The Kittitian Other in the Pacific: Edward Young, Extra-Caribbean Mobility, and Pitcairn Island

My title is an allusion to Patricia Mohammed's (2009) paper "The Asian Other in the Caribbean" in the Caribbean studies journal Small Axe. Where Mohammed deals with an othering and migration into the Caribbean, which has altered the macro cultural landscape of micro Indianised locales specifically in Trinidad, my take deals with the smallest possible micro migration-a single individual-out of the Caribbean-specifically from the island of St Kitts-to the South Pacific-specifically Pitcairn Island-through England and Polynesia. The Caribbean cultural remnants I consider are wholly historical and linguistic. My story is both factual and speculative. In this essay I consider to what extent Caribbean-originated Bounty midshipman Edward Young's legacy remains in the Pitcairn Island language, Pitcairn. My angle should be relevant to linguists, island studies scholars, and Pacific scholars alike.