INTRODUCTION TO BEROM:

READING AND WRITING GUIDE

[DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT]

Roger Blench BLTB

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Berom Language and Translation Board
University of Cambridge
Department of History, University of Jos
Kay Williamson Educational Foundation
8, Guest Road
Cambridge CB1 2AL
United Kingdom
Voice/ Ans (00-44)-(0)1223-560687
Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7847-495590
E-mail rogerblench@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm

Jos, 13 May 2021

Preface
This document has been prepared in 2021 as part of the drive to return the languages of Plateau State to the
educational system. Berom orthographies date back to the 1950s and the publications of NORLA. They were
revived as part of the Bible translation project in the 1970s and primers and other teaching material was
prepared. However, this fell into abeyance and Berom is not currently taught as a written language in
schools. This Guide is part of the process of remedying this state of affairs. Thanks to Mr. Bot Fang for his
input on this version of the document.

Roger Blench
Jos, May 2021

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface............................................................................................................................................................... i
TABLES ........................................................................................................................................................... ii
1. The Berom people and their language....................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Location, Origin and Classification ........................................................................................................ 3
1.2 Dialects.................................................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Classification........................................................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Review of scholarly literature ................................................................................................................. 3
1.5 History of attempts to write Berom......................................................................................................... 4
1.6 Present state of the language ................................................................................................................... 4
1.7 Ethnographic literature............................................................................................................................ 4
2. The phonology of Berom and its orthography.......................................................................................... 5
2.1 Consonants .............................................................................................................................................. 5
2.2 Vowels..................................................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Tones ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
3. Berom orthography: letters of the Berom alphabet................................................................................. 7
4. Berom morphology...................................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 Nouns ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Prefix alternations ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Tone plurals............................................................................................................................................... 9
Labialisation.............................................................................................................................................. 9
Consonant alternation.............................................................................................................................. 10
Suppletives .............................................................................................................................................. 10
4.2 Verbs ..................................................................................................................................................... 11
4.2.1 Verb syntax .................................................................................................................................... 11
4.2.2 Plural or iterative verbs .................................................................................................................. 11
4.3 Pronouns................................................................................................................................................ 12
4.4 Adjectives.............................................................................................................................................. 13
4.4.1 Adjectival concord ......................................................................................................................... 13
4.4.2 Position of the adjective ................................................................................................................. 15
4.5 Numerals ............................................................................................................................................... 15
5. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................ 18
References ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

TABLES

Table 1. Berom dialect clusters ......................................................................................................................... 3

Table 2. Examples of long/short contrast in Berom vowels.............................................................................. 6
Table 3. Examples of five contrastive tones in Berom...................................................................................... 7
Table 4. Berom tone plurals ........................................................................................................................... 7
Table 5. Nominal prefix additions in Eastern Berom........................................................................................ 8
Table 6. Nominal prefix alternations in Eastern Berom.................................................................................... 8
Table 7. ke-/ne- alternation .............................................................................................................................. 9
Table 8. Stem-tone changes marking plural in Berom ................................................................................ 9
Table 9. Delabialisation of nominal plurals in Berom ................................................................................. 9
Table 10. Consonant alternation fw/t .......................................................................................................... 10
Table 11. Consonant alternation b(w)-/p- ................................................................................................... 10
Table 12. Processes in Berom plural verb morphology .................................................................................. 11
Table 13. Berom subject pronouns.................................................................................................................. 12
Table 14. Berom object pronouns ................................................................................................................... 12
Table 15. Allomorphs of the third person singular pronoun ........................................................................... 13
Table 16. Adjectives showing prosodic concord in Berom............................................................................. 14
Table 17. Berom noun prefixes ....................................................................................................................... 14
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1. The Berom people and their language

1.1 Location, Origin and Classification

The Berom people live primarily in the region south and east of Jos, in Jos and Barkin Ladi Local
Governments in Plateau State, and in Jema’a LGA, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Population estimates include
54,500 (Gunn 1956), 200,000 (1985 SIL) and around 500,000 today. One of their centres is Foron, which is
where the first missionaries settled and which was chosen as a the dialect used in religious literature.
However, their most important population centre is Vom (Vwang), the Central dialect, which has most
speakers.

