(For additional on the background on this: https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/09/pirate-speech-origins-in-west-country-english-via-robert-newton-aka-long-joh

(For additional on the background on this: https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/09/pirate-speech-origins-in-west-country-english-via-robert-newton-aka-long-john-silver.html https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/09/pirate-speech-origi... ) Let me rephrase... the less wealthy parts of England had more rhoticity in their accent than the upper class parts. These poorer parts - either as indentured servants or immigrants to the new world (and Australia) had a stronger influence on what would become the American English accents. Rhoticity can be understood by the further exaggeration that pirates displayed which was again exaggerated in popular media. Their accent was part of the West Country English which was in the poorer parts of the country - ship builders and young men with little to lose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Country_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Country_English > not because historical pirates actually spoke like that (although many surely did) Blackbeard was presumed to have been born in Bristol. Francis Drake was born in Tavistock. These locations are both firmly in the West Country English dialect.