Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk was involved in translating the Bible into Toba Batak.
Name of the language
The name of this language arises from a complex history of ethnic identity in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia. It is a generic name for the common language used by the people of the districts of Toba, Uluan, Humbang, Habinsaran, Samosir, and Silindung. Linguistically and culturally these people are closely related, and other communities such as Silalahi and Tongging may also be classified as speakers of Toba Batak.
Among the aforementioned districts, Toba is the most densely populated and politically the most prominent district so that "Toba Batak" became a lable for all communities speaking a dialect closely akin to the diaect spoken in Toba. In contemporary Indonesia the language is seldom referred to as "Toba Batak" (bahasa Batak Toba), but more commonly and simply as "Batak" (bahasa Batak). The (Toba)-Batak refer to it in their own language as "Hata Batak". This "Batak" language is different from the languages of other "Batak" people that can be divided in speaking a northern Batak dialect (Karo Batak, and Pakpak-Dairi Batak – linguistically this dialect group also includes the culturally very different Alas people), a central Batak dialect (Simalungun) and closely related other southern Batak dialects such as Angkola and Mandailing.
Description of the language
There are several dictionaries and grammars for each of the five major dialects of Batak (Angkola-Mandailing, Toba, Simalungun,Pakpal-Dairi, and Karo). Specifically for Toba Batak the most important dictionaries are that of Johannes Warneck (Toba-German) and Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk (Toba-Dutch).
Batak script
The Berkeley Script Encoding Initiative (accuracy challenged), http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/index.html, states that
* the script is written from left to right, or vertically upon bamboo
* in most Batak communities only the datu (priests) are able to read and write script where it is mainly used for producing calendars and magical incantations
The Unicode Consortium described the Batak script in a first technical report proposal for computer coding of the Batak Toba Language at http://www.unicode.org/Public/TEXT/UTR-3.TXT. One must search the file for the term ("Batak") to find the reference; there are no page numbers. The Consortium referred to Neubronner van der Tuuk, H.: A Grammar of Toba Batak (1971; translated version of the original: Tobasche spraakkunst, 1864-1867, 2 vols.).
Unicode notes that the phonetic system of the script is similar to the scripts of the Philippines (Tagalog).wikipedia.org
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