CVC Syllable Structure Due to the various affixes that can be attached to a base word, Batak words, such as, for instance, hinarajaon ‘kingdom’ (from base raja), can be relatively long, but the …
Lesson 13
The Batak script has five vowels, six including the Schwa, but there are only three separate characters for the vowels [a], [i] and [u]. There are no ina ni surat characters to render syllable initial …
Lesson 12
ᯆᯭ Karo • Pakpak • Simalungun • Toba • Mandailing This diacritic can only be found in Karo and Simalungun. In Simalungun it is called Hatulungan, and in Karo Ketolongen. The root words are hence …
Lesson 11
ᯆᯮ ᯆᯨ ᯆᯧ This anak ni surat is the most complex and the most diverse of all Batak diacritics. As can be seen above, it comes in various configurations. Despite this diversity, the diacritic …
Lesson 10
ᯆᯬ The x-shaped diacritic has two different names is named Siala Ulu in Mandailing. Si is an article used specifically for proper names, but also. for the names of several plants and animals. What …
Lesson 9
Characters ᯤ [i] and ᯥ [u] Both characters have exactly the same shape if one was rotated by 180 degrees. Usually the three lines are straight, but the longest line may sometimes be slightly …
Lesson 8
Anak ni Surat II In this lesson you will learn two anak ni surat or diacritics that change the value of the aksara, here in combination with ᯆ /ba/ to ᯆᯪ /bi/ or ᯆᯩ /be/. Both diacritics are used …
Lesson 7
Anak ni Surat I The diacritics are called Anak ni Surat (“children of the aksara”). They can only be used in combination with a consonantal aksara. So far we have learned only one anak ni surat …
Lesson 6
The Characters /ya/ and /wa/: ᯜ and ᯍ ᯋ The characters /ya/ and /wa/ occur frequently in Batak manuscripts from all regions. This is in spite of the fact that in Toba Batak the semivowels [w] …
Lesson 5
The characters /a/, /ha/ and /ka/: ᯀ and ᯂ Today we will be learning two new characters: ᯀ /a/ and ᯂ, which represents both /ha/ and /ka/. Aksara ᯀ (a) The phoneme [a] is inherent in every …
Lesson 4
3 New Letters: /ta/, /sa/ and /nga/: ᯗ/ᯖ, ᯘ, ᯝ Aksara ᯗ and ᯖ (ta) There are two variants for the aksara /ta/: ᯗ and ᯖ. The variant ᯖ is used in Mandailing and in Simalungun whereas the variant …
Lesson 3
Four New Characters: ᯔ, ᯒ, ᯑ, ᯐ In this lesson we will learn four new characters, namely /ma/, /ra/, /da/, and /ja/. The characters ᯔ and ᯕ The letters /ma/ is written in three strokes. First …
Lesson 2
Today we are going to learn 5 characters (surat), namely ba, pa, na, ga, and la, and the pangolat (a diacritic that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant …
Lesson 1
The Batak script as an Insular Southeast Asian Script Like all pre-Islamic scripts of Southeast Asia, the Batak script is also derived from the Brahmi script family. The Brahmi script was used more …
