Batak Karo Language Resources (btx)

Karo, referred to in Indonesia as Bahasa Karo (Karo language), is an Austronesian language that is spoken by the Karo people of Indonesia. It is used by around 1 million people in North Sumatra. It is mainly spoken in Karo Regency, southern parts of Deli Serdang Regency and northern parts of Dairi Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. It was historically written using the Batak script which is descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India by way of the Pallava and Old Kawi scripts, but nowadays only a tiny number of Karo can write or understand the script, and instead the Latin script is used.

Karo is a Northern Batak language, and is closely related to Pakpak and Alas–Kluet. It is mutually unintelligible from the Southern Batak languages, such as Toba, Angkola, and Mandailing.

The Karo people are largely Christian. Some Bataks, particularly those further north such as the Toba, became Christianized during the Dutch colonial period, and were particularly amenable to – and benefited from – early missionary schools. It is thought that these schools and the relatively high level of education of Bataks such as the Toba, explain why many of them were able to fill positions such as teachers and government officials after the Dutch colonial period.

The Bataks were less affected by the central government’s transmigrasi programme than were their northerly neighbours the Acehnese. Partially because of this, and the absence of the same valuable oil and gas resources, the Bataks have not been losing their traditional land or resources to the same degree as the Acehnese or Papuans. They have also been more successful – in part because of their relatively high levels of education and the small percentage of Javanese settled in their province – in occupying many of the jobs in the higher employment categories such as teaching, civil service positions and professionals. Nevertheless, government policies continue to exclude the use of Batak languages in many areas of public life, such as in local administration, and schooling in their languages remains limited.

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