The "Pirate Accent"

[John Maddox Roberts]

Salem Bob:

It should be noted that Robert Newton's "Arrrs" in the Disney Treasure Island" are far more subdued than generations of Newton impersonators have made them. That's the way with impersonation: take a few mannerisms and exaggerate the hell out of them. Personally, I was more impressed as a kid by the way Newton talked with his eyebrows.

That said, for years after seeing Treasure Island my brother and I would always conclude our prayers with a resounding "Armen!" The nuns were not amused.

[imadrunkenpirate]

Whenever ye say, "Pirate Accent," I have te think of Captain Jack Sparrow. I LOVE the way he talks!

Cabinlass Maggie

[Spydre Rogue]

Arr...

I be learn'ed in linguistical studies ter some degree, but this be an aree thet I hev not delved inter. Howe'er...be thet as it t'were, I would venture to offer this partic'lar tidbit fer thought.

Me young son, Cap'n Kid, be spendin' a fair parcel o' time with his best friend an' neighbor from next door, who be th' same age as he. O'er th' course of play, they be inventin' th' strangest jargon and phrases thet ye've e'er cared ta hear tripped o'er a human tongue. A'times it be all thet me an' th' Missus Rogue ken do ta make out what they be sayin'.

Now, considerin' the length o' time an' prox-cimity thet an actu'l crew o' pyrates would be aboard ship together, not ta mention esprit de corps, and seein' as how most crews prob'ly e'en spent a good deal o' time together when ashore, I would posite thet it be possible thet pee-cul'ar dialects an jargons would've evolved centered roun' each pyrate crew an' the crews which they be associated er confed'rated with.

T'was prob'ly English thouroughly bedrenched in a hodge-podge of varied dialects and slang from any number o' languages: African, Native American, Dutch, Spanish, French, Portualgese, and more. None o' which ment they couln't speak th' King's English when required, but true Pyrate cant twere prob'ly a wonder ta hear.

-Spydre

//^@^\\

['Salem Bob']

Arr...

I be learn'ed in linguistical studies ter some degree, but this be an aree thet I hev not delved inter. Howe'er...be thet as it t'were, I would venture to offer this partic'lar tidbit fer thought.

Me young son, Cap'n Kid, be spendin' a fair parcel o' time with his best friend an' neighbor from next door, who be th' same age as he. O'er th' course of play, they be inventin' th' strangest jargon and phrases thet ye've e'er cared ta hear tripped o'er a human tongue. A'times it be all thet me an' th' Missus Rogue ken do ta make out what they be sayin'.

Now, considerin' the length o' time an' prox-cimity thet an actu'l crew o' pyrates would be aboard ship together, not ta mention esprit de corps, and seein' as how most crews prob'ly e'en spent a good deal o' time together when ashore, I would posite thet it be possible thet pee-cul'ar dialects an jargons would've evolved centered roun' each pyrate crew an' the crews which they be associated er confed'rated with.

T'was prob'ly English thouroughly bedrenched in a hodge-podge of varied dialects and slang from any number o' languages: African, Native American, Dutch, Spanish, French, Portualgese, and more. None o' which ment they couln't speak th' King's English when required, but true Pyrate cant twere prob'ly a wonder ta hear.

-Spydre

//^@^\\

The average career of a pirate crew in the Golden Age was on the order of 6 months, with 2 years being the outside average - I don't know that they would have had time enough to develop a 'cant'. Most were sailors prior to their embarking into piracy, and would use normal nautical jargon and terminology.

[Spydre Rogue]

Arr...

Mayhaps, mayhaps...but it take not longer'n a month er two ta develop or acquire a brand new slang term fer, good God knows, jest 'bout anythin'. Spendin' close time isolated with a band o' brother's be 'bout th' best thing for bringin' about unique terms; jest spend some time with gang members in yer local city, er fer thet matter any band o' young lads, especially those wot consider 'emselves outlaws er outcasts. The slang becomes pop'lar immediat'ly and gets passed along ta those wot be next enrolled in th' group as the population matriculates. This helps build a sense o' group unity an' history o' tradition. E'en tots at summer camps, wot be gone only o'er th' course o' a single summer, practice this. It can also be seen in th' military which also has an impermenint body o' recruits.

