Reference to a recent PhD on Bantayanon

The August 2022 issue of the SIL International Linguistics Coord newsletter, LingBits, noted: 'Thanks to Steve Quakenbush for pointing out this helpful dissertation by Jarrette Allen (PhD 2022 Tulane University) of the Bantayanon language in Cebu Province, Philippines. Steve says: "Jarrette uses SUM and Rapid Word Collection and did his language documentation through community engagement." '

https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A124142 [download button on the far right, under the image of the title page]

Abstract - This dissertation describes a collaborative effort between myself and community members from Bantayan Island in Cebu province to begin the process of documenting and describing the Bantayanon language and reinvigorating it for future generations. Based on the precepts of the Sustainable Use Model, which argue that literacy and a literary tradition are major factors in language maintenance and revitalization, we have developed a proposed orthography for Bantayanon and have begun the process of developing a Bantayanon dictionary. I describe the process and methods by which a significant corpus of data was collected, by way of video interviews and a modified version of the Rapid Word Collection method. I also present a brief grammatical description of Bantayanon. In doing so, I focus on its unique features and present the scholarly arguments for situating Bantayanon linguistically among its related languages. In doing so, it is my objective to provide a framework by which Bantayanon may continue to be documented and analyzed by future researchers and/or by the community itself and a basis for the development of elementary-level pedagogical materials in Bantayanon. I finish by evaluating the final result in terms of what worked well and what did not and suggest ideas for further development and revitalization of the language, in the hope that this dissertation may also serve to inform researchers who attempt similar projects on other languages in the Philippines in the future.