Eskayan Revealed

This chapter is a speculative reconstruction of the process by which the Eskayan language and script came into existence. Eskaya people today maintain that Eskayan was created by the ancestral “pope” Pinay and that it was later revealed to the prophet Mariano Datahan. The chapter argues that this event took place after the United States began introducing English into Bohol’s educational system in 1902, prompting a desire to return to Bohol’s “true” language and script. Linguistic analysis suggests that Eskaya traditional literature was first written in Visayan (Cebuano). Within this literature a small number of Eskayan words emerged. The Eskayan alphabet was revealed, and this was later extended into a syllabary. As the literature was back-translated into Eskayan, lists of new Eskayan words were generated from American pedagogical templates and other models. The effort was collaborative but not strictly coordinated.

Alphabet · Linguistics · History · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy