I have stumbled upon this info while bored at work yesterday and I've grown really fascinated about this remote little island. The population there is so isolated they've even developed their own faux-english dialect.
Tristan da Cunha (pronounced
/ˈtrɪstən də ˈkuːnə/) is a remote
volcanic group of
islands in the south
Atlantic Ocean. It is the
most remote inhabited archipelago in the world,
[1] lying 2,816 kilometres (1,750 mi) from the nearest land,
South Africa, and 3,360 kilometres (2,090 mi) from
South America. It is a dependency of the
British overseas territory of
Saint Helena, 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to the north.
The islands have a population of 271 people.
[7] The main settlement is
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (known locally as "The Settlement"). The only religion is
Christianity, with denominations of
Anglican and
Roman Catholic. There are instances of health problems attributed to
endogamy, including
asthma and
glaucoma, largely because of the inevitable marriages among closely related couples, for example marriages between second degree cousins, that comes with having such a small
gene pool.
The current population is thought to have descended from 15 ancestors, eight males and seven females who arrived on the island at various times between 1816 and 1908. The male founders originated from Scotland, England, Holland, the USA and Italy.
[8] There is a very high incidence of
asthma among the population and research by Dr. Noe Zamel of the
University of Toronto has led to discoveries about the genetic nature of the disease.
[9] Three of the original settlers of the island were sufferers.
[10]
The remote location of the islands makes transport to the outside world difficult. There is no airport, so the islands can only be reached by boat. Fishing boats from South Africa regularly service the islands. The
RMS Saint Helena formerly connected the islands to South Africa, and the United Kingdom via
Saint Helena and
Ascension Island, but she no longer calls at Tristan da Cunha.
On Tristan da Cunha the population of 271 people share just seven surnames: Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello (a typical
Ligurian surname), Repetto (another typical Ligurian surname), Rogers and Swain. There are 80 families on the island.
Television did not arrive on the island until 2001, and the sole channel available is the
British Forces Broadcasting Service from the
Falkland Islands. Education is rudimentary; children leave school at fifteen, and although it is possible to take
GCSEs a year later, results are poor.
[11][12]
Tristan da Cunha's isolation has led to an unusual,
patois-like dialect of
English.
Bill Bryson documents some examples of the island's dialect in his book,
The Mother Tongue.