Batak script
The Batak script (natively known as "surat Batak", "surat na sampulu sia" ("the nineteen letters"), or "si-sia-sia") is a writing system used to write the Austronesian Batak languages spoken by several million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The script may be derived from the Kawi and Pallava script, ultimately derived from the Brahmi script of India, or from the hypothetical Proto-Sumatran script influenced by Pallava. History. The Batak magicians and priests or "datu" used the Batak script mainly for magical texts and divinatory purposes. It is unknown how many non-specialists were literate  in the Batak script, but judging from the widespread tradition of writing love laments, especially among the Karo, Simalungun, and Angkola-Mandailing Batak, it is likely that a considerable part of the non-specialist population was able to read and write the Batak script. 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. 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 scripts, which ultimately were derived from the Brahmi script, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian scripts. Structure. Batak is written from left to right and top to bottom. Like all Brahmi-based scripts, each consonant has an inherent vowel of , 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 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" is above the consonant); and "bing" is ba.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. Basic characters. The basic characters  are called "surat". Each consonant has an inherent vowel of . The script varies by region and language. The major variants are between Karo, Mandailing, Pakpak/Dairi, Simalungun/Timur, and Toba: Diacritics. Diacritics are used to change the pronunciation of a character. They can change the vowel from the inherent , mark a final [velar nasal] , mark a final velar fricative , or indicate a final consonant with no vowel: Ligatures with U. The diacritic for U used by Mandailing, Pakpak, Simalungun, and Toba can form ligatures with its base character: Tompi. In Mandailing, the diacritic "tompi" can be used to change the  sound of some characters: 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 character. 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": Punctuation and ornaments. Batak is normally written without spaces or punctuation (as scriptio continua). However, special marks or bindu are occasionally used. They vary greatly in size and design from manuscript to manuscript. 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: Rendering. Unicode fonts for Batak must handle several requirements to properly render text: