Batak alphabet
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The Batak alphabet (ethnonym surat batak) is a type of alphabet called an abugida that is used to write the Batak languages of northern Sumatra, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In most Batak communities, only the priests, or datu are able to use the Batak alphabet, and use it mainly for magical texts and calendars.
The Batak alphabet was probably derived from Pallava and Old Kawi alphabets, which ultimately were derived from the Brahmi alphabet, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. It is either written from left to right, or in columns from bottom to top.
Like most abugidas, each letter has an inherent vowel of /a/, unless there is a diacritic (called halanta) to indicate the lack of a vowel. Other vowels and final ŋ are indicated by diacritics, which appear above, below, or after the consonant. However, surat batak is unusual in that the diacritics are placed at the end of the entire syllable, and not necessarily with the consonant they belong to. For example, ba is written ba (one letter); bi is written ba.i (i follows the consonant); bang is written baŋ (ŋ is above the consonant); and bing is baŋ.i. Final consonants are written with the halanta (here represented by "#"): bam is ba.ma.#. However, bim is written ba.ma.i.#: the first diacritic belongs to the first consonant, and the second belongs to the second consonant, but both are written at the end of the entire syllable.