dqaakqa ɗaːk’a 172 tie dqoosha ɗoːʃa 173 tongue hala hala 174 tooth (front) ndúfudí ndufudi 175 tree sqisqía s’is’ia 176 turn áshimbiriña aʃimbiriŋa 177 two holoñoní holoŋoni 178 vomit guugúña guːguŋa 179 walk adá ada 180 warm (weather) badqí baɗi 181 wash gísqa gis’a 182 water firi firi 183 we hathâñ haθâŋ 184 wet pqúsqí p’us’i 185 what náñ naŋ 186 when awúné awune 187 where wááné waː ne 188 white fudí fudi 189 who nda nda 190 wide dqáñíyú ɗaŋiyu 191 wife niñé niŋe 192 wind (breeze) bubani bubani 193 win goora -yú goːra -yu 194 wipe sqúa alú s’ua alu 195 with (accompanying) thá -le θa -le 196 woman niñé niŋe 197 woods sqisqía s’is’ia 198 worm amudqu amuɗu 199a year (Mayu) sána (Arabic) sana (Arabic) 199b year (other dialects) róóndu roːndu 200 yellow ma gaashá ma gaːʃa
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