Thus, I still propose thet pyrates are a prime example of a group wot pro'lly had a very rich an' varied slang thet may e'en have differed from ship ta ship, jest as street gangs (who don't be havin' too high a permanency fer members either) in th' same city may have somewhat varied lingos from each other an' th' gen'ral populace. Now I'm not suggestin' anythin' drastic mind ye, but I ken bet thet th' av'rage colonist t'would suspect a pyrate by hearin' his speach.

Yers,

-Spydre

[Stitch]

Ahoy mates,

I be look'n fer some aid in aquire'n a proper old english / pyrate accent.

Dose any of you scallywags have suggestions to recorded media, books or any online class that could help me out. I pick up accents rather easily but I do need to hear it spoken often to pick it up. Right know I feel like I'm practicing and inforcing improper technique.

Thanks mates...

[Rumba Rue]

I'm not sure there is anything as a pirate accent. My character tends to flip-flop from Irish, English, to old South.

But lots or arrgghhhs do wonders!

Rumba Rue

**I can imagine quite a lot**

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Here ye' go lad... me favorite page, complete with Ye Olde Sound Files...

Click here ye scurvy sea dawgs!

[Stitch]

Many thanks Quill...tis a bountiful wedsite..

[crimsoncrow]

What area of England is it that your persona is hailing from? Something to consider. The accents very by region.

[Captain Morgana Bloodheart]

Ahoy there o' learned piratical people!

I wish to study up on 1600's -1700's English. I found this CD online today and does anybody think this would be of any use to me? Afterall, I can only watch POTC so many times

http://www.renstore.com/cgi-bin/Renstore.s...View/PNZ&2D1001

Perhaps somebody can point me to some other helpful resources?

M. Bloodheart

[Cascabel]

Correct period language is a fine thing up to a point, but many times period English is nearly impossible to understand by the average person that you will be dealing with considering different and unusual words, etc. You will very often have people giving you puzzled looks and saying, "huh???". For most purposes you come out better with a "Hollywood" type of accent except for strictly historic presentations.

Just my personal experience !!!!!!

>>>>> Cascabel

[Hawkyns]

Depends on whether you want to learn the real thing or faire dialect. They are two very different things.

The best thing I've come up with was a tape that was used at Plimoth Plantation for training, called 'Oh For a Muse of Foire'. Best I've found so far, but I checked on line and don't see it available anywhere.

Cascabel, I think you're both right and wrong. Yes, it is different from what most people think of as Early Modern English. For instance, many letters that are now silent are pronounced in the early dialects. Knife, for example, becomes k-nife, pronouncing the k.

On the other hand, the visitors at Plimoth don't seem to have so many problems understanding the interpreters. Now granted, it's a more solid situation and the visitors stand and listen. Trying to understand it on the run, or shouted like a Dublin fishwife might cause problems.

Even the accent I use in persona can cause some issues. I was born and brought up in the Yorkshire Dales before I came to the colonies. It's easy for me to slip back into that accent/dialect and even though it is not 100% correct, it's relatively close, and the syntax is quite close. But for those of you who've watched 'All Creatures Great and Small' and tried to understand the farmers, that is my native accent. Not easy for many Americans to understand.

Hawkyns

[Captain Morgana Bloodheart]

I bought a Dialect Cd & Booklet from here

http://www.paulmeier.com/booklets.html

I emailed this Paul Meier and asked him which English dialect CD I should order, he suggested I purchase the Hampshire Dialect. Hw offers a pretty nifty service, you can order custom CD's using your own text and he also offers phone coaching.

It's great and all, but I need to find a source to 1700's it up. I've been listening to to it all day, I think I should have ordered the Cockney CD..not sure yet, I'll work with it some more.

Hawkins, do you have a source on Faire dialect? Perhaps Cascabel is right, maybe I should just "go Hollywood"

[Gentleman of Fortune]

I'll second Hawkins....

I just moved from Germany after 6 years in the UK (out in the fens of East Anglia).

That country has a different dialect for every football team it has!

You can go/drive 5 miles in any direction and hit another town/villiage and they will sound "different" than the last one you were at.

Thank God i don't have to listen to the Archers anymore!

