Pitcairnese, or Pitkern, is spoken on Pitcairn Island, a British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific with a population of only around 40 people, which makes this one of the smallest speech communities anywhere. The language arose after 1790, when mutineers from HMS Bounty settled the island with their Tahitian companions; it blends eighteenth-century English with Tahitian elements. A closely related form, Norfuk, is spoken on Norfolk Island, the Australian territory to which most Pitcairners were relocated in 1856, and the two are often treated as branches of a single language. English is the island's official language, and Pitkern has no settled standard spelling, being passed on largely by speech. Islanders typically move between Pitkern and English depending on the company they keep.
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