Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Arrrrr! Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) is an annual opportunity to pepper your speech with swashbuckling phrases like "ahoy matey" and "shiver me timbers." But where does "pirate speak" come from, and is this how historical pirates really talked? We asked Laurel MacKenzie, an NYU associate professor of linguistics who studies dialectology, language change, and varieties of English to explain the origins of some common pirate phrases and sounds. Turns out a lot of it has to do with the movies.
Video by Jonathan King
Arrrrr! Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) is an annual opportunity to pepper your speech with swashbuckling phrases like "ahoy matey" and "shiver me timbers." But where does "pirate speak" come from, and is this how historical pirates really talked? We asked Laurel MacKenzie, an NYU associate professor of linguistics who studies dialectology, language change, and varieties of English to explain the origins of some common pirate phrases and sounds. Turns out a lot of it has to do with the movies.
Video by Jonathan King
