International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Encyclopedia
International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) is a parodic
holiday
created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon
, U.S.
, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday
would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, matey!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy
. It has become a holiday for members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
According to Summers, the day is the only holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury. He has stated that during a racquetball
game between Summers and Baur, one of them reacted to the pain with an outburst of "Aaarrr!", and the idea was born. That game took place on June 6, 1995, but out of respect for the observance of D-Day
, they chose Summers' ex-wife's birthday, as it would be easy for him to remember.
At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when John Baur and Mark Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry
in 2002. Barry liked the idea and promoted the day. Growing media coverage of the holiday after Barry's column has ensured that this event is now celebrated internationally, and Baur and Summers now sell books and T-shirts on their website related to the theme. Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-restriction of the idea or trademarking, in effect opening the holiday for creativity and "viral" growth.
Baur and Summers found new fame in the 2006 season premiere episode of ABC's Wife Swap
, first aired September 18, 2006. They starred in the role of "a family of pirates" along with Baur's wife, Tori. Baur also appeared on the June 26, 2008 episode of Jeopardy!
, where he was introduced as a "writer and pirate from Albany, Oregon."
The association of pirates with peg legs, parrot
s, and treasure map
s, popularized in Robert Louis Stevenson
's novel Treasure Island
(1883), has had a significant influence on parody pirate culture. Talk Like a Pirate Day has been referenced in two songs from filk singer Tom Smith
- "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and "What? It's Can(n)on." The latter references the fact that J. K. Rowling
set Hermione Granger's birthday on the same day as "Talk Like a Pirate Day," and jokes about the Hogwarts student trading in her wizarding education for a piracy career.
, who specialized in portraying pirates, especially Long John Silver
in the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island
, the 1954 Australian film Long John Silver
, and as the title character in the 1952 film Blackbeard
, the Pirate, is described as the "patron saint
" of Talk Like A Pirate Day. Newton was born in Dorset
and educated in Cornwall
, and it was his native West Country dialect
, which he used in his portrayal of Long John Silver and Blackbeard
, that some contend is the origin of the standard "pirate accent".
The archetypal pirate grunt "Arrr!" (alternatively "Rrrr!" or "Yarrr!") first appeared in fiction as early as 1934 in the film Treasure Island starring Lionel Barrymore
, and was used by a character in the 1940 novel Adam Penfeather, Buccaneer by Jeffrey Farnol. However it was popularized and widely remembered with Robert Newton's usage in the classic 1950 Disney film Treasure Island. It has been speculated that the rolling "rrr" has been associated with pirates because of the location of major ports in the West Country
of England
, drawing labor from the surrounding countryside. West Country speech in general, and Cornish speech in particular, may have been a major influence on a generalized British nautical speech. This can be seen in the Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta
The Pirates of Penzance
, which is set in Cornwall
; although the play did not (originally) use the phrase "arrr", the pirates used words with a lot of rrr's such as "Hurrah" and "pour the pirate sherry".
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon
Albany, Oregon
Albany is the eleventh largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon, and is the county seat of Linn County. It is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River in both Linn and Benton counties, just east of Corvallis and south of Salem. It is...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, matey!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation given to one or more outbursts of piracy in maritime history of the early modern period. In its broadest accepted definition, the Golden Age of Piracy spans from the 1650s to the 1730s and covers three separate outbursts of piracy:the buccaneering...
. It has become a holiday for members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Background
Racquetball
For other sports often called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court...
game between Summers and Baur, one of them reacted to the pain with an outburst of "Aaarrr!", and the idea was born. That game took place on June 6, 1995, but out of respect for the observance of D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, they chose Summers' ex-wife's birthday, as it would be easy for him to remember.
At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when John Baur and Mark Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry
Dave Barry
David "Dave" Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for The Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comedic novels.-Biography:Barry was born in Armonk, New York,...
in 2002. Barry liked the idea and promoted the day. Growing media coverage of the holiday after Barry's column has ensured that this event is now celebrated internationally, and Baur and Summers now sell books and T-shirts on their website related to the theme. Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-restriction of the idea or trademarking, in effect opening the holiday for creativity and "viral" growth.
