How to Really Talk Like a Pirate. When Do You Need a Comma Before 'Because'?

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Based on the history of who was sailing the high seas, it's a good bet pirates sounded a lot more multicultural than Ol’ Long John Silver would have us believe. We also discuss when you need a comma before "because" to avoid confusion. Subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates. Watch my LinkedIn Learning writing course. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Grammar Pop iOS game. Peeve Wars card game. Grammar Girl books. HOST: Mignon Fogarty VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL (833-214-4475) Grammar Girl is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network. Theme music by Catherine Rannus at beautifulmusic.co.uk. Links: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/ https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/podcasts https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/subscribe https://www.tiktok.com/@therealgrammargirl http://twitter.com/grammargirl http://facebook.com/grammargirl http://pinterest.com/realgrammargirl http://instagram.com/thegrammargirl https://www.linkedin.com/company/grammar-girl

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm a New Yorker.
0:05.8	Grammar Girl here.
0:06.8	I'm a New Yorker.
0:07.8	And you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.
0:11.8	We talk about writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.
0:15.5	Today we'll honor Talk Like a Pirate Day with a segment about pirate language, HURG.
0:21.3	And then we'll talk about when you need a comma before the word because, and about the
0:25.3	Devonshire.
0:30.5	Most of us only think of a hoi there are madee and mihardis once a year on International
0:35.9	Talk Like a Pirate Day.
0:37.4	A day when landlubbers can joke about walking the plank and being scallowwigs with abandon.
0:43.6	But for linguists, the allure of pirate language and what it reveals about language and social
0:48.8	life on the high seas is a year round fascination.
0:53.1	Some of the average person's idea of how pirate spoke is generally limited to a random
0:57.6	r and r.
0:59.5	True pirate talk likely began in earnest in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
1:05.2	A period known as the golden age of piracy.
1:09.8	Privateering and pirate ships were crewed by sailors from around the world, but the majority
1:14.6	spoke a hybridized version of English, known as maritime pigeon English.
1:20.3	This variety was a contact English or lingua franca strongly influenced by European traders
1:26.4	contact with West African languages and the multicultural diversity found on board
1:31.7	Slaving and trading ships.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mignon Fogarty, Inc., and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mignon Fogarty, Inc. and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.