Language contact and 'the Catch': Norfolk Island fishing ground names. Issue 1 (1st January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nash, Joshua
• Is Part Of: Norsk geografisk tidsskrift. Volume 70:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 62
• Page End: 67
• Publication Date: 2016-01-01
• Subjects: Kerstin Potthoff -- Catriona Turner; creole languages -- language and space -- linguistic landscape -- Norf'k -- toponymy; Geography -- Periodicals; Norway -- Geography -- Periodicals; 914.81
• DOI: 10.1080/00291951.2015.1110197
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0029-1951

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The author uses Norf'k fishing ground names on Norfolk Island (South Pacific) to illustrate how toponyms can be exposed to geographic, anthropological, and linguistic scrutiny. The grammar of the names demonstrates how Norf'k, the language of the Pitcairn descendants, typifies an esoteric insider language because of its ecologically connected toponyms and pragmatic determinants. Norf'k fishing ground names vary in their linguistic form and hence in their geography and spatiality. The toponymic and linguistic landscape of Norfolk Island reveals several processes that are significant for understanding sea-based geographies and the intertwining of creole languages, other contact languages, and the environment.