Why do pirates have cornish accents

The pirate code is a little complicated though. So for those who want to see the real pirate accent in real life, they need to travel to Cornwall and Dorset in England. The good news is that Cornwall is the holiday destination of England is regarded as one of the most stunning coastal regions of England. A post shared by Bernard Kuhn bernardkuhn Aaron is a first-hand traveler who has visited more than 70 countries around the world. He is passionate about traveling and opening up the world for other intrepid explorers.

By Aaron Spray Published Oct 13, Share Share Tweet Email Comment. View this post on Instagram. Fall Is Here: These U. Related Topics Lifestyle. Aaron Spray Articles Published Aaron is a first-hand traveler who has visited more than 70 countries around the world. Oof, is that ugly. First link was to Amazon; sorry I forgot to format it. The West Country dialects, or West Country accents, are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects or accents used by much of the indigenous population of the south western part of England, the area popularly known as the West Country.

The West Country accent is probably most identified in American English as "pirate speech" — cartoon-like "Ooh arr, me 'earties! Sploice the mainbrace! This may be a result of the strong seafaring tradition of the West Country, both legal and outlaw. As described in the earlier post linked by Faint of Butt , it's basically and exaggerated and modified West Country accent -- why all pirates should hail from that portion of England I'm not sure, though many sailors did come from there; you would have thought that, say, some of the Lancashire accents would have been just as common among pirates given Liverpool's importance as a port.

Writing sailor speech in West Country dialect is not just a pirate phenomenon though as can be seen from things like Drake's Drum. I know Drake himself was a Devon man, but I don't suppose all his sailors were. The West Country has a strong tradition of smuggling. Maybe piracy and smuggling aren't a million miles apart? A guess, but part of it may come from the areas in which pirates would have operated - the West Indies and along the west African coast - and how they interact with English ports.

A lot of voyages would have started or finished in places like Falmouth or Plymouth, and given that most pirates would have drifted into it from sailing on legitimate ships whether merchant ships or the Royal Navy , it may be that some influence from English ports has rubbed off. But then again Liverpool was part of the "slave triangle" route too, as Quinbus Flestrin points out, so I'm not sure why there are no Scouse pirates either.

My other guess is that it has been exaggerated by films - if you speak English but are not English, a west country dialect is fairly easy to pull off, and may have had some kind of "salt of the earth" association due to the fact that the area's economy was focused on agriculture, mining, fishing and sailing until the 20th century.

Perhaps actors in early pirate films just found it a suitable accent to use. I have a theory that "ahoy" comes from Slovakia, since it means "hello" in Slovak. Never found an answer, though. I'd guess that big part of the "pirate" accent's prevalence in the past 10 or so years is Captain McAllister of the Simpsons , who has the West Country thing down to a T, including the "yaar.

It's definitely West Country UK that you're hearing in the "pirate accent". I would say the origins would be more specifically Cornwall, one of the counties of the West Country. Cornwall is a peninsula with a long seafaring and fishing tradition, and some wild weather and rugged coastlines, and it was famous for wreckers, pirates and smugglers. If you want to know if pirates actually talked like that, I have no idea.

If you want to know why that accent came to be associated with pirates, I suggest some earlier works like "Treasure Island" and "Jamaica Inn" would have been influential.

Robert Newton was born and raised in Dorset, not far from Bristol, so he knew the West Country accent which Silver and Teach would have spoken in very well, and used it in those films.

If Disney had perhaps not cast Newton, is it possible the pirate accent would have never entered the popular consciousness? Maybe the accent there is just a conservative accent from the 17th century when English sailors first landed there and any conservative accent would sound somewhat pirate-like or West Country-like.

Bajan probably also has a fair bit of Irish influence due to early immigration patterns. Firstly, that one actor can have such an influence on popular perceptions of a certain kind of character. Therefore I would expect a less localized accent, and one of mixed classes.

Ex, sons of merchants, sons of peers Aubrey , sons of doctors Hornblower , and a big collection of the deckhands being men kidnapped and forced to sea pressed into service by press gangs from many walks of life and many ports of call.

But the pirate accent might not actually be that far wrong. I suspect Newton was using an accent which had a long history in the British theatre. To prove my point…. Treasure Island was indeed written with Bristol in mind — in fact the tavern which gave Stevenson the idea for the Admiral Benbow is still there — The Llandoger Trow.

Part of it remains a tavern, the rest is now a Premier Inn hotel I stayed there a couple of weeks ago! Thanks for sharing, Helen! The Newton theory is indeed widely accepted, and widely written upon. Obviously real pirates in those days were a polyglot if I may use the term collectively , as well as a motley, crew — and I would think there were more than a few of pidgins spoken. I think it may be my favorite holiday. Although I think I might be a bit shy in participating. Do they have parades? A parade of full-grown men dressed as pirates would be spectacular or possibly something they do every 3PM at Disneyworld.

Oh, Ben, you must check it out! Geographically close but a long way away in accents terms. Both have associated nautical usage. His one-eyed squint and other facial expressions have also been adopted as necessary for a successful pirate characterization. If you saw him playing the part of any other type of Englishman, or a relatively nondescript one by accent, you might not recognize him right away.

Got a pain in me innards!! Personally, although Newton was quite a good actor in all his films, it was difficult for me to adjust to him playing those other roles. He seemed to have defined himself, although most actors shun typecasting, and I had always wished for at least one more film made with him playing a similar character. I think it was the rhotic nature of their speech. When the other Englishmen would even say that letter alone, it sounded as though the doctor was about to check their tonsils.

Listening to those other guys, one might believe that the letter R was the most important part of their version of the English language. Whilst newton may have popularised the West Country accent, I think it was probably one that was already well used in the theatre.

To be frank, I am always more surprised by an American who speaks with RP, than one whose accent is routed from the West Country, or in the case of Boston and parts of New York Ireland. The school had three age groups per year and three classrooms. We picked up the accent, but my younger sister was only two when we moved there, so she picked it up thick.

When we left, she caused a stir in London. She looked like a little angel with natural blond corkscrew ringlets and a cherub face and heart shaped lips. But she spoke with a deep guttural farmers accent at 5 years old to top it off, she was particularly small for her age.

Impressively, she can put on that accent among others whenever she wants to as an adult. This is the very first time I frequented your web page and to this point? I surprised with the analysis you made to create this actual post extraordinary.

Wonderful task! My webpage: mattresses for back pain. Pingback: Yo Ho Yo Ho! Pingback: Avast, me hearties! Omniglot blog. It may be that the roots of the sound lie deeper. Well, I accept the Robert Newton theory. Because the first dramatizings o ancient Rome were written by Shakespeare. Shakespeare did not write with an accent as such, although he did use some dialectal words — but probably more from his own neck of the woods.

A lot of the Caribbean accents originated in Ireland for reasons few know. When Oliver Cromwell went over to Ireland he fell upon the country with Puritan vengence for their Papist ways. His troops committed mass atrocities and took many tens of thousands of prisoners and shipped them off to the Caribbean islands and slaves. Being some of the first mass settlers there their accents formed the root accents. To this day the sing song Jamaican accent very closely resembles the Irish accents from the Irish City of Cork.

The singer Rhianna has Irish slave roots. These Irish slaves were treated with horrific brutality that set the tone for how slaves were later treated. They were later used to breed lighter coloured slaves with the newly arrived African slaves. Their memory was forgotten by breeding them away but their numbers were huge and their suffering great. It is correct that English was spoken in Ireland from very early times and some aspects of old English survive in common use in Ireland to this day that have ended elsewhere.