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The Last Language on Earth is the story of Eskayan, a constructed language from the Philippines. Unlike better-known invented languages such as Esperanto or Klingon, Eskayan has now been transmitted from generation to generation within its community for over a century and has come to be regarded by its speakers as the true indigenous language of the island of Bohol. The book considers the form of language itself as a point of departure, and analyzes the historical circumstances and ideological motivations that brought it into being and which continue to sustain it today.
List of contents
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Terminology
- Prologue
- Chapter One: Introduction
- What this Book is About
- What Pinay Understood About Language
- A Language Forgotten, a Language Foretold
- PART I: Locating the Eskaya
- Chapter Two: Language, Literacy and Revolt in the Southern Philippines
- Pre-contact Visayan Literacy
- The 'Problem' of Language Diversity in the Colonial and Early
- Commonwealth periods (1593-1937)
- Shamanic Rebellion and Indigenous Outlaws in Bohol (1621-1829)
- Enter the Eskaya (1902-1937)
- Chapter Three: Contact and Controversy
- First Contact
- Media
- Institutional Tribehood
- A Formal Alliance and a Lost Report
- Eskaya Responses and a New Research Agenda
- PART II: Language, Letters, Literature
- Chapter Four: How Eskayan is Used Today
- Bohol in the Visayas
- Language use in Bohol
- A picture of the Fieldsite
- The Spoken and Sung Somains of Eskayan
- The Written Domains of Eskayan and Ideologies of Writing
- Chapter Five: The Writing System
- Writing Eskayan Sounds
- Numbers
- Script
- The Past and Future of Eskayan writing
- Chapter Six: Words and Their Origins
- Eskayan Grammar
- The Lexicon
- Sources of Inspiration
- Pinay's Lexical Agenda
- Chapter Seven: Eskaya Literature and Traditional Historiography
- The Origins and Scope of Eskaya literature
- Language History in Eskaya Literature: A Summary and Analysis
- Discussion
- PART III: Insurrection and Resurrection
- Chapter Eight: From Pinay to Mariano Datahan (and Back Again)
- Datahan and the Origins of the Biabas Encampment
- The Return of Militant Cults 1902-1922
- Accommodation with the US Regime ca. 1914-1937
- Datahan's Final War and Posthumous legacy
- Chapter Nine: Eskayan Revealed: A Scenario
- The Rise of English in Bohol as a Catalyst for Eskayan
- How Pinay's Language was Revealed
- Prophecy, Prolepsis and Time Depth
- Summary
- Chapter Ten: Conclusion: The First Language and the Last Word
- Imagining Indigeneity from Above: The View from the Helicopter
- The Form of Eskayan and the Identity of Pinay
- Imagining Indigeneity from Below: The View from the Village
- Regional Parallels
- The (Re)invention of Linguistic Tradition
- The Future of Eskayan
- References
- Glossary of Eskayan Terms Used in this Volume
- Index
About the author
Piers Kelly is a linguistic anthropologist whose research centers on the varied uses of writing and graphic codes in non-state societies, especially in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia. He has previously worked as a linguist with the National Commission on Indigenous People, Philippines, and is currently affiliated with the Centre for Australian Studies at the University of Cologne, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Leipzig, and the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. He is a co-editor of Skin, Kin and Clan: The Dynamics of Social Categories in Indigenous Australia (ANU Press, 2018).
Summary
The Last Language on Earth is an ethnographic history of the disputed Eskayan language, spoken today by an isolated upland community living on the island of Bohol in the southern Philippines. After Eskaya people were first 'discovered' in 1980, visitors described the group as a lost tribe preserving a unique language and writing system. Others argued that the Eskaya were merely members of a utopian rural cult who had invented their own language and script. Rather than adjudicating outsider polemics, this book engages directly with the language itself as well as the direct perspectives of those who use it today.
Through written and oral accounts, Eskaya people have represented their language as an ancestral creation derived from a human body. Reinforcing this traditional view, Piers Kelly's linguistic analysis shows how a complex new register was brought into being by fusing new vocabulary onto a modified local grammar. In a synthesis of linguistic, ethnographic, and historical evidence, a picture emerges of a coastal community that fled the ravages of the U.S. invasion of the island in 1901 in order to build a utopian society in the hills. Here they predicted that the world's languages would decline leaving Eskayan as the last language on earth. Marshalling anthropological theories of nationalism, authenticity, and language ideology, along with comparisons to similar events across highland Southeast Asia, Kelly offers a convincing account of this linguistic mystery and also shows its broader relevance to linguistic anthropology. Although the Eskayan situation is unusual, it has the power to illuminate the pivotal role that language plays in the pursuit of identity-building and political resistance.
Additional text
This book is excellent for linguists interested in learning more about artificial languages and the context in which one such language can establish itself securely within a community. It is also intended for those interested in learning about the different peoples and cultures in the world that do not receive as much media attention as larger communities and nations.
