The "Pirate Accent"

[John Maddox Roberts]

As a spinoff from another thread, let's discuss the "pirate accent." Classically, it seems to have been invented by Robert Newton for his portrayal of Long John Silver in the Disney Treasure Island. Of course, to do it Newton style you have to roll your eyes and wiggle your eyebrows with every syllable. This pirate accent may be described as "West Country plus nautical jargon."

In reality, in the Golden Age, a large number of pirates were from the American colonies, so a pirate was as likely to be from Boston or Charleston as from Bristol. Plus, many were non-English speaking. Is there any evidence what American accents were like in the late 17th-early 18th centuries? I suspect they didn't sound nearly as cool as we do, with our own made-up pirate accents.

[Wartooth]

Of course, you're right John. It's an accent created by Hollywood and then exaggerated over time. Those from the Americas most likely had only a small accent due to the era, and the earlier vocabulary and slang differences too. However, the british pirates would have a thick accent. Spanish and Dutch pirates would naturally speak their own language.

Wartooth

[Deacon Frye]

I have a particular interest in Marblehead. The following is from a nineteenth-century history of Marblehead (Roads' History of Marblehead, I think):

Dialect of Marblehead Fishermen.-- The first settlers of Marblehead came from the south of England, and many of them from the Guernsey and other channel island, and the peculiarities of the dialects of their ancestors are still observable in this old town. Roads, in his History of Marblehead, says:

"So broad and quick was their pronunciation, and so strange were the idioms characterizing their speech, that a native of the town was known wherever he went. Nor was this peculiarity confined to any class or condition of men residing in the town. All shared it alike, of whatever rank or condition in life. The words were clipped off very shortly, and in some sectinos were was a slight difference in the dialect noticeable. The `Cuny Lane' people always dropped the `h' in speaking, and their vernacular was much like that of a cockney Englishman, in addition to that which betrayed them `to the manner born.'

"Hardly a family in the olden time escaped with a correct pronunciation of its name. The name of Crowninshield became `Grounsel;' Orne was transformed to `Horne;' Trefry was variously pronounced `Duvy,' `Tevy', `Trevye,' and `Trefroy;' Quiner became `Coonier;' Florence was clipped to `Flurry,' and Trasher was abbreviated to `Trash.'

"So accustomed were many of the inhabitants to the cognomen by which they were known that in some instances they did not recognize their own names when called by them. An instance of this kind is related in the `Life and Letters of Judge Story,' who was a native of the town. Once while he was trying a case in the circuit court, in Boston, the clerk called out the name of one of the jury as Michael Treffrey (it being so spelt). No answer was given. Again he was called, and still there was silence. `It is very strange,' said the clerk, `I saw that man here not two minutes ago.' `Where does he come from?' asked the judge. `Marblehead, may it please your honor,' said the clerk. `If that's the case,' said the judge,'let me see the list.' The clerk handed it up to him. He looked at the name a minute and, handing back the list, said,'Call Mike Trevye,' (throwing the accent on the last syllable). `Mike Trevye,' called the clerk. `Here,' answered a gruff voice. `Why did you not answer before?' asked the clerk. `Treffrey is no way to pronounce my name,' said the juryman; `my name is Mike Trevye, as the judge knows.'

"Another anecdote to the same purpose is related in the work: `On one occasion, when some of our fishermen were in court to settle a mutiny which had taken place on the Grand Banks (of Newfoundland ), one, on being called to state what he knew, said that the skipper and one of his shipmates had what he called a `jor of ile.' The presiding judge in vain endeavored to get a more intelligible answer, and finally Judge Story was called upon, as usual, to act as interpreter to his townsman, which he did, telling the court that a `jor of ile' in the Marblehead dialect was `a jaw, a while,' which, being interpreted, meant that the two men abused each other grossly for some time.

Personally, I think the Guernesy/Channel Island connection is overdone. (I think the islands were still mostly French-speaking at the time.)

[Fox]

According to Cordingly in "Life Among the Pirates" the overwhelming majority of pirates in the Caribbean in the early 18th century were English speaking, so it seems sensible to concentrate on that.

