| has gloss | eng: Eskayan is the language of the Eskaya cultural minority of Bohol, an island province of the Philippines. Relatively little is known about this speech variety which has been the object of occasional media attention in the Philippines since the 1980s. While Eskayan has no mother-tongue speakers, it continues to be taught by volunteers in at least three cultural schools in the southeast interior of the province.Eskayan has a number of idiosyncrasies that have attracted wide interest. One of its most immediately remarkable features is its unique writing system of over 1000 syllabic characters, all said to be modelled on parts of the human body. Also significant is its syntactic and morphological equivalence to Cebuano, the dominant language of Bohol and some surrounding provinces. The earliest attested document written in Eskayan dates from 1908 and was on display at the Bohol Museum until September 2006. |
