Set up your device to show and write Batak script

 It's been a while since the "Set up your PC to show and write Batak script" article was written. Things have changed so here is the updated post. Now is the mobile-first age, so the title it is no longer "PC" but "device".

Google has made Batak Unicode fonts, i.e., the Noto Sans Batak, so you can download and install it when needed. In many or most cases, in order to just display Batak script, you don't need to do anything because the font is already installed or automatically fetched.

But you still need to install an appropriate keyboard to write Batak Script. Fortunately Keyman has Batak keyboard for most if not all of your devices. Install the app first, then install the Batak keyboard.

Set up your PC to show and write Batak script

Batak script is proposed to Unicode Technical Committee in 2008 by Michael Everson and Uli Kozok. Here is the proposal. It is now officially part of Unicode at block 1BC0 to 1BFF (see Wikipedia and character code tables and list of character names for The Unicode Standard, Version 8.0 at Uniode).

Here are two fonts available for Batak Unicode (see respective license at the source):

Pangunguran 1.05 by Michael Everson (source: http://evertype.com/fonts/batak/)

Surat Batak 1.2 by Uli Kozok (source: http://ulikozok.com/aksara-batak/batak-font/)

Here is how to make your computer show and write Batak script on Mac OS (I confirmed this on Mac 10.10.4 Yosemite).

1) Download keyboard layout files (the .keylayout and the .icns files) and drop them to ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts

2) Go to keyboard settings at System Preferences and activate the Batak QWERTY input source.

After the above steps, you should be able to see the following Batak word "horas" in Batak script:

ᯂᯬᯒᯘ᯲

Or, use this browser test for Unicode block Batak.

Genealogy

There are quite many sites in the Internet describing Batak genealogical data, but most of them are not in any standard. On the other hand, de facto standard to describe family tree is using GEDCOM format. There are efforts to create better standard, such as GedcomX, but still the lowest common denominator is GEDCOM.

Surat Batak

One of most comprehensive technical studies of Surat Batak available on the internet is the one made by Uli Kozok on his site.

Relationship terminology

Unlike for example in English, Batak has a complex relationship terminology (also called "kinship term" or "kin classification"). Dr. Kathryn Brineman Bovill presented Batak Toba's relationship terminology in his paper titled "Toba Batak relationship terminology" (1985. Toba Batak Relationship Terminology. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde, Deel 141, 1ste Afl., ANTHROPOLOGICA XXVII, pp. 36-66. KITLV, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Netherland). We are going to use this as base.

The following table shows Toba Batak relationship terminology described in the above paper (see as Google Docs):



The "Genealogical Specifications" are kin-types defined below, both primary and secondary (see "Computer Methods for Analyzing Genealogical Space"):

Primary kin-types
M: a female alter connected to ego through a direct ascending vertical link (i.e., a Mother)
F: a male alter connected to ego through a direct ascending vertical link (i.e., a Father)
Z: a female alter connected to ego through a direct sibling link (i.e., a Sister)
B: a male alter connected to ego through a direct sibling link (i.e., a Brother)
D: a female alter connected to ego through a direct descending vertical link (i.e., a Daughter)
S: a male alter connected to ego through a direct descending vertical link (i.e., a Son)
W: a female alter connected to a male ego through a direct link of affinity (i.e., a Wife)
H: a male alter connected to a female ego through a direct link of affinity (i.e., a Husband)

Secondary kin-types
Secondary kin-types are units connected to ego through double primary links and only through double links. Thus BB is not a secondary type since a unit connected to ego in this way is also connected to ego as a primary type. MS (Half-brother) is, however, a secondary type since by definition there is no direct link between ego and this unit.