group of languages that form a part of the Nilo-Saharan language (Nilo-Saharan languages) family. Some 125,000 Berta speakers live in Ethiopia; approximately 22,000 live in The Sudan. Two of the main varieties of Berta are Berta proper (also known by the derogatory name Beni Shangul), which is spoken in western Ethiopia in a corner formed by the Blue Nile River and the Sudanese border, and Gobato, also spoken in western Ethiopia. The Berta languages were assigned by Joseph H. Greenberg (Greenberg, Joseph H.) as a subgroup of Chari-Nile within Nilo-Saharan, but Chari-Nile is no longer considered a valid genetic unit.