This sociohistorical study probes an archaeological artefact called the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI) to suggest that translingualism, a sociolinguistic orientation that foregrounds the fluidity of language boundaries, was practised by precolonial Filipinos. It then analyses how translingual practices were potentially devalued by linguistic…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Philippine archipelago transitioned from nearly 400 years of colonial occupation under the Spanish to imperial occupation under the Americans. This analysis interrogates the dynamics through which the heterogeneous languages of the Philippine archipelago were maintained alongside state-sanctioned languages…