I suspect that in the 17th and 18th century (and I'm no linguistics expert you undertsand), the differences between American and English accents were considerably less than they are nowadays, since by 1720 (to pick an arbitrary date for piracy) the oldest American families can only have been there for 3 or 4 generations, and the vast majority would have been there for much less. Plus, those families who had been there for generations would have been constantly refreshed by the influx of new colonists. therefore, I reckon, most of those American spoke with an English accent, or something very much like it.

If my above surmise is taken as reasonably sensible then we are looking at most pirates of the Golden Age speaking with an English accent, which as we know varies widely from region to region. Looking particularly at the West Country accent so beloved of Hollywood pirates I think it's fair to say that Wartooth is back to front. Hollywood considerable toned down the West Country accent for the movies, even today it is still spoken so thickly by some people in Devon and Cornwall that outsiders genuinely cannot understand it.

[Matty Bottles]

Bob Hoskins discusses how difficult it is to learn certain accents due to the transitional nature of certain communities:

http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3314/b...eature3314.html

Maybe the same applies to pirates and seamen? With all the outside influences they would have had....

[Hawkyns]

As a result of the Bristol accent being applied to pirates, there is a tendency to forget that many of the areas in the colonies took on the accents of the home of the colonists. The Carolinas, for instance, were heavily involved in the pirate/privateeer business, but a very large percentage of the population of those colonists came from Northern Ireland, Southern Scotland and the English borders. (Check out the book 'Albion's Seed" for details). Fair to say that instead of sounding like Bristolians, those colonists should have sounded more like people from Carlisle. And you think Bristol is hard to understand.....

Hawkyns

[Matty Bottles]

That reminds of the time I watched a movie called "Riff Raff" with Robert Carlisle and it had to be subtitled because everyone's accents were so thick. And the best part - it wasn't just one accent. It were accents from all over! It was glorious! I felt like I was watching a cross section of the british empire.

"My Name is Joe" also had to be subtitled, but that was very depressing, and everyone was Scottish, so the audible experience wasn't as varied.

[hitman]

If I may throw something out here I ounce read that accents change very quickly and although I am not sure about this I think I recall refrences to English mirth at the American accent fairly early on in the colonial period. Also hawkyns I think the Carolinas aren't the only place with that praticular accent as most of the deep south is of Scotts Irish ancestry and or African witch brings another question to the fore front what was the accent of a black pirate like?

[Deacon Frye]

That reminds of the time I watched a movie called "Riff Raff" with Robert Carlisle and it had to be subtitled because everyone's accents were so thick. And the best part - it wasn't just one accent. It were accents from all over! It was glorious! I felt like I was watching a cross section of the british empire.

"My Name is Joe" also had to be subtitled, but that was very depressing, and everyone was Scottish, so the audible experience wasn't as varied.

And that reminds me of a BBC(?) PBS(?) show a few years back on British dialects that used subtitles.

It's hard for us in the U.S. to recall now, even for those of us who are a bit older, just how diverse regional accents were. Yes, there are vestiges left, but we've become a linguistically much blander country.

[Cap'n Slappy]

As far as pirate accents go, there's what we've been given (Newton, et al) and there's what we play with (every person who has "affected" their own incarnation of a pirate accent, et. al.)

But it seems to me that finding a "one true" pirate accent would be like trying to find the "one true" United Nations Delegate accent. (If the United Nations spanned the length of centuries rather than decades).

Cap'n Slappy

[Matty Bottles]

That's a good way to put it....man, I'd be screwed. I can't even understand my neighbor's kids.

[JoshuaRed]

Yeah it's a little off even suggesting there's such a thing as a pirate accent. I mean they were just regular people occupying a certain space and time just as we are today, talking like what was normal to them. Granted, seamen had a language all their own, but the words were filtered through whatever each man's accent was, be it Scottish, Irish, English, Yankee, French, Spanish, African, Chinese, Portugese, Caribe, Patois, what have you.

We don't say there is such a thing as a bankrobber accent today, or computer hacker accent, or motorcycle gang accent....

