Batak Karo language

Karo
Karo
Cakap Karo
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Karo Regency, North Sumatra
Native speakers	(600,000 cited 1991)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Nuclear MP Northwest Sumatran Karo; ; ; ;
Writing system	Batak, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	btx
Glottolog	bata1293
ELP	Batak Karo

Karo, referred to in Indonesia as Bahasa Karo (Karo language), is an Austronesian language that is spoken by the Karo people of Indonesia. It is used by around 600,000 people in North Sumatra. It is mainly spoken in Karo Regency, southern parts of Deli Serdang Regency and northern parts of Dairi Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. It was historically written using the Batak alphabet which is descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India by way of the Pallava and Old Kawi scripts, but nowadays only a tiny number of Karo can write or understand the script, and instead the Latin script is used.

Classification

Karo is a Northern Batak language, and is closely related to Pakpak and Alas.^[2] It is mutually unintelligible from the Southern Batak languages, such as Toba, Angkola and Mandailing.^[2]

Dialects

There are several dialects within Karo. A major dialect boundary exists between the dialects spoken in the east and the dialects spoken in the west.^[2] These are largely distinguished according to phonological and lexical differences. Vowels in the eastern dialect are lowered and fronted in the western dialect. Similarly, diphthongs in the eastern dialect are realised as monophthongs in the western dialect.^[2]

Eastern Dialect	Western Dialect
/waluh/	/waloh/	eight
/sitik/	/sitek/	a little
/melëhé/	/melihé/	hungry
/jauŋ/	/joŋ/	corn

Phonology

Karo has 17 consonant phonemes and 7 vowel phonemes.^[2]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		ë, u
Mid	é	e	o
Low		a

Consonants

	Labial	Alveo-dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	p, b	t, d	c, j	k, g
Nasals	m	n		ng
Fricatives		s			h
Lateral		l
Vibrant		r
Semi-vowel	w			y

Sample

Karo

Ope denga ijadiken Dibata doni enda Kata e enggo lit. Kata e ras Dibata, janah Kata e me Dibata

English Translation

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

References

^ Karo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Woollams, Geoff. 2005. Karo Batak. In Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds.) The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar, 534-561. Abingdon: Routledge

http://www.language-museum.com/encyclopedia/b/batak-karo.htm http://www.omniglot.com/writing/batak.htm#karo

Bibliography

External links

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[e18-1] Karo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[:0-2] Woollams, Geoff. 2005. Karo Batak. In Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds.) The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar, 534-561. Abingdon: Routledge

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