The Berom were known through the colonial era as the Birom, or Bi Rom. However, their correct name is;

Language Cèn Bèrom

People Wòrom pl. Berom

1.2 Dialects
The Berom language is divided into a number of dialect clusters (Table 1). This division is not the same as
previous published lists of dialects. These are shown on Map 1, using the names in the table.

Table 1. Berom dialect clusters

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

The Bachit dialect is considered to be mixed with Ganang, an Izeric languge, and thus difficult to understand
for other Berom. The Nincut people live northeast of Fadan Karshe and are separate from the main Berom
area. Although clearly a Berom dialect, Nincut has developed significantly away from the main Berom lects
and must now be regarded as a separate language.

There has been no systematic survey of Berom dialects. The Foron dialect is the language of literary
development. The choice of Foron for language development was entirely chance; it was the region first
settled by missionaries. The studies of Luc Bouquiaux (1967, 1990) focus on the Du dialect. The work of
Bouquiaux is in French and has thus made little impact in Nigeria, although it constituted a major scholarly
achievement for its period.
1.3 Classification
Berom is a Benue-Congo language, part of the large Plateau branch (Gerhardt 1989). Berom is the major
language in a subgroup called Beromic, which includes Cara, Iten and some languages of Bauchi State,
Shall-Zwall. None of its relatives are very close to Berom and all have undergone highly idiosyncratic
developments. Nonetheless, linguistic analysis can easily demonstrate their connections.
1.4 Review of scholarly literature
The earliest publication on the Berom language is Bristow (1953) and research from this era is summarised
in Wolff (1963). A major project to describe the Berom language is Bouquiaux (1967a,b; 1970; 1971; 2001).
This remains of great value, but as it was published in French has not been much read in Nigeria. A
dictionary has been in progress for some years (Blench et al. forthcoming).

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Map 1. Berom dialects

Source: Roger Blench (2021)

1.5 History of attempts to write Berom

Scripture portions in Berom were published as early as 1916, although there is no associated document
explaining the writing system. The first published linguistic material in Berom is Bristow (1953) who
recorded a number of Berom texts. This was related to the Berom orthography published in NORLA (1953).
This orthography became moribund and was revived as part of the Bible translation programme, initiated in
the early 1970s. Associated with this were a number of primers, and a book of Folk Stories (1975). An
official orthography was released in the NERDC series (Kuhn & Dusu 1985). A hymnbook and New
Testament were published in 1984, and the complete Bible in 2009. A wallchart of the Berom alphabet was
published by the Berom Literacy and Translation Board (BLTB) in 1999 and a new version in 2019. Despite
this activity, an authoritative Reading and Writing Guide has not been published, although the orthography
has undergone some changes since the 1980s.
1.6 Present state of the language
Berom is still widely spoken and is being transmitted to children. The use of the Hausa language as a
language of wider communication is common but shows no sign of displacing Berom as a home language. A
printed newsletter, Berom Neha was in circulation for a while in the 2000s, but this has ceased. However,
Berom as a written language is currently in decline. Berom was being transmitted on both radio and
television in Plateau State for a while but this seems to have come to a halt. Berom is used in social media
and texting but the extent of this is unknown.
1.7 Ethnographic literature
The Berom people have been the subject of ethnographic descriptions going back to the 1940s. The most
important description is the still unpublished Davies (1942-49, 1946), a write-up on Berom particularly

