Berom language

Berom
Birom
Lêm Bèrom
Native toNigeria
RegionPlateau State
EthnicityBerom people
Native speakers
1 million (2010)
Language codes
ISO 639-3bom
Glottologbero1242
Berom
PersonWòrom
PeopleBerom
LanguageCèn 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 for the purpose of informal conversations with other Plateau tribes and commerce are shifting to the regional 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 Area to the south of Jos city (Bukuru) to Barkin Ladi and Riyom in Plateau State, Nigeria. The Berom population distribution culminates in Foron, Barkin Ladi, Fan also in Barkin Ladi and at the edge of the Jos plateau in Sopp chiefdom of Riyom Local Government Area. Although native to the Jos Plateau, there are pockets of migrant settlers in Fadan Karshe town of Kaduna State that trace their origins to Za'ang District.

History

The Berom have a link to the Nok culture, a civilization that existed between 200 BCE to 1000 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 dialectical differences are as follows:

Phonology

Consonants

Eastern Berom consists of twenty-four consonant phonemes:

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-
velar		 Glottal
Plosivevoiceless p t k kp
voiced b d g gb
Affricatevoiceless (ts) tʃ
voiced dʒ
Fricativevoiceless f s ʃ h
voiced v z
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Rhotic r
Approximant l j w

In Berom, approximants are found in the last position, for example, orthographic rou is /ròw/ and vei is /vèj/.

Vowels

This language consists of seven vowel phonemes:

Vowels
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. The glide tones are treated here as rising and falling tones. The tones are as follows:

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

  1. 1 2 3 Berom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  3. 1 2 3 Blench, Roger (2021). "Introduction to Berom: Reading and Writing Guide". Draft.[self-published source]
  4. ↑ Mbamalu, Socrates (16 February 2017). "The Berom people of Nigeria". This is Africa. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  5. 1 2 Bouquiaux 1970.
  6. ↑ Blench, Roger M. (2006). "Plural Verb Morphology in Eastern Berom" (PDF). rogerblench.info. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 June 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2024.[self-published source]

References