[Stynky Tudor]

I know that the short time I lived in the UK, language could vary greatly from place to place. In one part of London I could have a completely understandable conversation even when the language changed to working class. Then in a place like Preston, Lancashire or Dunfirmland Scotland, I was fine when everyone spoke the more English version of the dialect, using English styled sounds, words and phrases. But when they spoke native with each other, there was a lot lost in translation. Even after watching almost a decade of Monty Python skits and movies, I wasn’t really prepared for all those differences in speak.

Working class Irish is a tough one as well and my friends had lots of fun at my expence. Every time I got use to things and started understanding what was being said, they would crank it up a notch using less of the English pronunciations and throwing in more local words and slang. Later they would throw in bites of Irish Gaelic or just lock me out completely by talking completely Irish Gaelic. Needless to say I had trouble following conversation, no matter how many drinks I had.

I’m going to have to "second" Cascabel. . . To entertain the American public at large and to be understood, I think one would want to go with some sort of bastardized Hollywood styled broken English version of an accent. Now getting a set of language or regionally specific accent tapes couldn’t hurt for reference. And with some practice would make what ever it is you’re trying to do ring true.

[piratelassie]

I don't find too many foreign accents difficult to understand, being as my grandparents are Brazilian and speak with accents. But being from Rhode Island, I'm told sometimes that I have a southern New England accent. Now try getting an English accent out of that. It's wicked hod.

(hard) but as to the debate between historical accuracy and sound, isn't there a happy medium between the two? I guess I just like to be understood is all.

[Tar Bucket Bill]

I'm not sure if this is the proper area to post this, but ......

Do any of you Canadian and American reenactors try to use a specific English regional dialect and accent when you are taking part in a living history event to try to make your persona more authentic sounding? I would like to learn one to use and am looking for advice for finding instructions for learning one.

I'm leaning toward a West Country dialect and accent, but I don't know which one to choose! Maybe Bristolian, maybe Somerset. I think my ancestors might be from the Swindon area of Wiltshire in the mid 1600s, so a Wiltshire accent and dialect might also be something for me to consider.

I can find a little bit of some regional examples on Youtube, such as the "Wurzels", "Poldark" and other snippets of real conversation and such, but if any of you know of any instructions on CD that are for sale or any instructional books devoted to specific English regional dialects and accent, that would be a big plus.

Actors have a way of learning accents and dialects, but I don't really know how they do this --- especially quickly for a film. If you are also an actor, maybe you can elaborate.

Any help from you English reenactors would be highly welcome as well. When I was in Germany in 1979, my English friend laughed when I tried to do an English accent. He said I sounded like a "poofta". Not exactly the sound I am after!!! Haharr!!!

Thang 'ee kindly shipmates.

-Tar Bucket Bill

[captscurvy_nc]

I know I have had to learn accents for different films or projects in a short time and what has worked for me in the past is language learning tapes. I go to the library for them. You can usually find a large selection on different languages and I just listen over an over again to the parts in English case they are spoken by someone whose first language is that of the subject matter. Won't help if your looking for a dialect specific to one area or county but it helps with the overall accent. For me it's been easy to learn my accent for pirate events because I lived in Hatteras for a long time and most of the older generations there still use a thick Bristol accent.

[Grymm]

Y'Ere tis, troy this'ere, gwan gee it a goo.

Here's some Wiltshire dialect words and place names

Some letters were interchangeable such as V & F: P & B: S & Z and so on.

PLACE NAMES - see pronunciation in italics

Aldbourne - Auborn

Berwick Bassett - Berrick (as in Derrick)

Bicknoll in Broad Hinton - Bynoll

Bremhill - Bremell

Bromham - Brumum

Burderop - Burdrop

Charlcott - Chawcot

Cherhill - Cherill

Fisherton Anger - Fisherton Ainjer

Mildenhall - Mynoll as in mine, see Bicknoll

Poulshot - Powshot

Salisbury - often referred to as Sarum or New Sarum

Sutton Veny - Venny

WILTSHIRE DIALECT WORDS

Anneal (nealded) - heated oven

Arse over tip, pitchfalling - to fall headlong

Badger - a corn dealer, so called because he was licensed to deal and wore a badge