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concerned with agriculture, but covering many other topics. Ames (1934) and Gunn (1953) cover the Berom
in their surveys of Plateau peoples, although they are based on archival sources. Baker (1954) is an
anthropological study of social organisation which has remained unpublished. Bouquiaux (1962) is a study
of Berom musical instruments; many of the instruments he collected are in the stores of the Tervuren
MRAC. Pam (1965) is a study of Berom land tenure which follows on from Davies. Sassoon (1962, 1964)
are short studies of blacksmithing and burial rites. The research for Smedley (1967, 1980) was conducted in
the 1970s, although it was only later published and under a highly misleading, if fashionable title. Freund
(1981) is a Marxist-oriented study of the tin mines which provides incidental information about the role of
the Berom. Gwom (1992) is a synthesis of existing sources containing little new information and should not
be treated as reliable. The two volumes edited by Jacobs (1995, 1997) are now hard to find but contain much
valuable ethnographic information. CAPRO (2004) included a description of Berom culture and missionary
activity. Unfortunately, because it was omitted from the printed volume, it was published separately as a
pamphlet and many copies have this chapter missing.

Historical material on the Berom can be found in sources emanating from the history department at the
University of Jos. The two volumes of JOHLT (1981a,b) contain unedited materials, and Morrison (1976)
and some papers in Isichei (1982) also refer to historical traditions.

2. The phonology of Berom and its orthography

2.1 Consonants
Berom has twenty-five consonant phonemes:

Labial Labio- Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar Labio- Glottal

dental Alveolar velar
Plosives vls p b t d k g kp gb
Fricatives f v s z ʃ ʒ h
Affricates ʧ ʤ
Nasals m n ɲ ŋ
Laterals l
Trill r
Approximant y w

In some words, /p/ and /b/ are in free variation, especially where the initial consonant is the plural marking
preface be- and in final position in a CVCVC word.

In initial position /p/ and /f/ can be in free variation. Thus;

pwalàl~fwalàl sheath of a knife

In C2 position /r/ and /d/ can be in free variation. Thus;

ràwal pl. beràwal plague locust but Central dialect: dàwal

In final position /s/ and /f/ can be in free variation in ideophones. Thus;

pɔ́s, pɔ́f describes a bald head

Similarly, /s/ and /ʃ/ can be in free variation in final position.

Nasals in initial position are usually homorganic and thus not tone-nearing. However, many ne- prefixes are
becoming shortened to n-, thereby forming initial syllabic nasals. These in turn become homorganic with the

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following consonant, /ŋ/ before a velar and /m/ before a bilabial. This assimilatory process is not yet
complete, however, and ne- prefixes still exist as allomorphs of their homorganic counterparts. Thus;

m̀ mwììshìsh mercy, pity also nemwììshìsh

As a consequence of this ongoing process, some prefixes do not follow the homorganic rule;

ǹbùl poisonous mushroom

Velar nasal homorganic prefixes are non-tonebearing.

ŋgàng gum, glue

ŋgwɔ́ mother

2.2 Vowels
There are seven vowel phonemes:

Front Central Back

Close i u
Close-Mid e o
Open-Mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Vowels can be either long or short, but in a double vowel, each can bear a separate toneme. Table 2 shows
examples of words illustrating long/short contrast;

Table 2. Examples of long/short contrast in Berom vowels

V Berom Gloss Berom Gloss
a rá to do, to touch raa to follow
e kère that one kèère that distant, far one
ɛ bɛ̀ question marker bɛɛ̀̀ to look at
i dirì to kick diiri in long lines
o bóró stabbing, piercing bóóró not thick, easily perforated
ɔ fɔ̀ tree sp., Syzygium guineense fɔɔ
̀ ̀ heat
u ku mountain kúú to put all your effort into

2.3 Tones
Berom has three level tones and a rising and falling tone. Tones are marked as follows:

/´/ for a high tone

mid tone is shown by an absence of a tone mark1
/`/ for a low tone
/ˆ/ for a falling tone

1
In some earlier versions of Berom orthography, mid-tone was marked with a macron or line over the vowel. This has
been discarded as unnecessary.
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/ˇ/ for the rising tone.

