Batak Karo language

Karo is a Northern Batak language, and is closely related to Pakpak and Alas.^[2] It is mutually unintelligible from the Southern Batak languages, such as Toba, Angkola and Mandailing.^[2]

There are several dialects within Karo. A major dialect boundary exists between the dialects spoken in the east and the dialects spoken in the west.^[2] These are largely distinguished according to phonological and lexical differences. Vowels in the eastern dialect are lowered and fronted in the western dialect. Similarly, diphthongs in the eastern dialect are realised as monophthongs in the western dialect.^[2]

Karo has 17 consonant phonemes and 10 vowel phonemes.^[2]

Batak Karo has productive reduplication. Full reduplication occurs mainly with open word classes and exhibits a wide range of different functions. For instance, reduplication of nouns can signify plurality (tulan 'bone' → tulan-tulan 'bones') and imitation and similitude (berku 'coconut shell' → berku-berku 'skull'). Reduplication of verbs can encode repetition (nungkun 'ask' → nungkun-nungkun 'keep asking'), duration (ngukiri 'think' → ngukur-ngukuri 'ponder') or imitation (medem ‘sleep’ → medem-medem ‘lie down, rest’).^[2]

Batak Karo has a binary contrast between actor voice and patient voice for transitive verbs and can be classified as an Indonesian-type language. Actor voice is marked with the inflectional prefix N-. The prefix N- assimilates to the place of articulation of the stem that it is attached to, and is realised as [m] before bilabial stops, [n] before dental, alveolar and palatal stops and fricatives and [ŋ] before velar stops. Patient voice is marked with the inflectional prefix i-. Like other Indonesian-type languages Batak Karo also has applicatives (the suffixes -ken as a general applicative, and -i as a locative applicative).^[2]

Batak Karo often alternate between subject-initial and predicate-initial word orders for transitive clauses, although the preference is for Actor Voice clauses to be subject-initial. Predicate-Undergoer-Actor is a common word order when the undergoer is replaced by an interrogative pronoun. In contrast, while it is possible for patient voice clauses to place the subject (the undergoer in patient voice clauses) in the initial position, predicate-initial word orders are more frequent, with the undergoer subject placed after both the predicate and the actor.^[2]

cloud

me-kapal

ADJ-thick

N-tutup-i

AV-cover-APP.LOC

matawari.

sun

Embun me-kapal N-tutup-i matawari.

cloud ADJ-thick AV-cover-APP.LOC sun

'Thick cloud obscured the sun.'

sun

i-tutup-i

PV-cover-LOC.APP

embun

cloud

me-kapal.

ADJ-thick

Matawari i-tutup-i embun me-kapal.

sun PV-cover-LOC.APP cloud ADJ-thick

'The sun was obscured by thick cloud.'

PV-wait-LOC.APP

Raja

Raja

Acéh

Aceh

denga

still

Putri

Putri

Hijau.

Hijau

I-tima-i Raja Acéh denga Putri Hijau.

PV-wait-LOC.APP Raja Aceh still Putri Hijau

'Raja Aceh still waited for Putri Hijau.'

Karo

Ope denga ijadiken Dibata doni enda Kata e enggo lit. Kata e ras Dibata, janah Kata e me Dibata

English translation

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

• Norwood, Clodagh (1996). "Karo Batak: passive, ergative or neither?" (PDF). La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics. 9 (6): 101–120. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-08-21.
• Norwood, Clodagh (2001). "Actor voice in Karo Batak". La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics. 11 (7): 161–188.
• Woollams, Geoff (1996). A Grammar of Karo Batak, Sumatra (PDF). Pacific Linguistics Series C - No. 130. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/pl-c130. hdl:1885/145878. ISBN 0-85883-432-4.
• Woollams, Geoff (2005). "Karo Batak". In Alexander Adelaar; Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds.). The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. London: Routledge. pp. 534–561.

• Paradisec archive of recordings from a 2010 Field Methods class on Batak Karo
• Indonesian to Karo Dictionary
• Batak Karo Christian Bible
• language-museum.com
• omniglot.com