Tower Hamlets’ recognition of Cockney as a “community language” celebrates the role that all English dialects play in shaping individual and community identities.
For many school children, Benjamin Zephaniah’s work will have been the first time they encountered published literature that talked about the things that mattered to them.
Accents are not inherently easy or difficult to comprehend. Rather, the lack of exposure people have to a variety of accents causes communication difficulties.
African American Vernacular English is a stigmatized dialect that is still ridiculed in education and the workplace. Its speakers are coherent and intelligent communicators, but remain disadvantaged.