Table 3 shows examples of the five contrastive tones on a single vowel, /a/;

Table 3. Examples of five contrastive tones in Berom

Berom Gloss
á it is
ā he, she, it
â is it?
ǎ particle preceding verb marking s.t. that has just happened
à of, for

These tone-marks are explained in several editions of Berom Neha, the Berom-language newsletter. They are
used in the printed Bible translation to make crucial lexical distinctions. However, no document exists to
explain why it was decided to write particular items with tone-marks and doing this accurately is now a lost
skill.

3. Berom orthography: letters of the Berom alphabet

The letters are presented in alphabetical order, using the same order as the Alphabet Chart Gwong jɛk ha
Berom, which was printed in 1991 by the Berom Language Board and the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust.
The order is as follows:

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

These correspond to the IPA symbols used in the phonology via the following conventions;

Berom IPA
c ʧ
j ʤ
ng ŋ
ny ɲ
sh ʃ
zh ʒ

The most problematic aspect of Berom orthography remains tone. Many plurals are marked only by tone.
Examples are given in Table 4;

Table 4. Berom tone plurals

Singular Plural Gloss
cùngùn cungùn buffalo; bush-cow
gul gùl wind, cold, coldness, coolness
jàrùm jarùm patas monkey
jòro joro incisor tooth of dog or cat
lyàng lyáng scorpion
pìm pim brown house snake
pyɛ̀ pyɛ́ thing
rìp rip partridge
shɛ̀ shɛ bamboo

The orthography formerly marked plurals with the diacritic ˊ preceding the word and no other tone marks.
This seems to have been dropped in favour of unnatural circumlocutions, such as ‘plenty of’. This solution is
very unsatisfactory. The text of the 2009 Bible has many tone-marks but no document exists explaining the
reason for marking them.

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4. Berom morphology

4.1 Nouns
Noun plurals in Berom are extremely complex and not usually predictable from the singular. They are
extremely various and since some occur only once in the data it is uncertain whether they have been
adequately captured. The most common underlying number marking strategies are;

a) prefix addition or alternation

b) tone-raising
c) (de)labialisation
d) consonant alternation
e) replicating verbal plurals

In some cases, two strategies can be applied within the same pluralisation process, suggesting the dynamics
of renewal. Berom also has a small number of suppletive plurals.

Tone plurals are exemplified in Table 4. However, most nouns form plurals by adding a prefix or modifying
the first consonant. Many noun plurals can combine various strategies, thus prefix plus tonal change. Table 5
shows the nominal prefix additions in Eastern Berom ordered alphabetically, with notes on their relative
incidence.

Table 5. Nominal prefix additions in Eastern Berom

sg. pl. Incidence
ø- be-/pe- common
ø- ba- occasional
ø- ga- very rare
ø- ne-/n-/ŋ-/m- common
ø- re- very rare
ø- ra- reconstructed
ø- se- rare

Prefix alternations
Table 6 shows nominal prefix alternations;

Table 6. Nominal prefix alternations in Eastern Berom

sg. pl. Incidence
kè- ne- common
nè/n- be- very rare
re- ba- common
wò- be- occasional

Not all speakers agree on the correct plural and the dictionary records considerable variation for some
words.

kè- is a diminutive prefix that can be applied to almost all concrete nouns. The following examples could
therefore equally well be analysed as ne- prefix addition but are given as examples of alternation, since ne-
seems to occur preferentially with ke- in contrast to other prefixes (Table 7).

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Table 7. ke-/ne- alternation
Gloss sg. pl. Also
small child, baby kèkwèy neney
any small bird kènòn nenòn
small black ant kèswèy nèswey
small stone ketà neta beta
little star kètàŋácɛn netaŋacɛn

Tone plurals
Table 8 illustrates further plurals marked only by tone. Nonetheless, many of the stems do not show
evidence of prefix-loss and the plurals may simply have been formed by analogy. It is probably no accident
that, in contrast to affixing plurals, no words exhibiting stem-tone change have alternative plurals. This
suggests that affixing has not been functional recently in their domain and that these may represent an
archaic layer, at least for Berom.

