In this chapter we now move the chronological focus forwards to language-contact events associated with the colonial expansion of English which took place in the 1800s; and we once again concentrate on Lesser-Known Englishes, though in this case we deal with only one of the varieties that we met in Chapter 3, the English of the Bonin Islands. Bonin Islands English may well be the least known of all the Lesser-Known Englishes; and it is certainly one of the most fascinating and remarkable varieties of English in the entire world.

It is remarkable in terms of its history, as we shall see. And it is also remarkable in terms of its scholarship: it was totally unknown to the international community of English linguistics scholars until it was discovered in the 1990s – and “discovered” is an entirely appropriate word – by Danny Long. Long is himself also rather remarkable: an American linguist who teaches Japanese dialectology in Japan to Japanese students, in Japanese, he was alerted to the possible presence of an anglophone community on the Bonins (Ogasawara) by a Japanese television documentary. This showed an interview, in fluent native Japanese, with an elderly man on the Bonins who, however, looked to be of European origin, and whose name was the very un-Japanese Abel Savory. This led Long to investigate material on the history of the islands; and then to take the 28-hour boat trip from Tokyo to Chichijima, the main island of Ogasawara, where he met Mr Savory in the street.