Point by Point Arrangement

The Difference Between The Mandailing Batak and The Toba Batak
Batak is one of the tribes that is very popular among the people and is the tribe with the third
largest population in Indonesia. Historically, the Batak tribe came from Tapanuli and came from East
Sumatra, which until now has not been known regarding the specific year they settled. The Batak
tribe is not just one but consists of several sub-tribes. The Mandailing Batak and Toba Batak are
some of the six Batak tribes consisting of the Toba Batak, Karo Batak, Simalungun Batak,
Pakpak/Dairi Batak and Angkola Batak (Koentjaraningrat 1985, in Simanungkalit, 2018). The
Mandailing Batak and Toba Batak are almost the same, but there are some differences between the
two tribes. There are two main difference betwen the Mandailing Batak and the Toba Batak: Clothes
and Language.

Firstly, the Mandailing Batak traditional clothing also uses the same material as the Toba Batak,
namely ulos cloth. However, unlike the Toba Batak, the ulos cloth on the Mandailing Batak
traditional clothing is wrapped around the middle of the body. Other differences can also be seen
from the headdresses on men and women. The Mandailing Batak men's headdress has a distinctive
shape and is black in color called amupu and the headdress for women is called a bulang which is
tied to the forehead. Meanwhile, Toba Batak traditional clothing is equipped with accessories in the
form of a head covering for men called a headdress. While accessories for women are head ties or
straps and wearing ulos scarves.

Secondly, the Mandailing Batak accent and the Toba Batak accent are very closely related to both
of these accents, the difference mainly lies in the way of pronunciation, because the Mandailing
people do not combine two consonants in a row, the Toba people do combine two consonants in a
row, while the Toba people do blend two consecutive consonants. Apart from the difference in
pronunciation, the difference between the Mandailing accent and the Toba accent lies mainly in the
fact that the Mandailing people borrow quite a lot of words from the Minangkabau language in their
conversations.

In summary, the Batak have their own characteristics, including traditional clothing and language.
The Mandailing Batak and Toba Batak have several differences, for example in the angle of clothing,
how to wear it and also complementary accessories such as headdresses for men and women.
Likewise with language. The Mandailing Batak and Toba Batak also have some differences regarding
language, although in some languages there are also the same ones, but the way of delivery or the
accent/tone of voice is different.