International Talk Like a Pirate Day: The Origins O’ Pirate Speak

Avast me hearties! September 19th be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Talk Like a Pirate Day is a “parody holiday” on which everyone, everywhere, is instructed to, well, talk like a pirate. Go figure.

However, it has taken the Internet by storm lately, and the population in general since it was created in 1995. Originally founded by John Baur who go by Ol’ Chumbucket and Cap’n Slappy respectively. The “holiday” naturally began as a bit of a joke, and Summers has reportedly claimed that they thought of the idea following a sporting injury on June 6th. They decided to postpone the date of Talk like a Pirate Day until September 19th so that something so lighthearted and frivolous wouldn’t coincide with the date of the Normandy Landings.

The holiday is, for reasons unbeknownst to me, frequently celebrated by adherents of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Go figure.

So where did “Pirate Speak” come from?

We all know what “Pirate Speak” is, but most people probably don’t actually know why we all speak that way on TLAPD.

I’d like to believe that the majority of us aren’t so foolish as to believe that pirates actually spoke with some sort of universal “pirate” accent or its accompanying lingo, instead understanding that people during the Golden Age of Piracy (1650s-1720s) would have spoken their own languages and dialects, and that it is unlikely that any of your favorite historical pirates actually called each other “me hearty”.

While some traditional terminology is undoubtedly historically accurate, the pop culture image of pirates such as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, François l’Olonnais or Henry Morgan is mostly the product of Hollywood.

Newton, originally from Dorset in the UK, exaggerated his own accent by placing a lot of emphasis on his ‘r’ sound, hence the classic “Arrrr!” so frequently associated with the buccaneer lifestyle.

 

According to an article by The Virtual Linguist:

“The West Country accent is rhotic, which means that the ‘r’ is especially pronounced in words such as shiver, timbers, hearties.”

So today, regardless of the historical authenticity of the rough, villainous accent and its accompanying abominable grammar, please join us in celebrating International Talk Like A Pirate Day by salting your words with nautical nonsense and ballast banter.

Or you could always walk the plank…