Preliminary

• The character set is a unified set in the same sense as the Canadian Syllabics set is a unified set. There are four main variants of the Batak script (Karo, Toba, Mandailing, and Dairi). THe Karo version is taken as the basic form (as Cree was taken as basic for Syllabics) and where differences occur, language-specific variants are given with an identifier. ISSUE: Some variants are given (NA, NDA, SA, CA, -I, -O) which are not listed as language-specific. What kind of variants are these? Are they variants in all languages? Are they free variants (like script-a and curly-a or script-g and curly-g in Latin) or are they positional variants?
• Since Karo Batak is taken as basic, the ordering differs from that given in the UTR.
• A number of additional characters have been based on comments received thus far from Jeroen Hellingman and Uli Kozok. ISSUE: Jeroen mentions several missing items. One is Dairi short E; the others are the BINDUs. What shapes are required for these? The proposal may have already the short E now.

Proposal

The phonetic system of the script is similar to the scripts of the Philippines (Tagalog). Like Tagalog and other scripts of the archipelagos between Southeast Asia and Australia, Batak ultimately derives from scripts of India. Batak has a virama and final consonants are expressed in the script. Like Tagalog, only two independent vowels other than A are included in the script (but several vowel signs are used). The alphabetical order differs from both the primeval Brahmic and Tagalog orders; the accompanying chart is in the order given for Karo.

(I AM STILL WORKING ON THIS PARAGRAPH TO HARMONIZE IT WITH THE NAMES.) The VOWEL SIGNs I and O, and the PANGOLATs (< virama) are spacing marks. The VOWEL SIGNs E and NG are non-spacing marks. The VOWEL SIGN I is placed after the consonant. The VOWEL SIGN U is placed under a consonant and somewhat to the right. Several ligated forms of letters with the u sound are known. The vowel sign o is placed after the consonant. The pangolet is likewise placed after the consonant, causing the inherent a vowel to be lost. The final ng is placed above the consonant and somewhat to the right. (When e and ng occur together on a consonant, thus, there are two dashlike marks above.) The hamisaran is usually written above the vowels i and o. When pangolat (the devoweller) is used to close a syllable, the vowel sign for the previous vowel is placed either under the final consonant or after the final consonant, and before the pangolat itself.

Punctuation is not normally used, all letters simply running together, but a sign does exist and is occasionally used to disambiguate similar words or phrases. (This sign is, unfortunately, also known by the same name as the virama, PANGOLAT.) Other signs, called BINDUs, are often used. BUNDUGODANG (main bindu) indicates the start of a text, and BINDU NA METEK (small bindu) is used to indicate the start of a new section or verse. BINDUs are often ornamentally, carrying names like BINDUPINARJOLMA (bindu in the sape of a man) or BINDUPINARULOK (bindu in the shape of a snake). Such variants are not encoded here.

A sign called PUSTAHA is also sometimes used to separate a title from the main text which normally begins on the same line.

Mandailing: The Mandailing alphabetical order differs somewhat from Toba, and North Mandailing again differs slightly from South Mandailing. Some of the letter shapes are likewise slightly different; these are HA and SA. The rendering forms for the consonant vowel-sign combinations PA+U, SA+U, and LA+U may differ from the forms used for Toba. Mandailing uses two other letters for KA and CA. These two letters are produced by putting a mark called TOMPI onto the normal letters for KA (which is used for HA in Mandailing) and SA. It is not known whether the TOMPI is otherwise productive, so both the Mandailing letters and the TOMPI itself are provisionally included in the chart (see Issues below).

Dairi: Dairi alphabetical order again differs from that of Toba and Mandailing. Dairi does not include the letter NYA. The forms for TA and WA differ significantly from those used for Toba. The vowel sign listed in the chart as U is pronounced more like a closed E and written after the associated consonant rather than under (or attached to) the consonant. The sign SIKORJAN, which is pronounced as a soft H following the associated vowel (i.e. visarga), is placed over the consonant. When final NG (anusvara) is used in Dairi, it goes over the previous consonant rather than over the vowel sign. In Toba, it may optionally go over the vowel if the vowel is not a non-spacing mark.

Batak is known to have been in use in the mid-1800s. Nakanishi (1975) states that it is "seldom used today." It may be extinct as of this writing (1992). The completeness of this analysis and chart is not known.

Other issues

• Should the proper names of the vowel signs be given as opposed to the transliterations? Do these mean anything (like 'line above' or 'two lines above')? Probably using the vowel sounds would be preferred by implementors, but the standard usually uses names qua names.
• Is TOMPI productive? If it is, it may be preferable to use it as such and not encode Mandailing KA and CA. If it is not, it may be best to leave it out (to simplify things by avoiding possible multiple encodings).
• How "alive" is this script? Is Latin used for these languages?
• Is it really necessary to encode two viramas? They are not viramas in the usual sense as they do not cause conjuncts to form.
• If they are encoded, where should MANDAILING KA and MANDAILING CA be sorted?

U+xx00 BATAK LETTER AU+xx01 BATAK LETTER TOBA AU+xx02 BATAK LETTER KAU+xx1C BATAK LETTER MANDAILING KAU+xx03 BATAK LETTER BAU+xx04 BATAK LETTER TOBA BAU+xx05 BATAK LETTER PAU+xx06 BATAK LETTER NAU+xx07 BATAK LETTER VARIANT NAU+xx08 BATAK LETTER WAU+xx09 BATAK LETTER GAU+xx0A BATAK LETTER JAU+xx0B BATAK LETTER DAU+xx0C BATAK LETTER NDAU+xx0D BATAK LETTER VARIANT NDAU+xx0E BATAK LETTER RAU+xx0F BATAK LETTER MAU+xx10 BATAK LETTER TOBA MAU+xx11 BATAK LETTER TAU+xx12 BATAK LETTER TOBA TAU+xx13 BATAK LETTER SAU+xx1D BATAK LETTER MANDAILING CAU+xx14 BATAK LETTER VARIANT SAU+xx15 BATAK LETTER YAU+xx16 BATAK LETTER NGAU+xx17 BATAK LETTER NYA VARIANT CAU+xx18 BATAK LETTER LAU+xx19 BATAK LETTER CAU+xx1A BATAK LETTER IU+xx1B BATAK LETTER UU+xx1E BATAK VOWEL SIGN KELAWAN (i)U+xx1F BATAK VOWEL SIGN VARIANT KELAWAN (i)U+xx20 BATAK VOWEL SIGN KEBERETEN (e)U+xx21 BATAK VOWEL SIGN KETEELEENGEN (ee)U+xx22 BATAK VOWEL SIGN SIKURUN (u)U+xx23 BATAK VOWEL SIGN HABOROTAN (u)U+xx24 BATAK VOWEL SIGN KETOLONGEN (o)U+xx25 BATAK VOWEL SIGN VARIANT KETOLONGEN (o)U+xx26 BATAK VOWEL SIGN KEBINCAREN (ng)U+xx27 BATAK VOWEL SIGN KEJERINGEN (h)U+xx28 BATAK COMBINING TOMPIU+xx29 BATAK PANGOLAT PENENGENU+xx2A BATAK TOBA PANGOLATU+xx2B BATAK BINDUU+xx2C BATAK BINDUGODANGU+xx2D BATAK BINDU NA METEKU+xx2E (This position shall not be used)U+xx2F (This position shall not be used)