Batak Karo language

Karo
Cakap Karo
Native toIndonesia
RegionKaro Regency, North Sumatra
Ethnicity
Native speakers
500,000 (2010)[1]
Batak
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3btx
Glottologbata1293
ELPBatak Karo
The distribution of Batak languages in northern Sumatra. Karo is represented by the yellow shade.

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 600,000 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 alphabet 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.

  1. ^ Karo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon