vowel of . The script varies by region and language. The major variants are between Karo, Mandailing, Pakpak/Dairi, Simalungun/Timur, and Toba: Alternate forms: (used in Mandailing) 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 or 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: Gallery See also Sitopayan I inscription, 13th century usage of mixed Malay and Batak scripts Citations Sources External links Entry on Batak at Omniglot.com – A guide to writing systems Transtoba2 – Roman to Toba Batak script transliteration software by Uli Kozok and Leander Seige (GNU GPL) Uli Kozok's Batak Script website with free Batak fonts. http://unicode-table.com/en/sections/batak/ Full Batak manuscript at SOAS University of London. Indonesian scripts Brahmic scripts North Sumatra Batak