International Talk Like a Pirate Day

International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur ("Ol' Chumbucket") and Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy"), of the United States, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.^[1] For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, me haarrty!" The date was selected because it was the birthday of Summers' ex-wife and consequently would be easy for him to remember.^[1] The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Background

"Cap'n Slappy" & "Ol' Chumbucket," founders of Talk Like a Pirate Day.

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.^[2]

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.^[3] Dave Barry liked the idea and promoted the day.^[3] Growing media coverage of the holiday after Dave Barry's column has ensured that this event is now celebrated internationally. Although it is harmless, the day is very much a money making exercise. For example, Baur and Summers use it to sell books and T shirts on their website related to the theme.

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 John's wife, Tori.

Actor Robert Newton, who portrayed Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, is the patron saint of Talk Like A Pirate Day.^[1] Newton was a native of Dorset, and it was his native West Country dialect, which he used in his portrayal of Long John Silver and Blackbeard, that has become the standard "pirate accent."^[4] As the association of pirates with peg legs, parrots and treasure maps was popularized in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883), the influence of Stevenson's book on parody pirate culture cannot be overstated.^[5]

Examples of pirate sayings

Patron Saint Robert Newton provides instruction.

Seamen in the days of sail spoke a language far apart from the norm. It was so full of technical jargon as to be nearly incomprehensible to a landsman. For example, few could follow these instructions:

Lift the skin up, and put into the bunt the slack of the clews (not too taut), the leech and foot-rope, and body of the sail; being careful not to let it get forward under or hang down abaft. Then haul your bunt well up on the yard, smoothing the skin and bringing it down well abaft, and make fast the bunt gasket round the mast, and the jigger, if there be one, to the tie.

—Richard Henry Dana, Jr., The Seaman's Manual (1844)

Even more baffling are some of the phrases used by sailors in the 17th century:

If the ship go before the wind, or as they term it, betwixt two sheets, then he who conds uses these terms to him at the helm: Starboard, larboard, the helm amidships... If the ship go by a wind, or a quarter winds, they say aloof, or keep your loof, or fall not off, wear no more, keep her to, touch the wind, have a care of the lee-latch. all these do imply the same in a manner, are to bid him at the helm to keep her near the wind.

—former pirate Sir Henry Mainwaring (see Harland (1984) p.177

Use nautical talk and you just might get your mouth washed out with soap.

Treasure Island

One of the most influential books on popular notions of pirates was Treasure Island, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, from which sample quotes include:

• "Bring me one noggin of rum, now, won't you, matey."^[6]
• "Avast, there!"
• "Dead men don't bite."
• "Shiver my timbers!" (often pronounced as "Shiver me timbers!")
• "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"^[7]
• "There! That's what I think of ye. Before an hour's out, I'll stove in your old block house like a rum puncheon. Laugh, by thunder, laugh! Before an hour's out, ye'll laugh upon the other side. Them that die'll be the lucky ones."

The archetypal pirate grunt "Arrr!" (alternatively "Rrrr!" or "Yarrr!") first appeared in the classic 1950 Disney film Treasure Island, according to research by Mark Liberman.^[8] His article cites linguistic research that may locate the roots of this phrase much earlier.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan (1904), with Captain Hook and his pirate ship Jolly Roger, contains numerous fictional pirate sayings:

"Avast belay, yo ho, heave to,

A-pirating we go

And if we're parted by a shot

We're sure to meet below!"

"Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life,

The flag o'skull and bones

A merry hour, a hempen rope"

Derivatives

• The holiday is of particular importance to Pastafarians (those who follow the teachings of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) who consider pirates to be absolute divine beings and the original Pastafarians.^[9]
• Tom Smith has written and recorded the song "Talk Like a Pirate Day," the quasi-official anthem of the holiday.^[10]
• In the Nintendo DS version of The Sims 2, in-game characters celebrate "Talk Like A Pirate Day" on September 19th, in which a special quest is released, involving a pirate quiz.
• On Neopets's Neoboards, during the holiday, filters automatically changed words like "see" to "spy" and "n00b" to "landlubber."^[11]
• The virtual pet game www.Psypets.net also uses a forum filter, as well as changing in game dialog, and may also have pirate updates.
• This holiday inspired the creation of the Day of the Ninja in 2003.^[12]
• In Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004), narration and character dialogue is altered to honor "Talk Like A Pirate Day" if the system's date is set to September 19.^[13]
• The multiplayer role-playing game Kingdom of Loathing celebrates Talk Like a Pirate Day, and a new item may drop in the game's pirate-themed zone, for that day only.
• The role-playing game AdventureQuest celebrates Talk Like A Pirate Day by your character going to meet Captain Rhubarb to take a 20-question quiz on Pirate Talk. If you get all 20 questions right, you get access to a special Pirate Shop with new things added each year. You may also access this event via Warlic's Magic Shop.
• Another role-playing game made by the creators of Adventure Quest called Dragonfable, also celebrates this holiday by changing many of the major character's greetings to pirate sayings and in 2007, during the pirates vs. ninjas war, the pirates team gained an additional boost to the amount of gold to be won for fighting against the ninjas starting on that day.
• Canadian sketch comedy troupe produced an educational video on How to Talk Like a Pirate in honor of the day.
• Brian Phillips and Andy Triboletti have developed a Pirates application (game and forums for talking like a Pirate) for Facebook, and have offered a pirate t-shirt contest in honour of the International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

See also

• Pirates versus Ninjas

References

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

External links

Support groups

• Petition to Extend Talk Like a Pirate Day for a Week, by a concerned citizen
• The Original Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, by John Baur and Mark Summers.
• Talk Like A Pirate Day Coverage on Urbanagora, USA.
• Talk Like a Pirate Day Web site, US.
• Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, UK.
• Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, Australia.
• Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site, NL.

Multimedia

• Getting to Know ... TLaPD, a lengthy feature story on John Baur and Mark Summers
• The creator of The Day of the Ninja responds to Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbuckets' comments regarding the Pirates vs. Ninjas debate
• TLaPD Flashmob Gallery, Vancouver 2006.
• Talk like a pirate video clip collection, Video clip collection.

• Audio Interview on The Sound of Young America: MP3 Link
• Animated Pirate Translator.
• Webpages Pirate Translator
• Flickr TLaPD photos
• PirateJokes.net, brush up on pirate humor

Dedicated articles

• Talk Like A Pirate Day articles and many subjects on piracy, France

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