Accent on “infamy”
2023-12-07
Dear friend,
Eighty-two years ago today, at 7:48 a.m. local time, 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft and five "midget submarines" attacked the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's address to a joint session of Congress on December 8, 1941 can be heard here.
The famous "day of infamy" speech started out as follows:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that Nation...
And so we were at war again.
Historians often note two things about President Roosevelt's speech. One, that it was written in the passive voice. "The U.S. was attacked" emphasizes that Japan instigated it. What else could we do but declare war on Japan, and Axis powers Germany and Italy?
Secondly, Roosevelt was going to say "a date which will live in world history." His second draft changed that to the punchier "a date which will live in infamy."
But there's another mystery about this speech, and about old movies, that I only recently uncovered.
Listen to that speech—why does FDR skip over his R's? "Yesta-day, Decembah 7, 1941..."
FDR sounds different from how I would expect a typical American to speak. He sounds a bit British, and stilted.
Watch a performance with actors like Tyrone Power, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Laird Cregar, Vincent Price, Christopher Plummer, or many others, and you'll also hear a similar accent.
And this bothered me. Pearl Harbor was only 82 years ago. Several of you reading this are 90+. It's not that long ago. But listening to the recording of FDR, it sounds old. It sounds like from another time. But this is our world history. I want it to be more present to us.
And so I wondered, why did people talk this way in old movies and important speeches? I used to think it had something to do with the recording equipment, or the microphones, but it's not that.
FDR, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and other high-society Americans of the 1900s, took elocution classes that taught them to speak this way. So did actors in school through the 1960s.
The "Mid-Atlantic accent" was developed by sociolinguists in the late 1800s, and promoted as the model of "correct" English. It combined the most "prestigious" features from American and British English. One of those features is non-rhoticity, or "r-lessness."
This accent is not native or regional, and the main feature of it for upper-class families was that no American spoke it naturally. According to drama professor Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so."
Wow—I've heard the phrase "talking down" to someone, but I didn't know that the political class of Americans in the 1900s was taught to talk down to "lower classes."
Now that I know the secret of the Mid-Atlantic accent, I'm becoming fond of it. As Tom Petty sings in Southern Accent, "I got my own way of prayin'." Isn't that what's beautiful about the United States of America?
It's not the accent you speak with that matters to me, but whether you do so with honesty and directness. As our leaders today navigate wars in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and elsewhere, I'm looking for transparency and pragmatism. I support Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, in calling for more accountability with the billions in war dollars likely going to Israel.
***
How are you doing?
I've had more going on than I've been able to write about. Although Vermont's legislative session doesn't start till January 3, I've been out and about.
On Tuesday, I got lunch with my Marlboro College classmate Stephen Hunt, MD, Ph.D., at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Two Marlboro College class of 2000 grads: Stephen Hunt, MD, PhD, and Rep Tristan Roberts
If you're a veteran with cancer, Dr. Hunt has your back. He loves to kill cancer, and he's damn good at it.
With less time to write emails on some days, I've been posting more often to social media. If you're on one of these platforms, let's connect:
What's on your mind? There's a lot going on that I'm looking forward to reporting back on:
taxes and budgeting for next year
the horrible conditions at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro
public safety
opioids
Let me know what you have questions on, and I'll cover them soon.
Thanks for reading today's newsletter, which I wrote in honor of Wendy Vittori, my boss at the Health Product Declaration Collaborative. Wendy's a true patriot, someone who has embodied American values of pursuing education, business excellence, and social good. I'm proud to work with her at HPDC, where we are helping building product manufacturers remove toxic chemicals from their formulations.
Wendy remarked to me that Pearl Harbor Day is important to her, and is not recognized nearly enough.
Have a great Thursday, Wendy -- and everyone else out there!
warm regards,
Rep. Tristan Roberts
Vermont House of Representatives
P.S. Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. as a territory, and became a state only in 1959. For more Hawaiian history, read here the story of Princess Ka‘iulani, the last sovereign of Hawaii. She saved surfing from ethnocide, but lost her life in the process.
Princess Ka‘iulani in 1897