Everybody knows how pirates speak despite there being
no
recordings of actual pirates speaking, the technology
having not existed to create such a thing back then.
The reason we're all fluent in "pirate speak" is due to
the
incredible creativity and talent of an actor Robert
Newton
who
voiced the world's most famous pirate, Long John
Silver in the movie Treasure Island. For one thing they
say
"Arrrrgh!". Keep in mind, it's doubtful that any pirate, or
any human being for that matter has ever said "Arrrgh!".
It's a bizarre growl with the totally un-explainable "gh"
tacked onto the end. But it's great and NOW it's
something that all pirates do.
This is completely random and in retrospect, quite
bizarre.
The challenge this poses is, can this be repeated?
The idea is to have a contest to create voices for
historical
figures that are as intriguing and brilliant as the
adaptation
of
Robert Newton's pirate.
The second best classic interpretation of a pre-
audio
recording historical figure in my opinion is Yul Brynner's
pharaoh
Ramses
in The Ten Commandments. It's just sort of vague but
very
regal, arrogant and convincing. I'd give him, 4 out of 5
stars, the 5 star standard being set by the brilliant
Robert
Newton, father of pirate speak.
This would be a Youtube challenge. The figures would be
listed and people would wear some article of clothing
indicative of the ancient figure they were creating a
voice
for and read a short script.
How would a Mayan emperor speak? A Babylonian king?
We
all know that Roman leaders had that lythsp thing going
on.
What voice would you create for Pythagoras, Alexander
the
Great even Kushim, regarded as possibly the earliest
known
example of a person named in writing?