Berom language

Berom or Birom (Cèn 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
Birom
Cèn Bèrom
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Plateau State
Ethnicity	Berom people
Native speakers	1 million (2010)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Plateau Beromic Berom
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bom
Glottolog	bero1242

Berom[2]
Person	Wòrom
People	Berom
Language	Cèn Bèrom

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

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

The Berom dialect clusters are:^[3]

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

Phonology

Consonants

Eastern Berom consists of twenty-four consonant phonemes:^[6]

Consonants

		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

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.^[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

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