Baran receives “New Voice in Island Studies” award

Reclaiming & Reimagining Island Heritage A ‘Mooring’ System: Island Relations in the Bantayanon Lexicon and Morphology

Nash et al. (2020) and Lee (2022) have floated the idea of an “island language” where islandness variables manifest lexically (and possibly grammatically) in the languages spoken on smaller islands. Developments in the wider study of islands, however, have continuously emphasized relationality (Pugh, 2013; 2016; Stratford, 2013; Stratford et al., 2011). This study attempts to further the investigation of “island languages” by further linking them with the “relational turn” in island studies. In particular, the study asks if and how island and archipelagic relations manifest in the spatial and orientational lexica and morphology of Bantayanon (ISO 639-3 [bfx]), a Central Bisayan language spoken on Bantayan Island. In turn, the study also asks if and how this spatial system helps shape an island/archipelagic epistemology in the Bantayanon speech community. The study approaches these questions by sifting through the available Bantayanon corpus and further elicitation through Lee’s (2022) Island Language Questionnaire. The results surface a “mooring” system in Bantayanon that consists of lexica and morphemes for island-human, island-non-human, island-island, and island-mainland relations that are moored to a moving and unstable reference point, the speaker’s conceived island, which also allows the speakers to position and re-position themselves in their myriad of contexts and identities. The study contributes to the growing discourse on island languages and island studies by emphasizing the embedded island/archipelagic relations in language and in the process, the study also provides some insight into engaging with island communities through local epistemologies of islandness and relationality.