[Deacon Frye]

To hear Newton doing the intro to the TV series, Click Here.

(From: Whirligig. If you have downloads disabled it probably won't play, but you can go to the site and play it without changing your settings. There's also a referral to another site where you can watch a couple of episodes.)

[Captain Tito]

Many accents tended to be based on a persons whereabouts and social surroundings too. Mostlikely some pirates, especially common crew members, had very thick accents associated with the poorer classes.

Most Captains, I believe, tried to extoll a more dignified tone, to show off their stature and show captives that they could be gentleman-like too, unless of course the red flag had to be flown. Did a scoundrel like Blackbeard speak with such a aristocratic-like tounge? Can't quite say. I would bet Captain Kidd did, and Jean LaFitte's French was probably as upperclass sounding as any Louis that sat on the throne in Paris.

[hitman]

It's hard for us in the U.S. to recall now, even for those of us who are a bit older, just how diverse regional accents were.  Yes, there are vestiges left, but we've become a linguistically much blander country.

My father used to tell me at one point in his early years you could tell what part of a state someone came from by thier accent.....now it takes a southerner just to tell one southeren states accent from another and to be honest with you I for one am sad to see even that vestage slipping away. I kinda like me rebel accent ya might say.

[John Maddox Roberts]

On accents changing quickly: When Scorsese was filming "The Gangs of New York," much thought was given to reconstruct a "native" New York accent of the mid-1800s, as spoken by Daniel Day Lewis. One of their sources was an Edison recording of Walt Whitman reciting a few lines of verse, revealing that certain words were pronounced differently back then, a sort of paleo-Brooklyn.

An elderly English lady traveling in the American South in the 18th century noted that the distinctive southern drawl sounded like the fashionable speech at the late Stewart court of her youth. The clipped, Oxford accent became the standard court speech in Hanoverian times.

If you're interested in the subject of regional accents and how they change, the Library of Congress has been collecting recordings of them since the 20s. Every couple of decades they go back and have natives read the same paragraphs. The most recent survey had some surprising findings: In some areas the accents had actually grown stronger since early in the last century.

[Cracked Carrie]

I ran a quick internet search and scared up a few interesting tidbits from a Linguistics forum, talking about the evolution (in general) and divergence of English and American accents. One thing I found interesting is that, apparently, English accents are the ones that have undergone more divergence in the last few centuries, so that a generic modern American accent has a few pronunciation points more in common with earlier English accents than most current ones in Britain do. (Such as, in most earlier English accents, the "r" sound wasn't lost in a lot of words, so that those words would have sounded closer to how we Americans pronounce them, now. "Order" instead of the English "ohrdah"...that sort of thing.)

[Isabella]

I think it can be said that a Pirate "accent" could be derived from sailing from many types of people on board your ship. In some cases you had Irish, English, Spanish and French on board together for long periods of time, commicating, learning parts of the language, slang, etc.

Also, most ship yards in England were on the West side where the "Blackpoolian" and "Liverpoolian" cockney were heavy and odd. Is you listen to John Lennon or George Harrison talk, they have oddly muddled Irish-English voices, because of the trade from Ireland.

Part of my ancestry is from the Philippines, where the national Langage is Tagalog. The language is part BayBayan (Native tounge), Spanish, Portugese, Hindi, Chinese/Mandarine Chinese, Swahili, and a few others. Their accent in some areas of the Philippines sounds Spanish with strains of Chinese. Our family has the "oys" of the Filipino side, along with the trills of the Spanish flavor. The further South you go, it becomes more choppy.

For instance "Kumasta Po?" Is just like Como est? (bad spelling on my part I don't speak Spanish.) The Po is only used when you are addressing someone older than you and with respect, so Grandfather (Lolo) or Grandmother (Lola).

Who's to say that the "accent" of the pirate wasn't made up of all the places he lived, people he bunked with and language bits he picked up?

