Letras Y Figuras: Eskayan Enigma - 36 Days of Type
For this year's #36DaysOfType, I decided to create a series of letterform visualizing the glyphs of the enigmatic Eskayan script—a writing system used by an indigenous group in Bohol, Philippines called the Eskaya.
ORIGIN
It is believed that the Eskayan language is created by a wise ancestor named Pinay, who lived before the Spanish colonization of Bohol in the late 1500s. According to some oral traditions, he wrote the language/script on wooden tablets and hid them in a cave. These tablets were rediscovered in the 20th century by rebel leader Mariano Datahan, who decoded Pinay's words and shared the language and script with his followers.
In a different version, Mariano Datahan was the person who stored Eskaya records in a cave after receiving vision/linguistic inspiration directly from Pinay. The Eskaya people primarily use the Eskayan script for ceremonial purposes, such as recording genealogies, religious texts, and cultural traditions. It's worth noting that the Eskayan script is relatively obscure and not widely known or recognized outside of the Eskaya community.
The character design aims to represent the enigmatic essence of the script. Each letterform portrays contorted body postures, with a specific emphasis on the hands and feet, as they were the original inspiration of the Eskayan letters.
Eskayan glyphs
"A"
"B"
"D"
"G"
"K"
"M"
Mariano Datahan
