Toba Batak is an Austronesian language spoken in North Sumatra province in Indonesia. It is part of a group of languages called Batak. There are approximately 1,610,000 Toba Batak speakers, living to the east, west and south of Lake Toba. Historically it was written using the Batak script, but the Latin script is now used for most writing.
Manuscript in Toba Batak language, central Sumatra, early 1800s.
Toba Batak houses and residents in a photograph by Christiaan Benjamin Nieuwenhuis.
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan. They are spoken by about 386 million people. This makes it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages include Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Tagalog, Malagasy and Cebuano. According to some estimates, the family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.
The distribution of Austronesian languages
A 5 dollar banknote, Hawaii, c. 1839, using Hawaiian language
A sign in Balinese and Latin script at a Hindu temple in Bali
A manuscript from the early 1800s using the Batak script