Bargain - small landed property or holding e.g. house, garden, land

Batters - embankment

Belluziz - bellows for lighting a fire

Belly Button - navel, as opposed to Billy Buttons meaning a dimwit, fool, also term for woodlouse

Bide - to stay, keep still - 'bide here with me'

Billy Buttons - a dimwit, fool, also a term for woodlice

Blind-house - local lock up with no windows

Brack - to crack, break, fracture - can also mean feeling sick

Brave - good health

Brown - a brown day, a gloomy day

Budgy - moody, sulky

Bulragging - nagging, haranguing Bunt - nudge, shove up, push

Buttery - pantry

Butty - a workmate

Cack-handed - left handed, clumsy

CaddIe - trouble, confusion, disorder as in 'I'm all in a caddIe'

Call - 'no call to be so rude'

Chooky pig - woodlouse

Comical - funny tempered, not well also see Queer Count - to expect or think as in 'don't count on it', 'don't expect it'

Crowdy - apple turnover, apple crowdy

Cubby-hole - warm place, a snug corner

Dab - as in 'a dab hand' - an expert

Daps - plimsolls

Dadacky - ricketty or unsafe.

Dewpond - a constructed pond on the Downs not fed by a spring, river or stream but which depended on mist, dew and rain to fill it (the parish of Imber had dewponds)

Dicky - weakly, ill health in people, in plants

Dimmet (dimpsy) - dusk, twilight-time

Dodder, dudder, duther - bewilder, deafen with noise

Dozey - sleepy, stupid

Drag - a harrow

Drane - drangway, drung - a narrow passage between houses

Dribs and drabs - bits and pieces/odds and ends, in tatters

Drowner - man who attended to the hatches by maintaining the water supply

Dry as a gix - a gix is a dried nettle stem.

Dryth/druth - very dry, a drought

Duckstone - a game played with stones

Dummel, domel, dumble - stupid, dull, foolish Dung pot-a dung cart

Dunny, dunnikin - an earth closet

Emmet - an ant

Faggot - woman/girl of bad character

Fardingale - quarter of an acre

Favour - to resemble in features

Flump - to fall heavily

Fogger - a man servant, groom, labourer ;-- man who took cows their fodder morning and evening - a corruption of 'fodder'

Frame - skeleton

Frickle/Fuggle - to potter about/fidget/worry

Fuckling/friggling - tiresome, something which involves much attention to detail

Gaapus/gawpus - a fool, stupid person

Galley-bagger/galley-crow - a scarecrow

Gammer - woodlouse

Gapps/Grapsey - gape or stare

Gibbles (pronounced as 'jibbles')/Chipples - Spring onions

Gill - low four wheeled timber carriage

Glory-hole - place/cupboard for rubbish/ odds & ends Goggles - a disease in sheep

Gooding Day - St Thomas' Day -21 December

Goosegog - gooseberry

Gossiping - christening;- Gossips - godparents Grizzle - complain, grumble, whine, cry

Griggle -small apple

Hacker/hagger - tremble as with the cold

Gurt as in 'gurt big 'un' meaning 'great big one

Half-baked - dimwitted, stupid

Hallantide - All Saints' Day - 1 November

Handin' post - a signpost

Hanglers/pot hangels - pothooks

Helyer - a tiler

Hike - to hook or catch Hilp wine - sloe wine

Hodmandod/hodmedod - short and clumsy

Hollardy day - Holy Rood Day - 3 May

Home to be called - to have banns of marriage published

Hookland/Hitchland - portion of the best land in a common field

Hooset, Heusset, Wooset - Skimmington ride (public disapproval of marital infidelities - rough justice)

Horse's leg - a bassoon

Hudgy - clumsy, thick

Hurdle footed - club footed

Hurkle - to crowd together

In-a-most - almost

Jack and his team/Dick and his team - the Great Bear/the Plough

Jarl - quarrel

Jaw-bit - labourers' elevenses (also see Nammet)

Jibbets - small bits and pieces

Jobbet - small load

Jonnick - honest/fair

Junk-a solid piece - hunk/hunch - bread & cheese, a lump of wood or coal

Junket - a treat, out on a spree

Kiver - a cooler (used in brewing)