[redhand]

We were speakin about this on another thread, and I happened

to mention the movie "The Island" written by Peter Benchly about

modern day pirates in the carabbean, who were decended from

the original french, english, spanish & dutch pirates. In the movie

they spoke a kind of pidgeon language that utilized all of the afore

mentioned languages. Now realizing that this is hollywood and I have

no idea where Benchly got his information from this other than pure

speculation (which is a no-no in historical documentation).

However there are at least two native based trade languages here

in the U.S., Chinook, based on the chinookian language and english,

french, spanish & russian here in the Pac. NW, and Mobilian based from

the mobialian language and several other native languages, including

spanish & english. To me it seems like there may have been a chance

such a "trade" language could have evolved, especially aboard ships

with multi-cultural crews. Would certainly be interesting to research

and or write a thesis on.

Cheers

Redhand

[Isabella]

If you do more looking into it, I'd dig to read it. That's up my alley in interests.

:)

[PirateQueen]

Just wanted to mention I enjoyed reading this thread. The "pirate accent" or rather, what most people think is the definitive pirate accent, has been one of my pet peeves for a long time.

When I first heard about "Talk Like A Pirate Day," I wondered, what exactly does that mean? Of course, it really means, "Talk Like Robert Newton as Long John Silver Day."

(When co-workers, who know I'm into pirates, asked me if I was going to participate, I said, "Sure!" They expected me to sound like the stereotype, and were a bit puzzled when I would just say, "Well, this is how THIS pirate talks!" )

['Salem Bob']

Ahoy Aloft and Alow,

There is no doubt that the classic 'pirate accent' as thrust upon our imaginations is that of the Southwest of England (grossly eggagerated, and often with poorly choosen nautical expressions), thanks of course to 'Treasure Island', and most recently continued with 'Pirates of the Carribean' - fortunately, Barbossa (although with a most Un-Cornish/'Zummerzet'/Devon name) and Mr. Gilbert speak with a far more realistic approximation of said accent - not exclusive to mariners, but once widespread amongst farmers, sheperds, and miners in tin mines as well.

I found it interesting as well that Barbossa had another SouthWest of England trait - an uncommon stong fondness for apples (usually translated into fondess for cider drinking), and he only went 'over the top' with that last 'ARRRRR' of his, coming after Jack Sparrow in his final moments of his life.

As an aside, the 'aaaaarrrrr' is a quiet phrase used almost as a verbal punctuation of agreement amongst the countryfolk of the Southwest, used similarly to the New England 'ayuh' (which itself has about 9 forms, and is most often a quiet 'yuh' or 'eeyuh' - not the over-the-top 'Ay-yuh' that poor, gross imitations by non-New England actors use). My Grandmothers father and mother were both natives of Cornwall, and although my Gran was born in the US, and lived here all her life, she retained some of the peculiarities of speach akin to the Southwest of England. The country folk retained the 'thou' (more like 'tha') well into the 20th century as well.

[JoshuaRed]

Aye Salem Bob, you are quite right about the massacre of Ayuh. I was born in Mass. and raised in Maine. Moved away for awhile, but missed it too much and moved back a few years ago. I lost much of my accent when away, but when I moved back here it was amazing how fast I began dropping my "r"s, and sounding like a wicked true Yankee again.GO PATS!

And Pirate Queen - same thing happened to me in my office. All day I was pestered with "Hey man, I bet this is like Christmas for you...so c'mon! Talk like a pirate! " I proceeded to ramble on in an enhanced Downeastah drawl with nary an ARGH or Avast in sight. Was a letdown for the chuckleheads in the office, but at least I was not a contributor to Blackbeard rolling over in his grave that day.

[Deacon Frye]

And Pirate Queen - same thing happened to me in my office. All day I was pestered with "Hey man, I bet this is like Christmas for you...so c'mon! Talk like a pirate! " I proceeded to ramble on in an enhanced Downeastah drawl with nary an ARGH or Avast in sight. Was a letdown for the chuckleheads in the office, but at least I was not a contributor to Blackbeard rolling over in his grave that day.

I'd be interested to know more about the origins of that "Downeastah drawl". It seems to me it's often attributed to northeast/east England, but I suspect the southwesterners were a major influence.

