A slow day at the office and a very tired and unfocused brain led me inexorably to the discovery that when you type "where did the pirate get his accent?" into Google, it returns no results.
But not anymore. Avast, ye scurvy dogs! I'll fix yer search engine, fix her till she can't be fixed no more!
I really want to know, though. Pirates have no nation, right? They are the wolves of the sea. Wait, no, that's killer whales. Anyway, they presumably come from all over, and call no land their home, so why do they all have their own lingo and accent? Are there secret Pirate Summits where they get together and work things like this out, and also decide to wear those hats?
Apparently, the pirate accent is similar to the Devonshire accent. Those Dastardly Devonshirians, breeding pirates to terrorize the oceans of the world! Do you suppose that all the other pirates from, say, London, or Madrid, just adopted the west country accent because it sounded so cool? This, I imagine, would the pirate equivalent of suburban youth intoning, "for real, yo!" and the like. Poor Devonshire. Just trying to keep it real, while the pirate posers were copping their style.
And by the way, I am completely aware that the pirate thing is like so over, but I don't care because I don't care about being cool.
And that's what makes me cool, me pretty!
Right?
Posted by hilatron at January 16, 2003 10:41 PMPIRATES ARE NEVER, EVER OVER, and 'tis the cat you'll be a-tastin' of if'n ye do be sayin' otherwise.
Yarrrrr.
(Did you ever read Booty by Sara Lorimer? Fun stuff. You can't make up something like Sadie the Goat.)
Posted by: Lala at January 16, 2003 11:11 PMahoy matie,
may i use your pirate ship in the blue rebellion?
yeah, i agree... pirates are always cool. especially chick pirates! ahoy hoy!
Posted by: jenni at January 17, 2003 03:59 PMPirates might be getting a lot cooler with both the Buccaneers and the Raiders going to the Superbowl. I'm actually more of a Packers fan myself but Raiders and Bucs fans have it all over everyone else when it comes to dressing up for the game.
Posted by: Lynn S at January 21, 2003 02:24 PMMethinks that our knowledge of Pirate talk and expressions comes from Treasure Island and Robert Newtown's Disney-ized version of Long John Silver. I could be mistaken, but Errol Flynn didn't trapse around saying "avast, me hardy." I never read the book so this could be a larger inflection than I'm aware of. I have a degree in BS, so feel obligated to comment.
Posted by: theglazeddonut at January 22, 2003 02:35 PMThank you! I just went to google to find out where pirates got their accents (it's true!), and got the answer, thanks to you.
Posted by: chuck at January 30, 2003 12:13 PMPirates are always cool, because we all know how damn sexy a peg leg is. ~!-o
That pirate hat link led me to dig up something far cooler. "What could be cooler than a pirate hat?" you ask. I'll tell you what -- this lobster hat!
Avast, me crustacean!
(BTW - Mr. Burns is clearly a pirate, no? Think about it.)
Posted by: Josh at January 31, 2003 01:45 AMArrr! Avast ye matey! Surely the truth be known know about real pirates! Arrr!
Posted by: Drew at March 20, 2003 11:11 PM