Pitcairn Islands
(overseas
territory of the UK)
Pitcairn Island was
discovered in 1767 by the British and settled in
1790 by the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions. Pitcairn
was the first Pacific island to become a British colony (in 1838) and
today remains the last vestige of that empire in the South Pacific.
Outmigration, primarily to New Zealand, has thinned the population from
a peak of 233 in 1937 to less than 50 today. Its languages are: English
(official), Pitkern (mixture of an 18th century English dialect and a
Tahitian dialect).
|