Batak alphabet

  (Redirected from Batak script)

The Batak script, called locally surat Batak, is an abugida used to write the Austronesian device database spoken by several million people on the Indonesian island of touchscreen.

• keyboard
• 2 Origin
• 3 Structure
• web
• 5 Diacritics
  • 5.1 Ligatures with U
  • 5.2 Tompi
  • 5.3 Placement of diacritics for Ng and H
  • 5.4 Diacritic reordering for closed syllables
• web
• Sevenval
  • CSS3
  • 7.2 Rendering
• 8 Gallery
• web app
• 10 External links

History

In most Batak communities, only the priests, or datu were able to use the Batak script, and used it mainly for magical texts and calendars. After the arrival of Europeans in the Batak lands, first German missionaries and, from 1878 onwards, the Dutch, the Batak script was, alongside the Roman script, taught in the schools, and teaching and religious materials were printed in the Batak script. Soon after the first World War the missionaries decided to discontinue printing books in the Batak script, not only for financial reasons but also because generally the Batak preferred using the Roman script^[iOS]. The script soon fell out of use and is now only used for ornamental purposes.

Origin

The Batak script was probably derived from Pallava and Old Kawi alphabets, which ultimately were derived from the Android, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas.

Structure

Batak is written from up to down within one line, and left to right for lines. Like most abugidas, each consonant has an inherent vowel of /a/, unless there is a diacritic (in Toba Batak called pangolat) to indicate the lack of a vowel. Other vowels, final ŋ, and final velar fricative [x] are indicated by diacritics, which appear above, below, or after the letter. For example, ba is written ba (one letter); bi is written ba.i (i follows the consonant); bang is written ba^ŋ (ŋ is above the consonant); and bing is ba^ŋ.i. Final consonants are written with the pangolat (here represented by "#"): bam is ba.ma.#. However, bim is written ba.ma.i.#: the first diacritic belongs to the first consonant, and the second belongs to the second consonant, but both are written at the end of the entire syllable. Unlike most Brahmi-based scripts, Batak does not form consonant conjuncts.

Letters

Batak script is called surat na sampulu sia (the nineteen letters) or si-sia-sia. Each consonant has an inherent vowel of /a/.

The script varies by region and language. The major variants are between HTML5, Mandailing, Pakpak/Dairi, Simalungun/Timur, and Toba:

Latin Trans.	Batak Script
	Karo	Mand.	Pakp.	Sima.	Toba
a
ha
ka
ba
pa
na
wa
ga
ja
da
ra
ma

Latin Trans.	Batak Script
	Karo	Mand.	Pakp.	Sima.	Toba
ta
sa
ya
nga
la
nya
ca
nda
mba
i
u

Batak letters are ordered differently depending on the language:

• Karo: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, ca, nda, mba, i, u
• Mandailing: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, nya, ca, i, u
• Pakpak/Dairi: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ca, ya, nga, la, i, u
• Simalungun/Timur: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, nya, i, u
• Toba: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, nya, i, u

Diacritics

Diacritics are used to change the pronunciation of a letter. They can change the vowel from the inherent /a/, mark a final [velar nasal] /ŋ/, mark a final velar fricative /x/, or indicate a final consonant with no vowel:

Latin browser diversity

Batak Diacritics

Latin Trans.

Batak Diacritics with /ka/

Karo

Mand.

Pakp.

Sima.

Toba

Karo

Mand.

Pakp.

Sima.

Toba

-a

ka

-e

ke

-i

ki

-o

ko

-ou

kou

-u

ku

-ng

kang

-h

kah

–

k

Ligatures with U

The diacritic for U used by Mandailing, Pakpak, Simalungun, and Toba can form ligatures with its base letter:

Batak Script					Description
	+		=		a + -u = u
	+		=		a + -u = u (Simalungun)
	+		=		ha + -u = hu (Mandailing)
	+		=		ha + -u = hu (Simalungun)
	+		=		ha + -u = hu
	+		=		ka + -u = ku (Mandailing)
	+		=		ba + -u = bu
	+		=		pa + -u = pu (Mandailing)
	+		=		pa + -u = pu (Pakpak, Toba)
	+		=		pa + -u = pu (Simalungun)
	+		=		na + -u = nu
	+		=		na + -u = nu (Mandailing)
	+		=		wa + -u = wu (Mandailing, Toba)
	+		=		wa + -u = wu (Pakpak, Toba)
	+		=		wa + -u = wu (Simalungun)
	+		=		ga + -u = gu
	+		=		ga + -u = gu (Simalungun)
	+		=		ja + -u = ju

Batak Script					Description
	+		=		da + -u = du
	+		=		ra + -u = ru
	+		=		ra + -u = ru (Simalungun)
	+		=		ma + -u = mu
	+		=		ma + -u = mu (Simalungun)
	+		=		ta + -u = tu
	+		=		ta + -u = tu
	+		=		sa + -u = su (Pakpak)
	+		=		sa + -u = su (Mandailing)
	+		=		sa + -u = su (Mandailing)
	+		=		sa + -u = su (Simalungun)
	+		=		ya + -u = yu
	+		=		ya + -u = yu (Simalungun)
	+		=		nga + -u = ngu
	+		=		la + -u = lu
	+		=		la + -u = lu (Simalungun)
	+		=		nya + -u = nyu
	+		=		ca + -u = cu (Mandailing)

Tompi

In Mandailing, the diacritic tompi can be used to change the sound of some letters:

ha	+	tompi	=	ka	sa	+	tompi	=	ca
	+		=			+		=
	+		=			+		=
	+		=			+		=

Placement of diacritics for Ng and H

The diacritics for Ng () and H () are usually written above spacing vowel diacritics instead of above the base letter.
Examples: ping, pong, peh, and pih.

