Placing Pitcairn Island Placenaming Historically: Professor A. S. C. Ross, Albert W. Moverley, Henry E. Maude, and The Pitcairnese Language

Author(s)
Nash, Joshua
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
This article documents a crucial element in the historiography of research into Pitcairn, the Pitcairn Island language. It considers the work of British linguist Professor Alan Strode Campbell Ross (1907-1980), Pitcairn Island’s first non-islander school teacher Albert Wadkins Moverley (1908-1953), and the founder of the discipline of Pacific history Henry Evans Maude (1906-2006) on the edited 1964 work <i>The Pitcairnese Language</i>, the key volume about the history and linguistics of the Pitcairn Island language. Maude’s gazetteer of Pitcairn Island placenames is evaluated with reference to the contribution it makes to <i>The Pitcairnese Language</i>. Ross’s correspondence, especially that with Maude, and how the data collected by Moverley, who lived on the island between 1949-1951 and who became Ross’s Ph.D student, is summarized and assessed in terms of how it contributed to <i>The Pitcairnese Language</i>, especially the section on Pitcairn Island placenaming (toponymy). In summary, Ross’s statement in his preface to T<i>The Pitcairnese Language</i> that “any account of a language is better than no account at all’ is appraised in terms of a historiography of research into the Pitcairn Island language.
Citation
Pacific Asia Inquiry, 9(1), p. 62-74
ISSN
2377-0929
Link
Publisher
University of Guam, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Title
Placing Pitcairn Island Placenaming Historically: Professor A. S. C. Ross, Albert W. Moverley, Henry E. Maude, and The Pitcairnese Language
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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