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Popular Culture Review
what thrills us the most is that people are having fun with it” (Summers). The
other comment, I think, reflects the satisfaction of being part of a creative
endeavor of worldwide consequence. He said, “Just to see so many people
around the world united by one idea that for one day a year everyone can just be
kids and play and have fim. That’s been a revelation to me, to be a small part of
that, to be there at the starting of that was amazing” (Summers).
10. Phonetics
While phonetics (the study of the sounds of speech, their transmission, and
reception) is technically a “P” word, it has the distinction of being the only word
on the list that does not make a “P” sound. While this is partially a little tonguein-cheek fun on my part, phonetics do play a vital role in the success of Talk
Like a Pirate Day. Talking like a pirate, therefore, is properly within the realm
of the study of phonetics. The success of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I would argue,
is due both to the way a pirate says something as well as the pirate lexicon itself
The things that a pirate says (as has been mentioned earlier) are really a
combination of the appearances of the pirate in popular culture rather than a
faithful recreation of the way early pirates spoke. Seventeenth and eighteenth
century nautical terms, of course, play an important role. Other archaic language
speech acts such as using the pronouns “me” for “my” and “ye” for “you” play a
role as well. The inappropriateness and incongruity of this kind of terminology
in the modem world, helps establish the comic tone of talking like a pirate.
However, much of the success of talking like a pirate does depend on how
something is said. Cap’n Slappy introduces a word that can perhaps best
describe how to pull off talking like a pirate, “pirattitude.” “We coined the
phrase ‘pirattitude.’ So we’ve used that and people have accepted that as an
actual word now, at least in the pirate community” (Summers). It does do a nice
job of explaining how to make talking like a pirate funny and rewarding. It
requires a brash attitude that does not conform to the typical restraints. It
requires a willingness to deal with taboo or racy subjects, lacing speech with
playfully violent threats and sexual innuendos. In fact, the Talk Like a Pirate
website has a section devoted to pirate pickup lines such as, “That’s the finest
pirate booty I’ve ever laid eyes on” and “Prepare to be boarded” (“Why Talk”).
The lurid delivery of the lines of course are what make them most effective.
(Effective of course could mean reactions ranging from laughs to slaps in the
face.)
The most useful pirate word of course is “Arrr” which as described earlier is
a flexible word. The very elasticity of this word and its association with pirate
speech makes it so that essentially anyone can participate in the holiday by
talking like a pirate. It is not mere exaggeration, when 01’ Chumbucket ends
their “Five A’s” video by saying “You throw those five A’s in and you’ve got
all the pirate talking you’re gonna need. Arrr!” (Baur and Summers). Not only is
his comment factually relevant for those who want to talk like a Pirate, but he
also models the behavior, by turning “Arrr” into an interjection or exclamation
at the end of a sentence.