Berta

Abstract This chapter is a description of Berta, a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Benishangul-Gumuz Region. The description is based on the Mayu dialect. Berta is a tone language with tones having both lexical and grammatical functions. There are two major word classes, nouns and verbs, while adjectival concepts are expressed by verbs. Nouns are inflected for number, state and case, and verbs are inflected for mood and tense, and they may be marked as being applicative. There are several verbal derivational categories, including centripetal, reciprocal, and causative. In noun phrases, modifiers follow the head, which is in a construct state. Berta has both prepositions and postpositions. Independent declarative clauses have an obligatory preverbal topic position that may be occupied by a noun phrase unmarked for case, whether a subject, and object, or an adverbial, while a postverbal subject has a marked nominative case. There are two types of sequential clauses, which are syntactically dependent on the preceding discourse, but which are not subordinate clauses.