Lannock - long narrow piece of land

Lear/leer - very cold/extremely hungry/starving

Leaser - gleaner

Licket - all in pieces

Lollop(er) - to loll about: lazy lout

Loppity - to feel weak or out of sorts

Lot-meads - common meadows divided into equal sized pieces

Lug - land measure (pole or perch) in Wiltshire can be 3 lengths - 15, 18 or 16 & 1/2 ft (statute perch)

Lummekin - ungainly, heavy, clumsy

Main - good, excellent

Marlbro' handed - awkward, clumsy

Mere - boundary line/bank of turf as a boundary

Mere stone - boundary stone

Middling - ailing or tolerable as in 'I be fair to middling'

Mistpond - see Dewpond

Mommet/mommick - scarecrow

Mooned up - spoilt, coddled

Mop - Statute fair for hiring servants - held in several Wiltshire towns eg. Chippenham, Marlborough, Wootton Bassett.

Moral - likeness

Mucker - miserly person (in other counties this can mean a pal, workmate, friend)

Mump/mump about - sulky

Nammet, nummet;- Nunchin/nunchin bag - noon meat, lunch, midday snack. Lunch, lunch bag

Nanny fudging - nonsence

Narration - fuss, commotion - 'what a narration about nothing'

Naumpey - weak, foolish minded person

Next akin to nothing - very little

Nine holes - children's' game

Nineter - regular scamp/worthless/skinflint

Ninny hammer - foolish, silly person

Nuthen - nothing

Out-axed - when banns were called for the third and last time

Pantony - pantry

Peck - pickaxe, also a measure of weight

Peel - a lacemaking pillow

Pegged it - to run well fast

Pelt - in a passion or a rage

Pigged, picked, picky - a sickly looking person

Pitch - steep place

Pitchin - paving with large flat stones 'pitching' with small uneven stones set on edge (usually on a steep or slippery slope)

Plim - to swell out

Pot-walloper - someone possessing house with a 'pot-well' (fireplace) for cooking. In Wootton Bassett pot-wallopers had voting rights

Pucksey - quagmire (dirty, messy, muddy)

Purler - to have a heavy fall -'her went a right purter'

Put about - to worry, fret

Quar® - stonequarryman

Quean - a woman

Queer - not well, also see Comical

Quidly or Quiddle - a fussy person

Quilt - to swallow

Plock - alog of firewood, just large enough to fit into the grate.

Rag-mag - ragged beggar (male/female)

Rannel - extremely hungry

Raves/Reaves - waggon rails

Rawmouse - bat

Rawney/Rowney - thin person or thin poor and uneven as in manufactured cloth

Reeve - to draw up as in 'her skirts is all reeved up', wrinkle

Remlet - remnant

Revel - parish/village festival also as in Club Feast

Rick/wrick - to twist or wrench - as in a turned ankle

Rhine (pronounced reen) - water course

Rough - feeling unwell; to sleep outdoors - 'sleeping rough'

Roughband/rough music - see Housset

Scaut - to strain, push, to carry a heavy load

Scram - awkward, scrammy handed (left handed)

Shandy - a row about nothing in particular

Shard - a gap or hole in a hedge, generally large enough for a child to crawl through.

ShitsacklShock-shack Day - King Charles' day - 29 May when children carried shitsack (springs of young oak or ash) in the morning and powder-monkey or Even-ash leaves in the afternoon.

Shot of/shut of - to rid oneself of a thing

Shrammed - cold - perished with cold -cold to your very bones

Scag/skag/skeg - ragged tear in clothes - to scag on something.

Skiffley - showery

Skillin(g) - pent house/outhouse/cowshed

Slammock/Slummock - slatternly woman Slewed - the worse for drink

Smart - a second swarm of bees

Somewhen - sometime

Spreeved - sore skin, hands and legs, caused by cold weather.

