The result of the first Toba Congress request to modify the "ba" character.

[bennylin]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
News: https://www.ipminews.co.id/rumusan-hari-ketiga-kongres-i-kebudayaan-batak-toba-pada-22-oktober-2022/
Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20230714062818/https://www.ipminews.co.id/rumusan-hari-ketiga-kongres-i-kebudayaan-batak-toba-pada-22-oktober-2022/
Quote: "bentuk induk surat 'ba' perlu dipertimbangkan untuk menjadi bulat lonjong 'ba', karena ini yang lebih banyak di naskah"
Translation: "the [letter] 'ba' needs to be considered to be rounded oval 'ba', because this is the one that is more common in the text[s]"

One of the resolution of the congress in October 2022 was that the shape of "ba" should be modified into more elongated form, just like commonly seen in the Toba manuscripts for example "Pustaha laklak"

This request is on behalf of Surung Simanullang.

Describe the solution you'd like
1BC5 ᯅ BATAK LETTER BA should be modified to become more elongated (see example in the above image).
either the glyph is redrawn, or an alternative glyph is provided

Describe alternatives you've considered
Using its current form ᯅ is considered less common (rare form) based on the frequency of 'ba' form found in the Toba manuscripts

Additional context

Add MSS 156789 p 7: "balang do" ᯅᯞᯰ ᯑᯬ, the letter "ba"/ᯅ is more rounded and other manuscripts

[simoncozens]

This is definitely a unification issue. Toba ba should be an oval, but other orthographies can keep the existing shape.

[simoncozens]

I'm tempted to say "just use U+1BC6 KARO BA", at least for the meantime. To make this work we either need a stylistic set which substitutes ba for karo ba, or we need an OpenType language tag for Karo, which we don't currently have.