Speaking of "enhancement". My father was from Maine, albeit the North. I can't help but notice the dilution of the accent over the decades since I was a kid.

However, I was in a convenience store a few years ago in Boothbay, and there was a young man speaking in the thickest Maine dialect I've ever heard, at least that I can recall.

At first I thought he was putting it on, but realized he was engrossed in a conversation with the cashier, whom he knew, about his mother's house being robbed, and this was just the way he spoke.

I found it quite heartening.

['Salem Bob']

And Pirate Queen - same thing happened to me in my office. All day I was pestered with "Hey man, I bet this is like Christmas for you...so c'mon! Talk like a pirate! " I proceeded to ramble on in an enhanced Downeastah drawl with nary an ARGH or Avast in sight. Was a letdown for the chuckleheads in the office, but at least I was not a contributor to Blackbeard rolling over in his grave that day.

I'd be interested to know more about the origins of that "Downeastah drawl". It seems to me it's often attributed to northeast/east England, but I suspect the southwesterners were a major influence.

Speaking of "enhancement". My father was from Maine, albeit the North. I can't help but notice the dilution of the accent over the decades since I was a kid.

However, I was in a convenience store a few years ago in Boothbay, and there was a young man speaking in the thickest Maine dialect I've ever heard, at least that I can recall.

At first I thought he was putting it on, but realized he was engrossed in a conversation with the cashier, whom he knew, about his mother's house being robbed, and this was just the way he spoke.

I found it quite heartening.

Hi Deacon Frye,

Actually, the overwhelming majority of settlers of the Bay colony were from the Southeast of England - East Anglia and Suffolk to be precise. This coincidentaly was the Hotbed of the 'Independant' dissenter churches, which came to be known as Congregationalist in New England. While there were exceptions to this rule (my fathers family came over on the second voyage of the Arabella in 1636, and settled in Essex county -Salem village or 'West parish', now Danvers they were Northumbrians, from Redesdale), the exceptions were adherants to the independant church.

Maine was then a part of the Bay colony (until 1820, and the Missouri Compromise), and until the mid 18th century, immigration was strictly controlled. The congregationalist church controlled the government proper nearly to the American Revolution, and were an enormous influence on the government of the colony/then state even after the theocracy ceased to exist as one, until 1836 (the year that the support of congregationalist ministers through public taxes was abolished). Marblehead and Beverly (known locally as 'Beggarly') were exceptions as you know (fishermen from Cornwall and Devon), and their uniqueness of accent is commented on even as early as the 18th century. I'm afraid what has been diluted is the Massachusetts accent over the years, by waves of immigration, which has turned it into a flat, toneless, pale shadow of itself. When you hear a downeastuh, you are hearing something close to the East Anglian of the original settlers of the Bay Colony.

You won't find very many Yankee pirates proper in the annals of piracy - the records of history show remarkably few, and most of them being forced men. The attitude of the Bay colony and it's inhabitants to piracy was negative to say the least (Rhode Island on the other hand was considered a haven, but thats one of the reasons the Bay Colony inhabitants refered to it as 'Latrina', as well as 'the isle of errors', for it's dissenting theology) - Blackbeard went out of his way to cause the suffering of any ship crew he caught hailing from there, because of the Bay colonys policy towards severity to punishment of convicted pirates (they actually had the nerve to hang them, then put them in gibbits after tarring the bodies on a mud flat in Boston Harbour). Conversely (and amusingly enough), they were amongst the greatest practitioners of privateering throughout the colonial wars, the Revolution, and the War of 1812. That probably has to do with combining the scripture 'render unto Ceasar', with the unique theological belief of the puritans that profit in an endevour showed God's favour, and indeed his will - Mass privateers (including Maine) sailed during the Revolution under a flag with the pious (or sanctimonious, depending on your viewpoint) sentiment "An appeal to Heaven", a pure white flag with a green pine tree central, and the motto above. I'm sure it was a comfort to the Anglican believers on the British merchantmen they caught by the hundred, that the rebels were piously disposed.