Berom language

Berom or Birom () 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. The small Cen and Nincut dialects may be separate languages. Approximately 1 million (2010) people speak in this language.

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. The Berom population distribution culminates at the edge of the Jos plateau in Sopp chiefdom of Riyom Local Government Area.

 History 
The Berom have a link to the Nok culture, a civilization that existed between 200 BCE to 1,000 CE. Generally, the Berom speakers are identified to live in the core Jos Plateau and down the low plains of Kaduna State.

 Dialects 
The Berom dialect clusters are:

Gyel–Kuru–Vwang
Du–Foron
Fan–Ropp–Rim–Riyom–Heikpang
Bachit
Gashish
Rahoss-Tahoss

 Phonology 
 Consonants 
Eastern Berom consists of twenty-four consonant phonemes:
+ConsonantsLabialAlveolarPalatalVelarLabio-velarGlottalPlosive voicelessvoicedAffricate voiceless()voicedFricative voicelessvoicedNasalRhoticApproximant

  occurs in the Foron dialect.
  ,  are bilabial, while  and  are labiodental.
 , , and  are palato-alveolar, while  and  are palatal.

In Berom, approximants are found in the last position, for example, orthographic  is  and  is .

 Vowels 
This language consists of seven vowel phonemes:
+VowelsFrontCentralBackCloseClose-midOpen-midOpen

Berom consists of three type of tones and four glide tones. The glide tones are treated here as rising and falling tones. The tones are as follows:
    high tone
    mid tone
    low tone
    falling tone
    rising tone

 Orthography 
Berom orthography:

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 

References


External links
Roger Blench: Berom page

Category:Beromic languages
Category:Languages of Nigeria
Category:Berom people