International Talk Like a Pirate Day

[Scarlet Knight]

This is a question for the international playgrounders out there: are there phrases used by pirates in other languages?

For example: in the US, if someone says "Ahoy, mateys" or "Shiver me timbers", these are phrases associated only with pirates. Now pirates come from everywhere so I assume there are similar phrases from everywhere. So do Spaniards say "scurvy lubber"? Do Frenchmen say " Walk the plank"?

What are the phrases that if you hear while passing a gaming group, alerts you that a pirate game's being played?

[Eldan]

I definitely don't know any specific seafaring accent used in German. I mean, it would be a Northern one, as that's where the sea is, but otherwise... I know bits and pieces of nautical terms, but none that are specifically piratey.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Personally, I'd be surprised if 'pirate speak' is much of a thing in other languages. I mean, the English version came about in the Caribbean, right, during the golden age of piracy? I was under the impression that most ship crews in that time/place were mish-mashes of all different nationalities, and that a sort of naval pidgin became the default tongue for all different seafarers. Clearly it's based on English, because British is Best the British navy was one of the largest - especially in that theatre.

[EvilJames]

Yarr the Spanish be havin' a strong pirate and privateer history as well. As did the Irish, but indeed the golden age of piracy was mostly in British controlled colonies.

[Scarlet Knight]

I guess I just wondered if Chinese D&D players played a pirate module, would they say "You can't do a Mandarin accent for pirates! Everyone knows they have Shanghai accents!"


That be a joke, laddies...ye know, a play on the whole "Shanghai'd" pun.

Aye, I'm a swab fer sure.

[Razade]

Personally, I'd be surprised if 'pirate speak' is much of a thing in other languages. I mean, the English version came about in the Caribbean, right, during the golden age of piracy? I was under the impression that most ship crews in that time/place were mish-mashes of all different nationalities, and that a sort of naval pidgin became the default tongue for all different seafarers. Clearly it's based on English, because British is Best the British navy was one of the largest - especially in that theatre.

No. It came from the 1950's Treasure Island and the actor Robert Newton who was from Dorset which lends the accent. Take a listen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEKcll7AvSE). Pirates were from all over the place and the Golden Age of Piracy ended in the 1800's. We don't really know any accent from that period.

[The Great Wyrm]

How to really talk like a pirate:

Look at me. I am the captain now.

[veti]

Most of those phrases are slightly more generic than "purely pirate". They could have been associated with any type of sailor in the 18th century. But it just happens that "pirates" are the only type of 18th-century sailor that cinema audiences give a damn about.

Some phrases/ideas are specifically piratical. "Walking the plank", for instance - I don't think this was practised on navy or civilian ships. (I'm assuming it happened on at least some pirate ships, it's not just a myth.)

As noted, the modern stereotypical "pirate accent" is basically from Dorset (English) accent, and that's mostly an accident of cinematic history. (Although the English West Country did produce many notable pirates, so it's not completely wrong either.) But in the Golden Age, there were probably about as many French pirates as English in the Caribbean, plus a healthy smattering of Dutch, Spanish and other European seafaring nations. (The original "buccaneers" were French(ish - think Creole) speaking - before they were driven off the islands where they were trying to mind their own business, and took to piracy.)

[lio45]

Yeah, if realism is not entirely absent from the priority list, I suppose a band of French-speaking pirates could have blacks speak with a Haitian/Creole accent and whites with a thick coastal Breton one.

[Scarlet Knight]

No. It came from the 1950's Treasure Island and the actor Robert Newton who was from Dorset which lends the accent...

You have a good point; I loved the old black & white pirate movies with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone. However, Flynn always sounded like Robin Hood and Basil like he did in Zorro.


I did take a quick look through my copy of Stevenson's Treasure Island, and so many of the "piratey" phrases are already there. Maybe they can be read with Irish or other accents, but it just doesn't flow well.

[Vinyadan]

TBH more than the Golden Age of Piracy I would call that time The Age in Which Europeans (Or Just Anglophones Depending On Definition) Were Doing Lots of Piracy. Compared to the Saracens or the Barbary Pirates, it doesn't look larger. Besides, what's more overblown than a ship departing from Marrakesh and raiding Island? That's what I call impressive, at least for how far-fetched it was ;) And even Henry Morgan sacking Panama pales to the conquest of Bari and holding on to it for some 30 years.
I don't know how Italian pirates are supposed to speak, those in pirates of the Caribbean actually spoke in a very refined manner. Historical pirates probably spoke varieties of Venetian or Genoese and had more to do with corsairs than with pirates: when you had two naval powers that near, you didn't want to be caught doing piracy. Actually, the Venetians had an ongoing war against Slavic pirates that ended with their destruction and restarted when the Balkans were occupied by the Ottomans, only to end again a century and half later.

So, around here, the local image of a pirate is that of a Turk, and he is expected to speak like a Turk.

[Asmodean_]

Around here, the only pirate talk usually goes something like:

Yarr, I ain't paying $600 for photoshop!

[BWR]

In Norwegian, nothing that comes to mind.
There are a few phrases which bring to mind nautical people in general, a few songs that are fairly famous but no phrases that I can think of.