You probably weren’t thinking that Pirates of the Caribbean was a documentary. But somehow we’ve all absorbed the stereotype of a pirate as a swashbuckling adventurer with a certain accent, a few loose teeth, and a treasure map in his pocket. Let’s take a look at some of the most pervasive pirate tropes—and separate myth from fact.
Pirate AccentThere’s an accent we famously think of as the way pirates talk. This doesn’t come from any specific historical source, but...