Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. In two thousand two, syndicated columnist
Speaker 1: Dave Barry wrote an article that changed our world. He
Speaker 1: revealed that John Bauer and Mark Summers, two guys who
Speaker 1: enjoyed playing racquetball, discovered that the game was much more
Speaker 1: fun if everyone spoke in stereotypical pirates slang. And then
Speaker 1: they extrapolated that the world would be much more fun
Speaker 1: if everyone's spoke in stereotypical pirate slang. So they designated
Speaker 1: a day for it September nineteen, and appealed to Barry
Speaker 1: to spread the good word about Talk like a Pirate Day,
Speaker 1: and Barry did. He wrote, you have the buckles, darn it,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to swash them. And with those wise words,
Speaker 1: a tradition was born. Chances are you've seen evidence of
Speaker 1: talk like a Pirate Day. Social media hosts a plethora
Speaker 1: of pirate puns. National chains like Long John Silver's and
Speaker 1: less thematically Crispy Cream offer free items to folks and costume.
Speaker 1: It's the one day a year that the word are
Speaker 1: is considered an acceptable alternative to yeah, But did pirates
Speaker 1: really talk? Like that the answer is not really. Our
Speaker 1: concept of piratical speech stems mainly from a series of
Speaker 1: memorable performances by the actor Robert Newton. He appeared in
Speaker 1: several films and TV shows as a pirate, playing such
Speaker 1: characters as Long John Silver in the nineteen fifty Disney
Speaker 1: adaptation of Treasure Island. Now we did a shame to
Speaker 1: see you in such ill condition perch, give a dropper
Speaker 1: around to worm as Billy as he passes over, and
Speaker 1: the dreaded Edward Teach better known as black Beard in
Speaker 1: two is black Beard the Pirate? Now? What kind of
Speaker 1: a fool you think I be? Newton was born in Dorset, England.
Speaker 1: Dorset is in the West Country, the southwest corner of Britain.
Speaker 1: The dialect in that region contains many of the elements
Speaker 1: we associate with pirate speech. Each For example, it's common
Speaker 1: to hear a hard are in words spoken by people
Speaker 1: from the West Country. Newton's performances became iconic. It didn't
Speaker 1: take long before his West Country accent became the de
Speaker 1: facto pirate speech. You can hear's influence in performances like
Speaker 1: Tim Curry's Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure island him.
Speaker 1: That's what you're thinking. You're dead wrong. Jeffrey Rush's Captain
Speaker 1: Barbosa in Pirates of the Caribbean, I cannot for your Tavanians,
Speaker 1: give hope, limb that give me left for jet black
Speaker 1: Beard and even the Simpsons Captain McAllister, portrayed by Hankers
Speaker 1: Area six spells time for closing a doc eating fairly
Speaker 1: warned Beaty says I. Scholars, however, don't think his portrayal
Speaker 1: was particularly accurate. It's hard to be certain. We don't
Speaker 1: have many historical accounts of actual pirate speech. The Golden
Speaker 1: Age of piracy predates recording by more than a century.
Speaker 1: Pirates also didn't have a habit of writing much down.
Speaker 1: Many were likely illiterate. Most of those who did write
Speaker 1: were educated before turning to their roguish lifestyle, so they're
Speaker 1: written accounts aren't much different from those of other educated
Speaker 1: people at the time. It might be more appropriate to
Speaker 1: call September nine talk like Robert Newton day. But while
Speaker 1: it may not be historically accurate to yell, shiver me
Speaker 1: timbers or walk the plank, don't let that stop you
Speaker 1: from having a good time. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland and produced by Tyler Clang. You can find
Speaker 1: brain Stuff merchandise at t public dot com slash brain stuff,
Speaker 1: and you can find more on this and lots of
Speaker 1: other swashbuckling topics at our home planet, how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com