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Podcast: In Conversation: An OUP Podcast
Episode: Piers Kelly, "The Last Language on Earth: Linguistic Utopianism in the Philippines" (Oxford UP, 2021)
Description: In the southern Philippines, the Bohol community speaks a language they say one man, Pinay, created long ago, leaving it for a modern Filipino named Mariano Datahan to rediscover and reenliven. The Last Language on Earth: Linguistic Utopianism in the Philippines (Oxford University Press, 2023) by Piers Kelly tells the story of the Eskayan language through linguistic, ethnographic, and historical analysis. Kelly investigates the origins of the Eskayan language as well as its role in political and conceptual controversies around language diversity and colonial contact. Carefully avoidingâand problematizingâdichotomies such as âreal or fake,â âinvented or natural,â the book explores not o...