Lowlands-L Anniversary Celebration

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Please click here to leave an anniversary message (in any language you choose). You do not need to be a member of Lowlands-L to do so. In fact, we would be more than thrilled to receive messages from anyone.
Click here to read what others have written so far.

About the story
What’s with this “Wren” thing?
   The oldest extant version of the fable we are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology of Low Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”) collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read more ...

Bahasa Batak

Batak




Batak architecture is a distinctive feature of
Sumatra’s highlands.

Language information: “Batak” is a group label for a number of ethnic groups and their languages of the northern highlands of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra (Sumatera) and some surrounding islands:

   Northern:
         Dairi (southwest of Lake Toba
              around Sidikalang)
         Karo (west and northwest of Lake
              Toba)
         Alas-Kluet (northeast of Tapaktuan
              and around Kutacane)
   Simalungan:
         Simalungun (northeast of Lake Toba)
   Southern:
         Angkola (Sipirok area)
         Toba (Samosir Island and east,
              south and west of Lake Toba)
         Mandailing (northwest coast)

        Of these, Angkola and, more widely, Mandailing approaches the status of general Batak.
     Most Bataks speak the national language, Indonesian, as well, and this language variously influences the Batak languages. Batak languages are used as foreign languages by some local speakers of Indonesian and Chinese languages.
     Traditionally, the Batak languages are written with several closely related varieties of the Batak script, which, like most scripts of the Philippines, is derived from the ALL languages and dialects are beautiful, precious gifts. So cherish yours and others! Share them with the world!Brahmi-based Pallava script of Southern India. Though Batak script tradition is being continued by some, these days the tendency is to use the Roman script and to generally follow the spelling system used for Indonesian.
     Much outsider’s pioneering work on and with Batak languages has been done by the Lutheran missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen (1834–1918) who grew up in predominantly North-Frisian- and Low-Saxon-speaking Schleswig-Holstein, then under Danish administration, now under German administration. Today’s predominantly Lutheran Batak people consider him a “holy person” (ompu i).

Genealogy: Austronesian > Malayo-Polynesian > Sumatran > Northern > Batak

Historical Lowlands language contacts: Dutch


    Click to open the Toba Batak translation: [Click]Click here for different versions. >

Author: Reinhard F. Hahn



© 2011, Lowlands-L · ISSN 189-5582 · LCSN 96-4226 · All international rights reserved.
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