History bit-
the first guy who played long John Silver in the film adaption of Treasure Island was from Dorset, which is in the West Country. He inadvertently. created the pirate accent by speaking naturally. Hope that helps :)

*EDIT* He created the accent that most people around the world perceive pirates to talk like, not what they actually did.
(Buftoon posted this on, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 12:32, 4 replies)

I like this fascinatingly useless factoid.

( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 12:57, closed)

What a massive crock of shit.
How do you think the sailors who left PLYMOUTH, SOUTHAMPTON, PORTSMOUTH and BRISTOL spoke, then?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:03, closed)

Yeah, people from everywhere else in the country sailed from Birmingham.
Also, pirates never sailed from anywhere but the South coast of England and never came from any other country either.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:07, closed)

Sorry, my mistake
The heartland of England's westbound shipping (and therefore the source for most of its sailors) industry was fucking Newcastle, wasn't it?

My mistake.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:12, closed)

I was bored so I googled.
Blackbeard was indeed from Bristol, so the accent chosen for him was correct. There were also notorious pirates from Scotland, Wales, Jamaica, Holland, France and Peuerto Rico. I doubt they all spoke with West-Country accents....
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:34, closed)

Whilst that may be so
the fact remains that the majority of English sailors in the Caribbean in the C17th will have hailed from the South Coast and South West and the idea that people wouldn't have assumed an accent of that kind as prevalent amongst these sailors until a film of the 1930s/40s, is utter and complete nonsense.

It was certainly an assumption made by RL Stevenson - the FUCKING AUTHOR OF TREASURE ISLAND, who wrote the sailors' dialogue including - but not exclusively - that of Long John fucking Silver phonetically - so it reads like the generic 'pirate' speak.

The statement above is demonstrably bollocks. Unless of course RL Stevenson was a time-traveller who revised his famous work following a trip into the future where he went to the cinema.

Not only Q, but also E and a little bit of D.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:59, closed)

If I put on a Newcastle accent would you know I was being a "generic miner"?
It does follow that because Blackbeard was from Bristol then Stevenson was more likely to pick a West Country accent and it follows that in making the film they'd choose somebody with that accent. All that makes sense.
However, this does not mean that "generic pirate accent" existed before the film.
I am also not convinced that people would think of Pirates as having West Country accents since those in the know would realise they were not even mainly English. So, at the time of pirates, I would expect most people wouldn't have an accent in mind when thinking of a pirate.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 17:45, closed)

They were the posh ones.
They were all like "Oh I say! Yo ho ho and bottle of rum, what!"
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:15, closed)

That's how they were perceived to have spoken by most people
until the fucking 1940s when some prick made a film, apparently.

It was like Henley Regatta in most people's minds before that.


I've just been told this.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:16, closed)

Henley FUCKING Regatta.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 14:27, closed)

You're right. Soz.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 14:34, closed)

Only evil pirate captains talked like that.
The ones with fancier clothes and thin mustaches.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 14:02, closed)

I'm from Bristol
and I've got the poshest voice* you'll ever hear

*lies (gert lies)

pull ee from the stingers me babber

The only really Bristolian thing I don't do is say ideal instead of idea because it's idiotic inumm
(sittingduck Attention seeking, bullshitting fuck-knuckle, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:40, closed)

Inner.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 14:26, closed)

God, I hope that's true.

( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:03, closed)

Think about it. It's complete bollocks.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 13:05, closed)

True
It was Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney version.

Actual 17th Century pirates were often from rural areas of Britain, often in the West Country. Edward Teach aka Blackbeard was thought to be from Bristol.

BUT, not all West Country accents sound exactly the same. Newton's Dorset accent has, over time, become corrupted into some generic Southern-English-West-of-Reading pisstake.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 1 Jun 2012, 15:23, closed)