Pirates talk "funny" (with the stereotypical "Arrr, matey!" accent) because actor Robert Newton created it for the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, exaggerating his own West Country English accent from Southwest England, a region with historical ties to seafaring and piracy. This distinctive, rhotic (pronounced "r"s) accent, popularized by Newton's iconic portrayal of Long John Silver, became the standard for pirate speech in pop culture, even though real pirates spoke in diverse accents from various ports.
The pirate accent often includes archaic or nautical terms such as "ye," "avast," "scallywag," "matey," and "shiver me timbers." These words add authenticity to your pirate persona. To truly talk like a pirate, you need to know essential pirate lingo and phrases. Here are some must-know terms to get you started: Ahoy!
We don't have many historical accounts of actual pirate speech. The Golden Age of Piracy predates recordings by more than a century. Pirates also didn't have a habit of writing much down. Many were likely illiterate.
Rhoticity can be understood by the further exaggeration that pirates displayed which was again exaggerated in popular media. Their accent was part of the West Country English which was in the poorer parts of the country - ship builders and young men with little to lose.
Ahoy – A pirate greeting or a way to get someone's attention, similar to “Hello” or “hey!”. Arrr, Arrgh, Yarr, Gar – Pirates slang used to emphasize a point. Avast – Pirate speak for pay attention. Aye – “Yes”
Have you ever wondered why pirates say "Arrr"? We answer this burning question with help from National Geographic and American Profile. Pronounced also as “Yarrr!” and “Arg!”, the word “Arrr!” is traditionally said by pirates when responding "yes" or when expressing excitement.
Pirates had their own unique sentence structures and grammatical quirks. For instance, they often used the double negative, "I ain't no coward," which was common in nautical speech of the time.
The most well-known is his drunken warbling as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. According to Masters of Accents, Depp's English accent as the pirate rogue is based on Keith Richards, generating an impressive result.
The "Pirate Accent" originates from Robert Newton's exaggerated natural Cornish accent when he portrayed Blackbeard and Long John Silver in Various Films in the 1950s.
"Avast" = If you say it nice and sweetly this means 'stop and listen to me'. Shout it and it's more like saying 'shut up'.
Avast is a nautical command meaning to stop or desist. It is an Anglicised version of the Middle Dutch phrase 'hou vast', which translates as hold fast.
Lousy, filthy, rotten, leprous, flea-bitten, scurvy, stinkin', poxy, weevil-infested, mangy, drunken, bloated, festerin'.
Some pirates went further than theft. A few were brutal, terrifying figures. Captains like François l'Olonnais tortured captives in horrifying ways—cutting open chests, gnawing on hearts, burning faces, crucifying victims, hanging men by their genitals.
' Say 'aye' in place of yes, but don't say “nay” in place of no – not unless you want to talk like a pirate politician! If you really want to impress yer Captain, say Aye Aye! This means, Yes, Captain…
Depp has been blind in his left eye and near-sighted in the other since childhood. He's used his platform to show how people adapt and thrive, even with limited vision.
His most famous one is of course the one on his arm, which depicts a swallow, not a sparrow. According to a behind the scenes featurette, this tattoo signifies that Jack has sailed in every ocean around the world.
Some Scottish regional dialects can be hard to understand even for Scottish people, not to mention mastering it by trying to imitate the accent. Shetland accent is officially the hardest to master in the world, and was given its new title by a number of experts at Preply.
People with scurvy get too little vitamin C for a long time. In pirate lingo, “scurvy” as in “ye scurvy dog” means disgusting. That's because the worst symptoms were terrible. People with untreated scurvy can't heal their wounds.
What we know as the skull and crossbones, with the human skull and the two long bones, was actually commonly referred to during the 17th and 18th centuries as the Jolly Roger. This flag was flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates that were about to attack.
'Ahoy' originated in the seafaring world, where it was used as an interjection to catch the attention of crew members and as a general greeting. It is often used today by participants in playful imitations of pirate speak.
Though most often interpreted as a platonic form of mutual insurance, some historians have compared matelotage to same-sex marriage or domestic partnership. B. R. Burg argued in Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition (1995) that in the male-dominated world of piracy, homosexuality was common.
"Pirate" is not a gender-specific term, so you would refer to her as a "female pirate."
(intransitive, archaic) To growl or snarl like a dog.