Teg - sheep

Tegman - shepherd - teg was a Wiltshire name for sheep

Tallet, tallot - hayloft over a stable

Tasker - casual labourer

Teart - very cold, sore as in a small sore cut on a finger, a graze

Tranter - a haulier

Trumpery - rubbish, cheap and tawdry; weeds left in cultivated ground

Tuffin/tuffin hay - late hay made from the rough grass left by cattle

Tump/tumpy - hillock, hillocky - uneven

Tun - chimney or chimney top; to pour liquid through a 'tun-dish' into a barrel

Turn/torn - spinning wheel

Unbelieving - disobedient (as with naughty children) Up-along - a little way up the road (as in 'down-along' - down the street) Upping-stock - horse block

Vag - to reap with a broad reap hook (vagging hook)

Vamplets - gaiters

Want-catcher/cont catcher - mole catcher

Whipland - land measured out by the whip's length when ploughed

Whissgig - to have a bit of fun, to lark about Wisp, wish, west - a stye in the eye

Yardland - Quarter of an acre (a quarter of an acre was a landyard wide)

Yer/Yertiz - here/here it is or your.

Yuckle - Woodpecker

Zammy - a simpleton

and some chaps speaking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeCMmUcJT9Iy

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I did have a link to a site that had recordings of accents and dialects from all over the UK I'll see if I can dig it out.

There was a time even in my life when you could tell which village some people came from an' oy spoke pro'er Bucks m'ducks. But I only slips baack into 'er aaaafter a bevvy or two =o)

Edited October 6, 2010 by Grymm

[PoD]

i was born and grew up in Stoke-on-Trent and even I cant understand their accent and dialect. Luckily its pretty much bang in the center of the UK so their probably werent to many Stokey sailors

[Tar Bucket Bill]

I had no idea Hatteras dialect was that close to the Bristol dialect. That's rather surprising.

Grymm, thanks for the Wiltshire dictionary. Gurt lush!

But what does it mean to speak proper Bucks?

When I lived in Germany I learned that some Germans from one region often cannot understand other Germans from another region, like Prussia and Bavaria, --- but I never knew that was the case in England as well, especially like in Stoke-On-Trent, and practically within the same community. That explains why I often have a difficult time understanding different English dialects and accents --- especially since I live in America and not in England.

I know a young chap from Cornwall, but he has lived in other parts of England, and now America, so he says his Cornish dialect and accent are not what they used to be -- except maybe when he's been drinkin' a bit. I guess I need to get him drinking more!! Haharr!

-Tar Bucket Bill

[Hawkyns]

Nay lad. Tha mun do summat beside t'West country. Dun't tha know other ports rand England? Filey, or Scarbro, or tha could even be a Scouser. It's a rum go that lads allus go wi't'bloody southerners. Stop laikin abaht an use thi nut.

I just revert to my native Dales accent. Watch episodes of the old TV show "All Creatures Great and Small".

Hawkyns

[Captain McCool]

Well I go with Irish, so various English accents aren't my area, although I've done a few for various roles. One thing I learned is to try and simply find an example of someone speaking the dialect you're looking for in a movie, TV show, or other recorded media, and just listen over and over and over again. Make note of how they pronounce each vowel, and if a consonant before or after it changes the vowel sound. And is it an accent that drops the "r" at the end of words? Or if a word ends with a vowel, do they add an "r" sound at the end? Do they pronounce "th" fully, or as a "d" or "t"? Just little stuff like that. Pay close attention and practice small segments before stringing it all together.

Personally, I used the BBC sitcom Father Ted for this. But there I was just going for "generic" Irish. Incidentally, speaking f this sort of thing, does anyone know where one could find a guide to a specifically Galway Irish accent and dialect? I could use some help in that department myself.

Mind you, another thing to bear in mind is that these accents have undoubtedly changed over the last couple hundred years, so a "period" accent might have sounded drastically different. Just think of how actors in American movies talked in the 30's through the 60's, and how much differently we talk nowadays. Unfortunately, we don't have any actual recordings from that time period. But I believe there are some out there who have attempted to learn what these archaic accents would have sounded like... I think... I just don't remember where I saw or read that.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Captain McCool

[Slopmaker Cripps]

From what I understand, the current scholarly belief is that American today is closer to 18th century English than any of todays "British accents," especially here in the Coastal South. PBS did an excellent series entitled "Story of English" you will want to check out, and I just found this interesting article on their website that mentions a few of the things we retain that the English didn't post-American Revolution: http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/change/ruining/ .

-Adam C.