Table 8. Stem-tone changes marking plural in Berom

Gloss sg. pl.
ancestors bedá bèdá
tick byàné byáné
ant-hill càlaŋ cáláŋ
garden càp cáp
spirit cèŋ céŋ
black ant còloŋ cólóŋ
fonio grain cùn cūn
blossom cùyú cúyú
spoon gúbú gùbú
tribal mark jɔ̀t jɔt
bush fowl jìgīn jígín
scorpion lyàŋ lyáŋ
farm, inheritance nàp náp
large hoe ron ron
young female animal shěp shép
bamboo shɛ̀ shɛ

Labialisation
Labialisation alternations are extremely common in many Plateau languages and Berom also shows this,
principally with bilabials and velars, and often combined with a recent be- prefix and stem-tone changes
(Table 9).

Table 9. Delabialisation of nominal plurals in Berom

Gloss sg. pl. Also
kunu drink bwerè bere Tone-change
farm bwí bɔ́ Stem-vowel change
blindness bwók bebok Prefix addition
leg bwol bòl Tone-change
cocoyam jwɛ bejɛ Prefix addition
large water pot kwɛŋɛ kɛ̀ŋɛ Tone-change
arrow, needle kwet kèt Tone-change
song, hymn lwɛlɛ lɛlɛ
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Gloss sg. pl. Also
spring (of water) lwel lèl Tone-change
bull mwùs bemùs Prefix addition
bush-candle tree pwat pàt Tone-change
ditch pwǒl bepǒl Prefix addition
cheek, side of face rwánáŋ rànáŋ Tone-change
rope, stripe rwík rík
emptiness swan sán

To demonstrate that the labialisation is the effect of a now-vanished prefix rather than the following
consonant, the example below shows contrastive strategies for an otherwise different stem.

bwók pl. bebok blindness, blind person

bwǒk pl. bebwǒk leaf, sheet

Berom also permits occasional pluralisation of adjectives and adverbs, presumably by analogy, or reflecting
a now-disappeared nominal. The adverb dèy, meaning ‘fast, quickly’ has as its plural dwèy, reversing the
common pattern of nouns.

Consonant alternation
Consonant alternation is very restricted in Berom, with the main alternation fw-/t- (Table 10). Alternations
can be combined with other process, such as affixing and vowel lengthening.

Table 10. Consonant alternation fw/t

Gloss sg. pl. Also
stone, rock fwà betà + prefix
bridge fwá(t) tàá Tone + -t deletion
work, job fwom tòm Tone
neck, voice fwɔ tɛ Stem vowel
bottle fwùʃ betùs ʃ/s

Some rare examples given in Table 11 suggest an incipient alternation b(w)-/p- although the source of this
may perhaps be borrowing;

Table 11. Consonant alternation b(w)-/p-

Gloss sg. pl. Also
raincoat bwɛ̀m pèbɛ̀m bèbɛ̀m
dove gwòbòp bèpɔ̀p

Suppletives
The boundary between single examples of an alternation and suppletive plurals is largely definitional. Some
of the examples below might be equally well treated as single cases of consonant or prefix alternation.
Suppletive plurals for ‘child’ are extremely common in central Nigeria.

child, children hwey nèy

tooth hywín ŋyìn

The plural of ‘thing’ is a true suppletive, and is compounded by an alternative plural also quite different
from the singular.

things nèdók nediri nezáp

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The following stem-vowel changes are not obviously motivated by prefix deletion;

arm, hand vwɔ́ vɛ

farm, garden bwí bě
thorn rɔ́gɔ́ rɛgɔ́ berɛgɔ́

4.2 Verbs

4.2.1 Verb syntax

The typical word order in Berom is SAuxVO;

a gá tɔ̀k fwom ó
he can do work it
he can do the work

However, in some constructions AUX brackets the subject;

rɔ̂ e ba vey nahwol

perhaps he AUX come tomorrow
he may come tomorrow

Most tense/aspect marking is achieved via pronouns (§3.3).

