It ain't real English, but sounds great

It ain't real English, but sounds great

The other night at home I was listening to CDs -- yes, I'm still in the Stone Age -- and two of my favourite songs came up, Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers and Ain't No Mountain High Enough from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Apart from both being soulful numbers -- and like me, pretty ancient -- you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to observe that a common factor in the title is the word ain't.

Ain't is a peculiar word as it's generally frowned upon in conversation and regarded as a bit uncouth, fit only for the uneducated. Some would argue that ain't isn't really a word, or to be more accurate, ain't ain't a word. It is simply a contraction of "is not, has not, have not" and so on. Let's just call it "extremely informal".

Despite its reputation, ain't appears in most dictionaries, which politely call it "non-standard" along with a caveat that it shouldn't really be used. It's as if the dictionaries don't really want it to be there and are washing their hands of it.

Fortunately, ain't sounds great in music lyrics and there are numerous terrific songs featuring the word. One that deserves mention is the 1940s Louis Jordan number splendidly entitled, Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby, which must have sent grammar purists apoplectic.

As a kid, one of the first pop songs I ever heard was Ain't That A Shame by Fats Domino and from that time on I was into ain't. Then Bob Dylan arrived on the scene and before long we were warbling along to It Ain't Me Babe. As in many songs if you substituted "isn't" for ain't it didn't sound right. No doubt readers have their own favourite ain't song.

Ain't it the truth

Outside of music, ain't has some strong credentials. It was among the first-ever words uttered in the movies when, in the 1927 film Jazz Singer, Al Jolson turns to the orchestra and calls out "…you ain't heard nothin' yet" and that put an end to the era of silent movies.

Another powerful use of ain't came in 1967 when heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali refused to be inducted in the US Army, saying: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." It was a simple statement, but prompted many Americans to seriously question involvement in Vietnam.

Ain't also has a role in the oft-quoted dictum: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" which more or less speaks for itself. Less obvious perhaps is "It ain't over till the fat lady sings," primarily used in sport as a warning not to presume a result until it's officially all over.

New York Mets baseball star Yogi Berra offered his own variation on the "fat lady" with "It ain't over till it's over," something that is hard to dispute.

Blame the cockneys

Ain't has a somewhat confusing history. Until the 20th century in Britain it was in common use among the upper classes and socially quite acceptable. But when the workers started adopting it the toffs were not amused and dropped it, regarding ain't as a lower class word only used by the riff-raff.

When I was a kid ain't was never used in our household, possibly because my mum was a schoolteacher and quite particular about the English language. When I pointed out that my Aunt Lily, a Londoner, frequently used ain't in her conversation, I was told it was okay because she was a cockney and they were allowed to speak like that.

This cockney influence was emphasised in the huge 1960s hit movie My Fair Lady featuring Eliza Doolittle played by Audrey Hepburn, who was transformed from a common flower girl who "ain't got nufink" into a lady most fair.

About the same time Lionel Bart's Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be' was doing the rounds, with a humorous exposure of the cockney culture. Like it or not, ain't is part of the English language and ain't going nowhere. But it admittedly sounds better in song than in conversation.

Lily's Lambeth Walk

The aforementioned Auntie Lily introduced our family to traditional cockney ways at our annual Christmas gathering in the 1950s. Her party piece was a rendition of The Lambeth Walk, a song and dance from the musical Me and My Girl. It was hugely popular at the time World War II broke out in 1939.

I thought Aunt Lily's performance was marvelous. She already had the accent and she would joyfully strut around the living room in front of us, singing "Any time you're Lambeth way/Any evening, any day/ You'll find us all doing the Lambeth walk…Oi!" We all joined in the "Oi!" bit.

As tensions escalated before the war The Lambeth Walk became so popular The Times front page carried a neat headline "While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances -- to The Lambeth Walk."

The greatest escape

A final word on the effective use of ain't from Charles Bancroft Dillingham, a theatrical manager, attending the funeral of the great escapologist, Harry Houdini in 1926. In his role as one of the coffin bearers Dillingham remarked wryly: "I bet you a hundred bucks he ain't in here."


Contact PostScript via email at oldcrutch@hotmail.com

Roger Crutchley

Bangkok Post columnist

A long time popular Bangkok Post columnist. In 1994 he won the Ayumongkol Literary Award. For many years he was Sports Editor at the Bangkok Post.

Email : oldcrutch@gmail.com

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (5)