Baur and Summers found new fame in the 2006 season premiere episode of ABC's Wife Swap
Wife Swap
Wife Swap is a reality television program, originally produced by UK independent television production company RDF Media and created by Stephen Lambert. It was first broadcast in 2003 on the UK's Channel 4. Since 2004, a US version has also been broadcast on the ABC network...
, first aired September 18, 2006. They starred in the role of "a family of pirates" along with Baur's wife, Tori. Baur also appeared on the June 26, 2008 episode of Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, where he was introduced as a "writer and pirate from Albany, Oregon."
The association of pirates with peg legs, parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s, and treasure map
Treasure map
A treasure map is a map that marks the location of buried treasure, a lost mine, a valuable secret or a hidden locale. More common in fiction than in reality, "pirate treasure maps" are often depicted in works of fiction as hand drawn and containing arcane clues for the characters to follow...
s, popularized in Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's novel Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...
(1883), has had a significant influence on parody pirate culture. Talk Like a Pirate Day has been referenced in two songs from filk singer Tom Smith
Tom Smith
- Sports :* R. Thomas "Tom" Smith , American thoroughbred racehorse trainer of Seabiscuit* Tom Smith , Major League player* Tom Smith , Major League player...
- "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and "What? It's Can(n)on." The latter references the fact that J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling
Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...
set Hermione Granger's birthday on the same day as "Talk Like a Pirate Day," and jokes about the Hogwarts student trading in her wizarding education for a piracy career.
Linguistic background
Actor Robert NewtonRobert Newton
Robert Newton was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys...
, who specialized in portraying pirates, especially Long John Silver
Long John Silver
Long John Silver is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Silver is also known by the nicknames "Barbecue" and the "Sea-Cook".- Profile :...
in the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island
Treasure Island (1950 film)
Treasure Island is a 1950 Disney adventure film, adapted from the Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. It starred Bobby Driscoll as Jim Hawkins, and Robert Newton as Long John Silver...
, the 1954 Australian film Long John Silver
Long John Silver (film)
Long John Silver is a 1954 Australian film about the eponymous pirate from Treasure Island, starring Robert Newton as Silver and Rod Taylor as Israel Hands....
, and as the title character in the 1952 film Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
, the Pirate, is described as the "patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
" of Talk Like A Pirate Day. Newton was born in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
and educated in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, and it was his native West Country dialect
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....
, which he used in his portrayal of Long John Silver and Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
, that some contend is the origin of the standard "pirate accent".
The archetypal pirate grunt "Arrr!" (alternatively "Rrrr!" or "Yarrr!") first appeared in fiction as early as 1934 in the film Treasure Island starring Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
, and was used by a character in the 1940 novel Adam Penfeather, Buccaneer by Jeffrey Farnol. However it was popularized and widely remembered with Robert Newton's usage in the classic 1950 Disney film Treasure Island. It has been speculated that the rolling "rrr" has been associated with pirates because of the location of major ports in the West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, drawing labor from the surrounding countryside. West Country speech in general, and Cornish speech in particular, may have been a major influence on a generalized British nautical speech. This can be seen in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
, which is set in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
; although the play did not (originally) use the phrase "arrr", the pirates used words with a lot of rrr's such as "Hurrah" and "pour the pirate sherry".
Further reading
- Harland, John (1984). Seamanship in the Age of Sail. Provides a detailed account of the language used by seamen during the age of sail. ISBN 0-87021-955-3
- William Clark RussellWilliam Clark RussellWilliam Clark Russell was a popular American writer of nautical novels and horror stories.Born in New York City, he gained his experience of sea life during eight years' service as a sailor...
(1883). Sailors' Language. Dictionary of 19th century sailors' language.
External links
- The Original Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, by John Baur and Mark Summers.
- Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, UK.
- Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, Australia.
- Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, NL.
- Getting to Know ... International Talk Like A Pirate Day
- Interview with the founders on how it started
- Google in "Talk Like A Pirate" Style
- Translate text or web pages to Pirate on the fly
- Plymouth Pirate Day, UK.
- "Talk Like a Pirate Day" celebrated on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square by a participant in Anthony Gormley's One and Other art project, 19 Sept. 2009
- How to Talk Like a Pirate, web page offer popular pirate phrases, sayings and sound files.