4.2.2 Plural or iterative verbs

Berom has an elaborate system of plural verbs. Their uses can be described as follows;

1. Describing an action repeated many times

2. Describing an action with multiple subjects
3. Describing an action with multiple objects
4. Describing an action conducted over a long time
5. Any combination of these

They are formed from singulars in a variety of ways. Berom plural verbs are highly diverse and although the
plurals form some general patterns, it is difficult to predict whether a particular verb will have a plural and if
so what process will be applied to form it. This section attempts to classify the regular developments that
have been identified, sorted approximately by their incidence. Table 12 summarises the main processes that
can be generalised from the data;

Table 12. Processes in Berom plural verb morphology

Process 1 2 3 4 5 6
Suffix addition -sV(m) -(V)s -ta -ro ŋ
Affix insertion -s(S)-
C2 voicing change g/k k/g p/b
C1 alternation y/t b/m
C2 alternation r/s r/b t/y t/r g/s r/t
C3 alternation k/s k/t
Suppletion
Tone-change

Here are some examples of plural verbs in use. The verb ‘to climb’ is used with plural subjects;
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s. pl.
to climb tút túrus

a tút é rà tîn pwat ná a vós gwε

he climbed up an African olive tree to pick the fruits

bèmat ba sé túrus é ràku wòro

people are climbing that mountain

The verb ‘to show’ governs a plural object;

s. pl.
to show, point out dúra dúsa

Yǒp a dúra á nε̂ŋ mε gwòrùgu gwòpwàs dè a séí

Yop showed her mother the new dress she had bought

yɛ̀n a sé kyê kyè ná be dúsa á yɛ̀nèkwɔ̂n fwom mεn

they are taking him round to show their places of work to him

The verb ‘to throw’ illustrates repeated action or iterative;

to throw s. tòrò
pl. to

a tòrò gwà mε ná gwòfwà é vwɔ

he threw a stone at his brother's hand

hwò yímó dè hwà sé tó mé ná bètà

you have been throwing stones at me for a long time

4.3 Pronouns
Table 13 shows the independent subject pronouns without tones, where these are variable. These are usually
the same as the object pronouns (Table 14) but there are some notable exceptions in the first and third
persons, as well as extensive tonal allomorphy. There is a marked division between singular and plural; the
plural pronominal set is invariant (apart from contractions) and sentences must therefore be marked for tense
and aspect.

Table 13. Berom subject pronouns

No. s. pl.
1 me, ma wot
2 hwa yín, ’ín
3 a, e yɛ̀n

Table 14. Berom object pronouns

No. s. ŋ+ pl. ŋ+
1 mé wot, hót
2 hwò, ò hín, yin, ’ín
3 hɛ́ ɛ́ hɛ́n ɛ́n

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Berom marks tense/aspect on singular pronouns. Table 15 shows the allomorphs of the third person singular
pronoun, which use vowel shift to denote a basic aspect distinction between completed and incomplete, and
tone to mark more subtle tense-like distinctions within that.

Table 15. Allomorphs of the third person singular pronoun

Basic Allomorphs Senses
a á recent past action, time-delimited negative past
action, stative following previous action
a completed past action, current stative, past
imperative
à stative [only used in conjunction with nouns]
ǎ immediate past
e é future intentionality, stative, present
continuous
e present, current action, hypothetical

Where the subject is a plural pronoun, proper name or other noun, the pronoun must generally be inserted
before the verb, to provide information on TA marking. Thus;

yɛ̀n á kwéy wɔ é bàk kàsúwá

they PAST pass go to side market
they passed to the market side

Kpam a bène ron

Pam IMP acquire hoe
Pam has acquired a hoe

java a hwo tosho

horse IMP begin neigh
the horse has started neighing

They essentially then become auxiliaries marking Tense/Aspect.

