WHO/WHAT: The University of Hawai‘i Center for Japanese Studies presents “Two Centuries of Language and Cultural Contact on the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands,” featuring a talk by Dr. Daniel Long, professor of Japanese linguistics at the Tokyo Metropolitan University.
In 1830, people speaking European, Polynesian and Micronesian languages settled the uninhabited islands known today as the Bonins. They communicated in pidginized English, which quickly became creolized. In the 1870s, the islands became part of Japan and hundreds of Japanese settlers added to the islands’ cultural and linguistic diversity. The original inhabitants became Japanese citizens and their children attended bilingual schools. Long will discuss the nearly two centuries of cultural and bilingual contact, drawing comparisons based on his recent fieldwork with immigrant communities in modern-day mainland Japan.
WHEN/WHERE: Friday, Sept. 21, noon-1:30 p.m., in Moore Hall 319 on the UH-Manoa campus. Free admission. For more information, call (808) 956-2665.
