Can small islands tell large(r) stories?: The microcosm of Nepean Island, Norfolk Island Archipelago

Abstract

Norfolk Island, South Pacific provides linguists a near laboratory case study in naming, language contact, and environmental management. The two languages spoken on the island, Norf'k - the language of the descendants of the Pitcairn Islanders - and English, are both used in place-naming. This short note analyses the toponyms of Nepean Island, a small uninhabited island 800 metres south of Norfolk. It questions whether Nepean is a microcosm of naming behaviour for the rest of the Norfolk macrocosm. For its size, Nepean contains a large number of toponyms. The paper suggests the uninhabited nature of Nepean may have resulted in fewer commemorative anthroponymic toponyms, a situation unlike naming patterns in the rest of the archipelago. Nepean offers a study of naming a small no-man's land as compared to naming a larger occupied land.