Batak Karo language

Karo
Cakap Karo
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Karo Regency, North Sumatra
Ethnicity	Karo
Native speakers	500,000 (2010)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands Batak Northern Karo
Writing system	Batak Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	btx
Glottolog	bata1293
ELP	Batak 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.