From January 1936 until January of 1940, it was my duty to attend the Clayton High School in pursuit of a diploma. At that time, Georgia Walker was the director of vocal music. George Best was the director of instrumental music. For the four years that I attended Clayton High School, one of the mainstays of the repertoire of our choruses was “Men of Harlech.” Georgia Walker seemed to like that song and, looking back at it, it may have been because she was of Welsh origin. In any case, it is a rousing march, the villains being the English who, at that time, were identified as Saxons. They were so identified because the English language is based upon Saxon roots.
So Miss Walker had us singing:
Men of Harlech, honor calls us
No proud Saxon dare befall us.
On we march, what e’r befall us,
We shall live or die.
In the last two months, you may have seen what the song was referring to when it spoke of “a proud Saxon.” I am referring, of course, to the oil spill sponsored by the British Petroleum Corporation (BP), whose chief executive officer is Anthony Hayward. Early in the crisis, Tony Hayward, as he now likes to call himself, said the following: “I’d like my life back.” This was a stupid remark to have made in light of the fact that eleven men lost their lives as a result of the shoddiness and cost-cutting efforts of the British Petroleum Corporation. Now, however, there is a media blitz by BP, using television and print advertising to try to counteract what Hayward has said. To his credit,Haywardhas acknowledged the goofiness of his remark and is now spending millions of dollars to try to counteract the reaction to it.
Hayward is no fool. He has a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. They don’t give doctorates away at Edinburgh by sending in box tops. Whether he is a Scot or not remains to be seen. But at any rate, when he made his prior remark, he was a proud Saxon. The television commercial made by Tony Hayward is a shining example of the English language at its best. I do not mean this with any degree of sarcasm whatsoever. Tony Hayward speaks superb English. For his vocabulary, if not his subject, he has my admiration.
In his commercial, Hayward uses, among other things, two words that I have been campaigning about for many years wherein the American version of English is askew. The two words that are of significance here are “been” and “again.” Hayward pronounces the first word as “bean” which rhymes with the cocoa bean or the coffee bean. That is the way the word is spelled and I fully approve of that spelling and pronunciation. In the American version of the English language, we pronounce that word as “bin.” If I may say so, upon pain of being accused of lack of patriotism, I might say that the English version as enunciated by Tony Hayward is a hell of a lot better than the American version.
The second word that Tony Hayward uses in his commercial is the word “again.” He pronounces that word as “a gain” whereas in the American lexicon we refer to that “agen.” The word is clearly spelled a-g-a-i-n and why we butcher its pronunciation or bastardize it with the term of agen is beyond me.
In any event, the President of the United States is all over Hayward for wasting money on television commercials which could be used to pay for the clean-up of the oil spill. I have some sympathy for Hayward, difficult as it is to believe that the son of Irish immigrants would feel this way. I know that he is under tremendous pressure and that he would give anything to take back his remark, “I’d like my life back.” But in the final analysis there is some benefit to all of these proceedings because it has contributed to this little essay. Remember if somebody pronounces been as bean they are not being uppity. That is the way the word is spelled. The same applies to “again,” if they pronounce the second part of that word as “gain” instead of “gen,” I hope that you will not look askew at them.
While we are on the English language, I have one other thought that has troubled me for quite a while. The word has to do with answer. If I understand it, it is a-n-s-w-e-r. What I would like to know is what in the world the “w” is doing in that spelling. We never use it and it would be much better to spell that word phonetically and forget the “w.”
So I think I told you all you need to know; I think I told you all there is for me to say about the English language at this moment. I will point out however that the march of “Men of Harlech” refers to a castle in Harlech that was defended by the Welsh in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The Welch are Celtic as are the Irish and the Scots and some people who reside in western Europe called Bretons. There has never been any love lost between the Celts and the Saxons of theBritish Empire. In the end, the English forces overwhelmed the Welsh forces defending the castle at Harlech. And now it is difficult to find a Welsh choir who will sing “Men of Harlech.” A year or two ago, when I located the correspondent for the Risca Choir of Risca, Wales and asked him why the choir never sang “Men of Harlech,” he answered by saying, “No comment.” I guess that the Welsh are a docile race unlike the Irish or the Scots. But there it is.
Well, this has been an omnibus little essay in which I wanted to make my points about the words of “been,” “again,” and “answer.” Now that this has been dictated and recorded, I feel a great sense of internal release from my having done so. But if you have an opportunity to hear a male choir sing “Men of Harlech,” don’t miss that opportunity. It is a rousing Celtic song and as a Celt myself, I am always aroused by it. I will always remember that line, “No proud Saxon e’r befall us; We shall live or die.” I assume that Georgia Walker has now departed this vale of tears. If she were alive, I would be particularly pleased to let her know that one of her students in the 1936 – 1940 time period remembers that song and can repeat its words. I believe that she would be very pleased. And that she would tell Tony Hayward, that proud Saxon, to go to hell.
E. E. CARR
June 8, 2010
Essay 459
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Kevin’s commentary:
I started to look up “Men of Harlech” briefly before remembering that I had already tried that. Apparently this is an issue that has been troubling old Pop for quite some time now.
Regarding the rest of the essay, I am not sure that “been” or “again” will ever catch on in the proper English dialect… but answer is a different story. I’ve been using that word all my life and never stopped to think about how silly it is. “Anser” does just fine.
The BP mess, incidentally, is still a mess and that company’s reputation is still reeling somewhat. Tony was smart enough to resign eventually.