4.4 Adjectives

4.4.1 Adjectival concord

4.4.1.1 Prosody concord

Some Berom adjectives show what may be described a prosody concord, in other words, the unmarked form
of the adjective can be palatalised or labialised when it is required to agree with certain head nouns. Some
combine this with prefix concord, others do not. The general principle underlying the concord is that
labialisation and palatalisation in the head-noun are reflected in the adjective while the unmarked form is
applied to other stems. However, in some cases, back vowels in the stem show concord with a labialised
adjective and front vowels with a palatalised adjective. Table 16 shows the main adjectives showing
prosodic concord in Berom and the correspondences between different modified forms;

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Table 16. Adjectives showing prosodic concord in Berom
Gloss Unmarked +w +y bV- ke- ne- gwo-
small cereng cwérèng cèrèng becereng kècèrèng necereng gwocereng
strange, foreign duk duk dyuk bedyuk keduk neduk gwoduk,
seduk
dry hogot hwogot hyogot behwogot kehogot nehogot gwohwogot
tall, long lish lwish lyìsh belish kèlìsh nelish gwolish
new pas pwas pyas bapas, kepas nepâs gwòpwàs
bepas
good rat rwat ryat, yat berat kerat nèràt gwòrwàt
great, handsome, réy rwéy ryěy, beréy kerey nerey gworwey
rich yěy
empty sǎn swán san san kesan nesan gwosan
small, younger, sɛl swɛl shɛl besɛl kesɛl nesɛl gwoswɛl
junior
fat, thick, wide ting twing tying beting - netîng gwotwing
not cooked ven vwen vyen bevyen keven neven gwovwen
bad, evil ves vwesh vyèsh bevesh kevesh nèves gwovwesh

Note the irregularity of sǎn ‘empty’ and the alternation of final s ~ sh in ves ‘bad’.

4.4.1.2 Prefix concord

In straightforward prefix concord, the prefix of the adjective mirrors the qualified noun. The prefixes are as
in Table 17;

Table 17. Berom noun prefixes

Function sg. pl.
— be-
re- ba-
se-
Nominaliser nè-/n-/m-
Diminutive kè-
Augmentative gwò- bè-

re-

regyì remó
egg this

sè-

sèvwel seduk
land foreign

nè-

nèdók nèkyɔ̀rɔ́k
thing variety
different types of things

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Reading and writing Berom circulation draft
kè-

kèkwèy kèpàs
baby new

gwò-

gwòkwɛ̀t gwòro
calabash large

4.4.2 Position of the adjective

Adjectives in Berom that do not show concord may either follow or precede the noun. Concordial adjectives
always follow the noun. Otherwise, the rule is that if the qualifier can also be a freestanding noun, it follows
the noun it qualifies. Thus lolong in the following example can also be used for ‘madness’.

lolong madness mwât lolong a mad man

If, however, the adjective cannot stand alone, it precedes the noun.

masa painful masa bayish painful eyes

fúshá burnt fúshâ kyit burnt piece of yam

4.5 Numerals
Berom numbers present difficulties because the prefix system means they can take a variety of forms.
Numbers 1-10 all have agreements, like adjectives. Berom originally had a twelve-base number system, as
discussed in Luc Bouquiaux (1962). This has now been converted to base ten, but change in meaning has led
to multiple forms. The following tables show individual numerals with their possible concordial forms. A
number of forms which are plausible, are not in fact attested, and are marked with a double asterisk **, as
follows;

**bwa
**keba
**gwoba

In fact, no numerals have the diminutive or augmentative prefixes. Note that where a noun is qualified by a
numeral it retains the singular form.

