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. 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 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

Consonants
Eastern Berom consists of twenty-four consonant phonemes:


 * 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 rou is and vei is.

Vowels
This language consists of seven vowel phonemes: Berom consists of three type of tones and four glide tones (Bouquiaux 1970). The glide tones are treated here as rising and falling tones. The tones are as follows:

/tút / = (to climb) for a high tone

/shɛl/ = (small) No tone mark is demonstrated for the Mid tone.

/bàsa/ = (to teach, read,) for a low tone

/nepâs/ = (new) for a falling tone

/sǎn/ = (empty) for a 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