Probably not, and that may be part of what makes it funny. You get different versions of what pirates yell out, of course, including these.
An easy read from a linguist's perspective is that it's a pattern of variation to be explained, like why some people say 'pop' and others say 'soda', or why you sometimes say you're 'goin' to do' something and sometimes 'gonna do' something.
A non-linguist might have done this cartoon about some notion of correctness or something.
*yar ==> yar in the conservative Pirate dialect A, while leniting to har in PirateB and finally weakening to ar in PirateC. Seems the most logical progression; could be geographical distribution contributed to varying degrees of conservatism.
Could you explain the joke?
ReplyDeleteProbably not, and that may be part of what makes it funny. You get different versions of what pirates yell out, of course, including these.
ReplyDeleteAn easy read from a linguist's perspective is that it's a pattern of variation to be explained, like why some people say 'pop' and others say 'soda', or why you sometimes say you're 'goin' to do' something and sometimes 'gonna do' something.
A non-linguist might have done this cartoon about some notion of correctness or something.
Does that help?
*yar ==> yar in the conservative Pirate dialect A, while leniting to har in PirateB and finally weakening to ar in PirateC. Seems the most logical progression; could be geographical distribution contributed to varying degrees of conservatism.
ReplyDeleteIt also made me think of the bow-wow theory.
ReplyDeleteOh, good point! Thanks.
ReplyDelete