Editing Visayas (section)

===Speculations===
From the 1950s to 1960s there were spurious claims by various authors that "Bisaya" is derived from the historical empire of "[[Sri Vijaya]]" which came from the [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] term "Śrīvijaya" (श्रीविजय), arguing that the Visayans were either settlers from [[Sri Vijaya]] or were subjects of it. This claim is largely based only on the resemblance of the word ''Bisaya'' to ''Vijaya''.<ref name="Baumgartner 1974"/> But as the linguist Eugene Verstraelen pointed out, ''Vijaya'' would evolve into ''Bidaya'' or ''Biraya'', not ''Bisaya'', based on how other [[Sanskrit]]-derived [[loanword]]s become integrated into Philippine languages.<ref name="Verstraelen">{{cite journal |last1=Verstraelen |first1=Eugene |last2=Trosdal |first2=Mimi |title=Lexical Studies on the Cebuano Language |journal=Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society |date=1974 |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=231–237 |jstor=29791163 }}</ref><ref name="Verstraelen2">{{cite journal |last1=Verstraelen |first1=Eugene |title=Linguistics and Philippine Prehistory |journal=Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society |date=1973 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=167–174 |jstor=29791077 }}</ref>

The name has also been hypothesized to be related to the [[Bisaya (Borneo)|Bisaya]] ethnic group of [[Borneo]], the latter incidentally recounted in the controversial ''[[Maragtas]]'' epic as the alleged origins of the ancestral settlers in Panay. However historical, archeological, and linguistic evidence for this are still paltry. The languages of the Bisaya of Borneo and of the Bisaya of the Philippines do not show any special correlation, apart from the fact that they all belong to the same [[Austronesian family]]. Similarly there are claims that it was the name of a folk hero (allegedly "Sri Visaya") or that it originated from the exclamation "Bisai-yah!" ("How beautiful!") by the Sultan of Brunei who was visiting Visayas for the first time. All these claims have been challenged and remain as mere speculations and [[folk etymology|folk etymologies]].<ref name="Baumgartner 1974"/>