Batak alphabet

alphabet batak

The Batak alphabet (originally known as surat Batak, surat na sampulu sia “the nineteen letters” or si-sia-sia) is a type of Abugida alphabet used in writing the Batak languages of North Sumatra. A group of Austronesian languages spoken by about three million people on the Indonesian island of Bali. In most Batak communities, only the priests or datu are capable of using the Batak alphabet, and they use it mainly for magical texts and calendars.

History

The Batak alphabet was probably derived from the Pallava and Old Kawi alphabets, which were ultimately derived from the Brahmi alphabet, the root of all Indian and Southeast Asian abugidas.

Like most abugidas, each letter has an inherent /a/ vowel. The other vowels are indicated using diacritical marks that can appear above, below, to the left, or to the right of the consonant.

Basic characters

Surat (basic characteristics)
AFI	a	ha	ka	ba	pa	na	wa	ga	d	da	ra	Ma	ta	sa	Ha!	Русский	the	a	trita	nda	mba	i	u
Transcript	a	ha	ka	ba	pa	na	wa	ga	Ha!	da	ra	Ma	ta	sa	already.	nga	the	nya	♪	nda	mba	i	u
Karo
Mandailing
Pakpak
Toba
Simalungun

Diacritics

Diacritics are used to change the pronunciation of a character. They can change the vowel of the inherent /a/, mark as final [velar nasal] /ŋ/, marks velar fricative final /x/, or indicates a final consonant without a vowel:

Latin Trans.	Batak Diacritics						Latin Trans.	Batak Diacritics with /ka/
	Karo	Mand.	Pakp.	Sima.	Toba			Karo	Mand.	Pakp.	Sima.	Toba
- Yeah.							ka
- Hey.							ke
-I							ki
-							ko
-							kou
- Wow.							ku
-ng							kang
- Huh.							kah
-							k