Berti is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Saharan language formerly spoken in northern

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, specifically in the Tagabo Hills,

Darfur Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...

, and

Kurdufan Kordofan ( ar, كردفان ') is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan. In August 2005, West Kordofan State was abolished and its territory ...

. Berti speakers migrated into the region with other Nilo-Saharan speakers, such as the

Masalit The Masalit (Masalit language, Masalit: ''masala/masara''; ar, ماساليت) are an ethnic group inhabiting western Sudan and eastern Chad. They speak the Masalit language Overview The Masalit primarily live in Geneina, the capital of west Darfu ...

and Daju, who were agriculturalists practicing varying degrees of

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

. They settled in two separate areas: one north of

Al-Fashir Al Fashir, Al-Fashir or El Fasher ( ar, الفاشر) is the capital city of North Darfur, Sudan. It is a large town in the Darfur region of northwestern Sudan, northeast of Nyala, Sudan. "Al-Fashir" (description) ''Encyclopædia Brit ...

, while the other had continued eastward, settling in eastern Darfur and western Kurdufan by the nineteenth century. The two groups did not appear to share a common identity, the western group differing noticeably in its cultivation of

gum arabic Gum arabic, also known as gum sudani, acacia gum, Arabic gum, gum acacia, acacia, Senegal gum, Indian gum, and by other names, is a natural gum originally consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the '' Acacia'' tree, ''Senegalia sen ...

. By the 1990s,

Sudanese Arabic Sudanese Arabic, also referred to as the Sudanese dialect (), Colloquial Sudanese () or locally as Common Sudanese () refers to the various related varieties of Arabic spoken in Sudan as well as parts of Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Chad. Sudane ...

had largely replaced Berti as a native language.Sudan: The Muslim Peoples
U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

References

Sources

*Petráček, Karel 1965. Die Phonetik, Phonologie und Morphologie der Berti (-Siga) Sprache in Dar Fur. ''Archiv Orientální'', 33 : 341-366. *Petráček, Karel 1966. Die Morphologie der Berti (-Siga) Sprache in Dar Fur. ''Archiv Orientální'', 34: 295-319. *Petráček, Karel 1967. Phonologische Systeme der zentralsaharanischen Sprachen (konsonantische Phoneme). ''Archiv Orientální'' 35: 26-51. *Petráček, Karel 1970. Phonologische Systeme der zentralsaharanischen Sprachen (vokalische Phoneme). In: ''Mélanges Marcel Cohen, réunis par David Cohen''. 389-396. The Hague: Mouton, *Petráček, Karel 1987. Berti or Sagato-a (Saharan) Vocabulary. ''Afrika und Übersee'' 70, 163-193. Darfur Ethnic groups in Sudan Extinct languages of Africa Languages extinct in the 1990s {{Sudan-ethno-group-stub