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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 Diacritic s, 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. EXTERNAL LINK
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