The Last Language on Earth

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).

• 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

This fascinating work of linguistic anthropology is based on both the author's fieldwork in the Philippines and his meticulous and wide-ranging research...this engaging monograph is likely to be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, political science, linguistics, and Southeast Asian studies.