How To Talk Like A Pirate
Posted: Saturday, September 19, 2009
by Ben Morrish
http://alltruism.blogspot.com
It be September 19th and
that, me hearties, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Sail your pirate ships into the bay,
drop anchor and I'll give ye the clues to unearth the little known
treasure that is talking like a pirate.
All hands to the pumps, for a flood of
pirate knowledge be comin' right for ye!
First of all, we need to know what sort
of pirates we're talking about.
Today is not a day to say "zomg
I've illegally downloaded Harry Potter And The Deadly Hallows off The
Pirate Bay". That is not the kind of pirate this day is all
about.
And don't worry, you won't need to
learn Somali, as it isn't about that type of pirate either.
No, International Talk Like A Pirate
Day is all about talking like the classic era pirates of the 1500 –
1700s. More specifically, it is about talking like our modern,
heavily romanticised version of them.
This is the kind of pirate we need to
try and talk like today.
He has all the traditional pirate regalia –
eyepatch, big hat with skull and crossbones, a hook for a hand, a peg
leg, a cutlass, big gold ear-rings and of course a parrot.
The parrot
will almost certainly be able to say "pieces of eight"
(referring to coins used back in classic pirate days) and "who's
a pretty boy then", which is a question that was finally
answered with the release of Pirates of the Carribean. According to
women across the world, Captain Jack Sparrow, aka Johnny Depp, is a
pretty boy.
So now we have established what sort of
pirate we are aiming to talk like, we need to learn some of their
lingo.
How to talk like a Pirate
The following words and phrases should
be all you need to get started – by the end your pirate-talking
should be the envy all your friends and family.
Ahoy – although no-one
has yet discovered what a hoy actually is, the word ahoy is used by
Pirates at every opportunity, and means "hello" but also
"spotted". If a Pirate spots you, he will probably say
"Ahoy there!" in greeting. If he spots land, he will say
"Land ahoy!".
Landlubber – it means
"a person who should stay on land because they're not cut out
for the nautical life" (literally a "land lover"), and
is often used as an insult.
Avast! - Means "stop",
or "listen", so a Pirate Captain might cry out "Avast
me hearties" when he wants his crew to stop what they are doing
and pay attention.
Me hearties – means "my
friends", often used to refer to the crew of the pirate's ship.
Also "maties" (singular: matey).
Grog – a proper Pirate
drink this be, made from water and rum.
Shiver me timbers – an
exclamation of surprise.
Lily-livered – cowardly
Jolly Roger – a Pirate
flag, almost always black, and usually depicting a skull and
crossbones
Ye – you
be – is / am / are. As
in "We be Pirates, I be the Captain, and they be lily-livered
landlubbers!"
Scurvy dogs – a common
Pirate insult, referring to the disease scurvy, which resulted from
Vitamin C deficiency (which was quite common until the British
started carrying supplies of limes on board their ships, earning
themselves the nickname "Limeys")
Some general rules to follow when
speaking like a Pirate:
Drop any "g"s that occur
after "in", so that you be "sailin' the seven seas".
Drop as many "v"s that occur
in the middle of words as you can, so its "o'erboard" and
"ne'er"
Be generous with your adjectives –
don't say "he was a big man", say "A mighty powerful
man he was, wi' arms wider'n a grown man's torso"
Play around with the order of words,
Yoda style, from time to time: "A mighty great ship this be,
maties"
Be loud, and throw in "arrrrs"
and "yarrrs" as often as you like.
Put all of these together and you'll
pass for a Pirate rather than a lily-livered landlubber, and you
might even find some buried treasure!
Even Google can talk like a Pirate - why not give it a try today?
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-pirate/
Great article. Well done.Great now all the SearchWarpers know the words lets get them to all sing our song.
Ben - O Ben, you challenge me in many ways with this fun piece - just might have to watch Pirates today, and by the way, Jack Sparrow - JD is more than just a pretty boy :-) many a blessin' to you mateyAhoy there Teresa, a thousand thanks for readin' me scribblin's! Yarr!
Hi Ben.Wish I'd read your article before commenting on Connor's. I'd have done a much better job!Thanks for the fun!DianneThank ye for readin'!
