{"id":8828,"date":"2022-01-17T13:56:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T12:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=85767"},"modified":"2022-01-17T14:12:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T13:12:12","slug":"did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent\/","title":{"rendered":"Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Kev Lochun\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 17 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

One of history\u2019s most famous pirates<\/a> almost certainly had a West Country twang: Edward \u2018Blackbeard\u2019 Teach, born in Bristol around 1680. Devon and Cornwall accents would probably also have been common in the Caribbean, the region most known for pirate activity in the late 17th century, because of those counties\u2019 strong maritime links.<\/p>\n

However, many of the best-known British pirates and buccaneers weren\u2019t English at all. Henry Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts were Welsh, Anne Bonny came from Ireland and Captain Kidd was born in Dundee.<\/p>\n

On the podcast: Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy. Plus, how accurate are pop culture portrayals of pirates?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div> <hr\/><p>When Dorset-born actor Robert Newton played the archetypal pirate, Long John Silver, in Walt Disney\u2019s 1950 film version of Robert Louis Stevenson\u2019s <em>Treasure Island<\/em>, he adopted a preposterous but unforgettable Cornish brogue, later reprising it in <em>Blackbeard the Pirate<\/em> (1952) and <em>Long John Silver <\/em>(1954). The accent has been indelibly linked with piracy ever since.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> <p><strong>This content is part of our series of pirate myths \u2013 read the rest in the series:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/peg-leg-pirates-real-eyepatches"\">Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/walk-plank-real-punishment"\">Was walking the plank a real pirate punishment?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/x-marks-spot-did-pirates-bury-treasure"\">X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/jolly-roger-skull-crossbones-pirate-flags"\">Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/victorian\/what-is-the-origin-and-meaning-of-the-pirate-expression-shiver-me-timbers\/"\">What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression \u2018shiver me timbers\u2019?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><p><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/bbc-history-revealed-magazine\/"\"><em><strong>This article was taken from BBC History Revealed magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kev Lochun Published: Monday, 17 January 2022 at 12:00 am One of history\u2019s most famous pirates almost certainly had a West Country twang: Edward \u2018Blackbeard\u2019 Teach, born in Bristol around 1680. Devon and Cornwall accents would probably also have been common in the Caribbean, the region most known for pirate activity in the late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":8829,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-scaled.jpg",2560,1867,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-300x219.jpg",300,219,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-768x560.jpg",768,560,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-1024x747.jpg",800,584,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-1536x1120.jpg",1536,1120,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/did-most-english-pirates-really-talk-with-a-west-country-accent-2048x1494.jpg",2048,1494,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Kev Lochun Published: Monday, 17 January 2022 at 12:00 am One of history\u2019s most famous pirates almost certainly had a West Country twang: Edward \u2018Blackbeard\u2019 Teach, born in Bristol around 1680. Devon and Cornwall accents would probably also have been common in the Caribbean, the region most known for pirate activity in the late…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/8828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}