The consonant ‘one’ consists of a root –ning, plus a C(w)i- prefix, where the initial consonant agrees with
the noun it qualifies. So;

one -ning

gwinìng mwat gwining e kyè vey one man is coming

hinìng hwey hining one child
jìning dyàm (gwey) tɛ̀ jìning one o’clock
nìning nemi mɛn na sé nining their blood is the same
rining rwey rinìng zɔng only one pot

The numeral two has both prefixes and prosody concord, according to the noun it qualifies.

two -ba

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Reading and writing Berom circulation draft
ba a nɔ́ng ɛ́ gùbú bà He gave him two spoons
**bwa does not exist
bya pyɛ́ bya two things
baba séy á mé babɔ́nɔ́ng baba buy two rubber fruits for me
beba bedùk ó ba sé beba The rooms are two
mbà nèy mbà two children
nèbà nèy nèbà two children

three -tat

tat bàma mó yɛ̀n a vɛ́ ɛ̀ tat after that, they took out three
tyat pye tyat three things
*twat does not exist
betat séy á mé babé betat buy me three pumpkins
netat ney netat three children

four -naas

naas nelo naas four houses

nyaas pye nyaas four things
*nwaas does not exist
benaas jwa mo a jut yare kàbas de nedirik o na wul batɔ̂n
benaas the vehicle took four tonnes of maize
ǹnàás nèy ǹnàas four children
kèfwa ǹnàas four pebbles

five -tungun

tungun fush tungun five bottles

yep tungun five cactus
*twungun does not exist
tyungun pye tyungun five things
betungun bèmat betungun five people
fwa betungun five stones
ntungun ney ntungun five children
rwey ntungun five pots

six -tiimìn

tiimin rot tiimin six rivers

ney tiimin six children
rwey tiimin six pots
**twiimin does not exist
tyiimìn pye tyiimin six things
betiimin bèmat betiimin six people

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Reading and writing Berom circulation draft

seven -taamà

taamà tuk hê taamà the seventh day

**twaama does not exist
tyaamà vyél tyaamà seven goats
betaamà sey begyì betaamà buy seven eggs
ntaama ney ntaama seven children

eight rwit

**rit does not exist

rwit pye rwit eight things
a vɔk vyél rwit he has eight goats
*ryit does not exist
*berwit does not exist
*nrwit does not exist

In the number ‘nine’ the –tat element agrees with the noun;

nine sha tàt also shabetat

sha tàt yep sha tàt nine cactus

beta sha tàt nine stones
**sha twat does not exist
sha tyat dyám sha tyat nà rebít ó half past nine
sha betat má vɔk bejwa sha betat I have nine horses
ney sha betat nine children
sha netat does not exist

The number ‘ten’ was originally ‘twelve’ and has been re-assigned. See note below. The word kuru
undergoes none of the modifications of the other nine basic numerals, except for the be- plural prefix.

ten, twelve kuru, rekuru

kuru a vɔk vyel kuru é ji lɔ he has ten goats at home

pye kuru ten things
ney kuru ten children
beta kuru ten stones [unexplained]
bekuru beduk bekuru ten houses

eleven kuru ná wɛ̀ gwinìng also bakuru ná wɛ̀ gwinìng

rekuru ná wɛ̀ gwinìng
kuru shà gwinìng

kuru ná wɛ̀ gwinìng sá hom a vɔk nèy kuru ná wɛ̀ gwinìng ná hwa mɛ my
friend has eleven children with his wife

twelve kurû Bèrom (víísís) lit. ‘Berom ten’, referring to the bakuru ná wɛ̀ gwinìng
switch from a duodecimal to a decimal system.
also kuru ná vɛ̀ beba

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Reading and writing Berom circulation draft
hundred nàgá benàgá

mwat hwak a vùrù dyám Nérà benàgá beba someone lost two hundred Naira

thousand gù begù

bèmat begù baba ba túla hén two thousand people gathered

5. Conclusions
The Berom language is divided into a variety of dialects and decisions about reading and writing are not
entirely consistent. It is recommended that further discussions take place about the forms used in literacy
development. The marking of tones in published material adheres to the principle of minimal tone-marking.
However, no written-out guide to the rationale behind this tone-marking is now in evidence. Further work in
relation ot the forthcoming dictionary should be undertaken on tone. In relation ot the new Mother Tongue
Initiative in Plateau State, new primers need to be prepared.

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