Tuesday Talk Like A Pirate Day by Helen Hollick

www.helenhollick.net

19th September, is Talk Like A Pirate Day, a bit of fun and nonsense for all - grown-ups and non-grown-ups - who like a bit of fun and nonsense. There'll be a lot of 'Arring' and 'shiver m'timbering' and 'ahoy me 'earties-ing' tomorrow. Please do enter into the fun of the thing!

But where did the notion that pirates go around talking like this come from?
Simple answer (as is often the case with anything to do with history)... from here...

Or to be accurate, this chap:

Robert Newton originated from the West Country and when playing Long John Silver in the 1950 version of Treasure Island he reverted to his West Country dialect, which, of course, has a lot of  rolling rs and clipped vowels.  The movie was a massive hit and the accent became synonymous as a pirate way of speech. Add to this fact, many sailors of  the 1600-1800s did come from Cornwall, Devon and the Bristol area, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh were both from Devon, so in part the West Country accent is sort-of genuine. The ‘arrr’ appeared for the first time in the earlier 1934 version of the film, starring Lionel Barrymore.

If you really want to spend some time as a (fun) pirate (yes we know real pirates were a monstrous lot) mark September 19th in your diary and learn some Devonish:

‘Arrr, shever m’timbers, bud did’n be ye knowim’ tha’ jist un’er ‘alf o’Bartholomew Roberts’ crew bist vrom Kernow, Devom an’ Zummerzet?’ 

‘S’ becomes a ‘Z’ sound and ‘F’ becomes more like ‘V’, so ‘Zummerzet’ and ‘var’ and ‘vire’ instead of Somerset, far and fire. Rs, especially at the end of a word are stressed (hence the pirate ‘Arrr’.) There are also distinct grammar differences. The male gender is used to describe objects, ‘’e is in the barn’, instead of ‘it is in the barn’, and ‘put ‘e over there,’ instead of ‘put it over there’, or ‘they boots,’ instead of ‘my boots’.

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a – as in jam
aa – a long sound a bit like a sheep bleating but without the quiver
ai – as in gain
d – instead of th: datch, not thatch
e – if the first letter of a word, pronounced as i so ivery instead of every, but in the middle of a word as ai, as in gain
f – as v, virst: first or vew, few
h – often added to a word to give it emphasis: hover instead of over, or m’hornin’ (morning)
i – instead of u or oi: jidge (judge) and jist (just)
m – is often used instead of an n, so Devom, (Devon) and dem (den)
o – sounds like an a, so Garge instead of George
oo – similar to the Scot’s ui in guid (good)
r – a peculiar one. It often changes places with the letter after it, so red is erd, run is urn, great is gurt
s – z
t – occasionally replaces d,
th – is often dropped is’n ‘at (isn’t that)
u – I or ou joug (jug)

How about these? (You can almost hear the pirate can’t you?)
‘Ark a’ee’ – listen to him.
‘Yer tiz’ – here it is.

Or try slipping these into a conversation:

Aid – head
Anzum – handsome
Arken – harken (listen)
Awl – hole
Back along – some time ago
Bain’t it? – isn’t it?
Bissle – to make dirty (daw’n ‘ee bissle yersel’,’)
Blimmer – a mild swear word
Boddle – bottle
Chillern – children
Crackin’ – chatting
Crame – cream
Dashels – thistles
Dimpsey – murky, poor daylight
Drang-way – narrow way, an alley
Drekly – directly
Erbons – ribbons
Fan-tag (in a) – in a huff, cross
Flibberts – pieces
Grockle – a tourist.
Gurt – big or great
G'woam – going home.
How be on? – how are you?
Jonnick – correct, honest
Kerping – finding fault
Long-tailed rabbit – a pheasant!
Lustree – to bustle about
Maunderin’ – grumbling
Maized – mad ‘yu’m maized as a brish’: you are as mad as a brush.’
Muxy – muddy
On-cum-verable – uncomfortable
Oozle – whistle
Piskies – pixies
Popple-stones – pebbles
Rucksel – noise, disturbance
Shevvers – small pieces
Skat – shower of rain
Thurdle-gutted – thin
Upperds – upwards
Viddy – fitting, proper
Vuzlin’ – fussing
Wha' be gwain 'ave? – what are you going to have (to drink or eat)
Wommle – wobble
Yullery – yellow
Zyder – cider.

Finally, longer vowels are for words like beautiful – bootiful…
And arrr of course… yes

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