Writing System: Gera is primarily an oral language and has no standardized writing system. When linguists write it down, they use a Latin-based alphabet like the one used for Hausa, including the hooked letters ɓ and ɗ, with accent marks added to show tone (an acute accent for high tone and a grave accent for low tone). Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel letter. In everyday life, Gera speakers read and write in Hausa rather than in Gera.
Grammar: Gera grammar has not been described in detail; the main source is a short sketch published by Russell Schuh in 1978. Like the other languages of the Bole group, Gera uses subject-verb-object word order, distinguishes masculine and feminine in its pronouns, and expresses tense and aspect through the form of the verb together with the subject pronoun. Gera counts in a decimal system. The word for seven, bìccìmbùlú, is built from five and two (compare bàaɗì “five” and mbùlú “two”), and the tens are formed with kàa, as in kàa mbúlù “twenty”.
Phonology: Gera is a tonal language with high and low tones. Vowel length is distinctive, so long and short vowels can tell words apart. Like many Chadic languages, Gera has the implosive consonants ɓ and ɗ alongside plain b and d, and it has prenasalized sounds such as mb and nj. Recorded Gera words also include the central vowel ə.
Lexicon: The core vocabulary of Gera is Chadic and is shared with related languages such as Geruma and Bole. The numbers one to ten are móóyi, mbùlú, kúnú, fúɗú, bàaɗì, bèeshím, bìccìmbùlú, húrɗú, ɓànìnjà and bàrɗí. Because nearly all Gera speakers also speak Hausa, the language has borrowed heavily from Hausa. Borrowed words are adapted to fit Gera patterns, and in some cases Hausa words have replaced the original Gera ones.
