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Article published In: Asia-Pacific Language Variation
Vol. 2:1 (2016) ► pp.82–120

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The origins of invented vocabulary in a utopian Philippine language

 | The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Published online: 29 September 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.2.1.03kel
Abstract
The utopian Eskayan language and script has been spoken for at least three generations by a small community on the island of Bohol in the southern Philippines. Speakers, who use the language in special domains, attribute its creation to a legendary ancestor known as Pinay. In this paper I consider the origins of Eskayan vocabulary, showing how lexical models from Cebuano, Spanish and English account for a small proportion of Eskayan lexemes. The traces of these colonial languages lend important clues to the development of the lexicon as a whole, shedding light on the tumultuous historical context in which Eskayan came into being. Further, the patterning of Eskayan vocabulary reveals Pinay’s folklinguistic conceptions about the nature of ‘language’ and linguistic variation.
Cebuano
Ang “utopian” nga pinulongan ug sinulatan nga Eskaya gigamit sa labing menos tulo na ka mga kaliwatan sa usa ka gamayng komunidad sa isla sa Bohol sa habagatang Pilipinas. Ang mga mamumulong, kinsa naggamit sa pinulongan sa espesyal nga kabahin, nagtuo nga ang paglalang niini gagikan pa sa ilang katigulangan pinaagi sa usa ka nailhan nga Pinay. Sa niini nga pagtuon, akong gisusi ang sinugdanan sa Eskaya nga bokabularyo, ug gipakita kon unsa ka gamay sa gambalay sa Cebuano, Espanyol ug Ingles nga pinulongan ang makita sa pinulongang Eskaya. Ang agi sa niini nga kolonyal nga mga pinulongan magapahulam og importante nga mga timailhan ngadto sa kalamboan sa kinatibuk-an nga leksikon, nagpatin-aw ibabaw sa gakaguliyang nga kaagi sa pag-ula sa niining pinulongang Eskaya. Dugang pa, ang sumbanan sa Eskaya nga bokabularyo gapadayag sa lumad nga panghunahuna ni Pinay mahitungod sa kinaiya sa ‘pinulongan’ ug sa kalainan niini.
Article outline
  • 1.Context, speakers and domains
  • 2.Sources
  • 3.The lexicon and its origins
    • 3.1Cebuano in Eskayan
    • 3.2Spanish in Eskayan
      • 3.2.1Spanish-like phonotactics
      • 3.2.2Spanish via Cebuano
      • 3.2.3Direct Spanish inspirations
      • 3.2.4Semantic domains and time depth
    • 3.3English in Eskayan
    • 3.4Other languages in Eskayan
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
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