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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kelly, Piers, author.

Title The last language on Earth : linguistic utopianism in the Philippines / Piers Kelly
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022]
©2022

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations, maps
Summary "The Eskayan language of Bohol in the southern Philippines has been an object of controversy ever since it came to light in the early 1980s. Written in an unusual script Eskayan bears no obvious similarity to any known language of the Philippines, a fact that has prompted speculation that it was either displaced from afar, fossilized from the deep past, or invented as an elaborate hoax. This book investigates the history of Eskayan through a systematic review of its writing system, grammar and lexicon, and carefully evaluates written and oral narratives provided by its contemporary speakers. The linguistic analysis largely supports the traditional view that Eskayan was the deliberate creation of a legendary ancestor by the name of Pinay. The study traces the identity of Pinay through the turbulent history of early 20th-century Bohol when the island suffered a series of catastrophes at the hands of the United States occupation. It was at this time that the ancestor Pinay was channelled by Mariano Datahan, a multilingual prophet who foretold that English and other languages would be abandoned and that Eskayan would one day be spoken by everyone in the world. To make sense of this situation, the book draws on theorizations of postcolonial resistance, language ideology, mimesis, and the utopian political dynamics of highland societies. In so doing, it offers a linguistic and ethnographic history of Eskayan and of the ideologies and historical circumstances that motivated its creation"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed April 17, 2023)
Subject Eskayan language.
Eskayan language
Language and languages
SUBJECT Philippines -- Languages. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85100795
Subject Philippines
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021027803
ISBN 9780197509951
0197509959
9780197509937
0197509932
9780197509944
0197509940