THE WORD Yarrgh !
Where'd we get all that pirate talk, anyway ? By Erin McKean SEPTEMBER 17, 2011 Tomorrow, Sept. 19, is the 16th annual International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Founded in 1995 by a pair of Oregonians, John Baur and Mark Summers (who chose Sept. 19th because it was Mark's ex-wife's birthday), Talk Like a Pirate Day was a strictly local affair until John and Mark brought it to humor columnist Dave Barry's attention in 2002. Since then the event has grown, with pirate parties and events planned from Nova Scotia to Kabul, all resounding with "Arrr!" and "Avast ye, matey!" We all know what it means to talk like a pirate: mix two parts salty sailor talk with one part "arrr," sprinkle with archaic pronouns, and serve hot. But where did those "Arrrs!" and "Avasts!" come from? How did the supposed jargon of a subculture of outright criminals (in law, pirates are regarded as hostis humani generis, or "enemies of all mankind") turn into a goofy international language joke? It turns out that International Talk Like A Pirate Day could be more accurately described as "International Talk Like Robert Newton Day." (Baur and Summers call Newton the "patron saint" of ITLAPD.) Newton, a popular British actor, starred as Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney version of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island"; he played Long John again in an Australian film a few years later, and again in 1955 for 26 episodes of the television show "The Adventures of Long John Silver." Newton, born in Dorset, played Long John with the accent of southwest England, an accent heavy on the r's. England's southwest (the West Country) was the birthplace of many famous sailors, including Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, the slave trader John Hawkins, and Edward Teach, the pirate known as Blackbeard (also played by Robert Newton, in the 1952 Disney film "Blackbeard the Pirate"). There's even a language-nerd joke about this: Why are pirates always from Norfolk? Because they arrrr! ... http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/09/17/yarrgh/ClPPeSRtQJV3OvTcxUdKGP/story.xml _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
