Many of the phrases that most people think of as pirate speech today can actually be traced back to the 1950s Disney movie Treasure Island, starring Robert Newton as fictional pirate Long John Silver.
"Newton's performance—full of 'arrs,' 'shiver me timbers,' and references to landlubbers—not only stole the show, it permanently shaped pop culture's vision of how pirates looked, acted, and spoke," Woodard said.
"Afterwards, Newtonesque pirates were everywhere, from Captain Hook to Captain McCallister of the Simpsons series."
And Johnny Depp has shaped it, or re-shaped it, from the
Pirates of the Caribbean films. The last time I went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, the cast of Elizabethan characters included "Sir Francis Drake"--except that Sir Francis looked like Capt. Jack Sparrow, I presume because he's now today's pop culture vision of how pirates looked.
