Pirate request

[tahnan]

So I know I've got a few pirates of various stripes reading my LJ. (At least one, maybe two or more, who sang pirate shanties at Brown; at least one who's part of a Bosnian lesbian pirate cult. Possibly even a member of the crew of the Coward.)

Mark Liberman, over at Language Log, asks a very reasonable question: where did all the "pirates say arrr" stuff come from, anyhow?

I figured a pirate on my friendslist might know. Can't hurt to ask.

Comments

[foldedfish.livejournal.com]

The movie version of "Treasure Island" featured Robert Newton as Long John Silver affecting a Cornish accent, complete with thick R's -- a reasonable idea, given the high number of sailors of Celtic origin in that period. The public latched onto this as "the way pirates talk".

Citation -- well, Google "cornish pirate arrr" and you'll get ones like this:

Robert Newton, as Long John Silver in the Disney version of ''Treasure Island,'' virtually created the downscale pirate captain, with a parrot on one shoulder, a broad pseudo-Cornish accent and a vocabulary that leaned heavily on a single, highly expressive monosyllable: "arrr."

[jofish22.livejournal.com]

Oh, I saw this around somewhere recently. It's from Robert Newton's performance in Treasure Island in 1950, where he played Long John Silver with the now-quintiesential bizarre Cornish-esque accent. Later interpreted through Robert Shaw's Captain Quint in Jaws, but that's clearly based strongly off Newton's performance.

Treasure Island is great. I had it projected on the wall during the pirate party we threw a few years back, just for ambience.

A random link that seems appropriate: http://www.mooncove.com/newton/impers.htm