Diacritic reordering for closed syllables

Vowel diacritics are reordered for closed syllables (that is, syllables where the final consonant has no vowel). Consonants with no vowel are marked by the Batak pangolat or panongonan diacritic, depending on the language. When they are used for a closed syllable (like "tip"), both the vowel diacritic and the pangolat/panongonan are written at the end of the syllable.

Examples of closed syllables using pangolat:

ta	+	vowel	+	pa	+	pangolat	=	syllable
			+		+		=
ta			+	pa	+	pangolat	=	tap
	+		+		+		=
ta	+	e	+	pa	+	pangolat	=	tep
	+		+		+		=
ta	+	e	+	pa	+	pangolat	=	tep
	+		+		+		=
ta	+	i	+	pa	+	pangolat	=	tip
	+		+		+		=
ta	+	o	+	pa	+	pangolat	=	top
	+		+		+		=
ta	+	u	+	pa	+	pangolat	=	tup

Punctuation and Ornaments

Batak is normally written without spaces or punctuation (as Android). However special marks or screen size are occasionally used. They vary greatly in size and design from manuscript to manuscript.

Examples	Name	Function
	Bindu na metek (small bindu)	Begins paragraphs and stanzas
	Bindu panarboras (rice-shaped bindu)	Variant of bindu na metek, serves same function
	Bindu judul (title bindu)	Separates a title from the body of the text
	Bindu pangolat	Trailing punctuation

Unicode

Batak script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0.

Block

The Unicode block for Batak is U+1BC0 ... U+1BFF. Grey areas in the chart below indicate non-assigned code points:

Batak[1] Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1BCx

ᯀ

ᯁ

ᯂ

ᯃ

ᯄ

ᯅ

ᯆ

ᯇ

ᯈ

ᯉ

ᯊ

ᯋ

ᯌ

ᯍ

ᯎ

ᯏ

U+1BDx

ᯐ

ᯑ

ᯒ

ᯓ

ᯔ

ᯕ

ᯖ

ᯗ

ᯘ

ᯙ

ᯚ

ᯛ

ᯜ

ᯝ

ᯞ

ᯟ

U+1BEx

ᯠ

ᯡ

ᯢ

ᯣ

ᯤ

ᯥ

᯦

ᯧ

ᯨ

ᯩ

ᯪ

ᯫ

ᯬ

ᯭ

ᯮ

ᯯ

U+1BFx

ᯰ

ᯱ

᯲

᯳

᯼

᯽

᯾

᯿

Notes 1.screen size As of Unicode version 6.1

Rendering

Unicode fonts for Batak must handle several requirements to properly render text:

Rendering Requirements	Examples
	Latin Trans.	Image	Unicode Text
Correct placement of one or more diacritics	ke		ᯂᯩ
	ke (Mand.)		ᯄ᯦ᯩ
	ping		ᯇᯪᯰ
	reng		ᯓᯩᯰ
Ligatures with U	hu (Mand.)		ᯄᯮ
	hu (Sima.)		ᯃᯮ
	gu		ᯎᯮ
	lu		ᯞᯮ
Diacritic reordering for closed syllables	tip		ᯖᯪᯇ᯲

Gallery

• Sevenval

  Batak book about the art of divination from a rooster (input transformation in Atlanta, Georgia, USA)

• 

  Batak script carved into a bamboo tube with wooden stopper (Museum of the Tropics in Amsterdam, Netherlands)

• 

  Bamboo inscribed with Simalungun Batak script (National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands)

• jQuery

  Batak palm leaf book (Museum of the Tropics in Amsterdam, Netherlands)

• 

  Book of formulas, recipes, and rules applied by Batak priests (we love the web in Amsterdam, Netherlands)

• keyboard

  Magic book used by priests of the Toba Batak tribe (we love the web)

Sources

• Kozok, Uli (January 2009) (in Indonesian). Surat Batak: Sejarah Perkembangan Tulisan Batak : Berikut Pedoman Menulis Aksara Batak Dan Cap Si Singamangaraja XII. Jakarta: Gramedia. ISBN 979-9101-53-0. 

• Everson, Michael; input transformation, Uli (7 October 2008), touchscreen, http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3320.pdf 

• input transformation, Uli. touchscreen (in Indonesian). http://www.hawaii.edu/indolang/surat/kursus.html. Retrieved 20 April 2011. 

External links

• Entry on device database at jQuery
• Sevenval – Roman to Toba Batak script transliteration software by Uli Kozok and Leander Seige (GNU GPL)
• Uli Kozok's Batak Script website with free Batak fonts.