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From: Athel Cornish-Bowden <me@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: International Talk Like A Pirate Day (19 September)
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:09:52 +0200
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 2024-09-19 12:01:46 +0000, Ross Clark said:

> "a joke"
> "all good fun"
> "an extra way of raising money for good causes" (really?)
> all seems now to be something that passed by in a puff of 
> electrons....how many years ago?
> 
> At least Crystal does note that the definitive understanding of how 
> pirates talked comes from Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver 
> in the 1950 Disney-produced version of _Treasure Island_ (my first 
> Favourite Movie -- saw it three times).
> 
> So: RLS for the syntax and lexis, Newton for the "arrr!".
> 
> Newton himself (1905-1956): Born in Shaftesbury, Dorset; spent some 
> formative years (7-13) in Cornwall, then schooled in Exeter, Devon.
> So he did have some genuine West Country speech to draw on (plausibly) 
> when portraying Silver.

Alas. I myself was born, grew up and educated (up to the age of 13) in 
Devon, but I'm completely incapable of speaking like someone from Devon.

Incidentally, we don't call it the West Country, but Devon and 
Cornwall, or the West of England if we want to include Somerset and 
Dorset. It seems to be mainly people from Gloucestershire who think 
they live in the West Country.
> 
> He was in a lot of films, including the 1940 _Gaslight_ (!). Carried on 
> as Silver in an eponymous 1954 film and a one-season TV series.
> 
> "Known for his hard-living life, he was cited as a role model by the 
> actor Oliver Reed and the Who's drummer Keith Moon."
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Newton


-- 
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly 
in England until 1987.