International Talk Like a Pirate Day

International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Type	Parodic
Date	September 19
Next time	September 19, 2017 (2017-09-19)
Frequency	annual

International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD, September 19) is a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Bauer (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), of Albany, Oregon,^[1] U.S., who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.^[2] 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.

History

"Cap'n Slappy" and "Ol' Chumbucket", the founders of Talk Like a Pirate Day

According to Summers, the day is the only known holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury. During a racquetball game between Summers and Bauer, 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 the Normandy landings, they chose Summers' ex-wife's birthday, as it would be easy for him to remember.^[1][3]

At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when Bauer and Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002.^[4] Barry liked the idea and promoted the day.^[4] Growing media coverage of the holiday after Barry's column has ensured that this event is now celebrated internationally, and Bauer and Summers now sell books and T-shirts related to the theme on their website. Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-restriction of the idea or non-trademarking, in effect opening the holiday to creativity and "viral" growth.^[5]

The association of pirates with peg legs, parrots, and treasure maps, popularized in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883), has had a significant influence on parody pirate culture.^[6] Talk Like a Pirate Day is celebrated with hidden easter egg features in many games and websites,^[7] with Facebook introducing a pirate-translated version of its website on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008^[8] and publisher O'Reilly discounting books on the R programming language to celebrate.^[9] Minecraft also features this language (en_PT) since January 5, 2012. In September 2014, Reddit added a pirate theme to their website.^[10]

Linguistic background

English actor Robert Newton, who specialized in portraying pirates, especially Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney film Treasure Island and the 1954 Australian film Long John Silver and the title character in the 1952 film Blackbeard the Pirate,^[11] is described as the "patron saint" of Talk Like a Pirate Day.^[1] 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".^[12] This was parodied in the 1950s and 1960s by British comedian Tony Hancock.^[13]

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,^[13] and was used by a character in the 1940 novel Adam Penfeather, Buccaneer by Jeffrey Farnol.^[13] However, it was Robert Newton's use of it in the classic 1950 Disney film Treasure Island that popularized the interjection and made it widely remembered. It has been speculated that the rolling "rrr", a distinctive element of the speech of the West Country of England, has been associated with pirates because of the West Country's strong maritime heritage, where for many centuries fishing was the main industry (and smuggling a major unofficial one), and where there were several major ports. As a result, West Country speech in general, and Cornish speech in particular, may have been a major influence on a generalized British nautical speech.^[14][15]

Official acknowledgment

• The US states of Michigan^[16] and California have officially recognized the occasion.
• Krispy Kreme gives out free doughnuts to people who talk and/or dress like pirates on September 19.^[17] Long John Silver's has a similar promotion.^[18]
• Google Search and Facebook both have the option to choose "Pirate" as a language choice.^[19]
• Antivirus provider Avast has, since 2011, permitted users to select "Pirate Talk" as a language option. The option was added on International Talk Like a Pirate Day of that year.^[20]
• In 2006, it was described as a holiday for members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster religion.^[21]

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
• William Clark Russell (1883). Sailors' Language. Dictionary of 19th century sailors' language.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

• The Original Talk Like a Pirate Day website, by John Bauer and Mark Summers.
• Talk Like a Pirate Day Web site, UK.
• Interview with the founders on how it started
• Official UK charity of Talk Like a Pirate Day